Bluegrass isn't a genre of music we hear in State College very often. However, this Saturday is your chance to experience it.

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday the Hickory Project will be performing at the Center for Well-Being in Lemont as part of the Acoustic Brew Concert Series. Though the six-piece group is considered bluegrass, their sound is anything but traditional.

Anthony Hannigan, mandolin player and vocalist for the group, calls it "aggressive, progressive music. It could fall in the boundaries of folk, jazz, swing; a little bit of fusion."

He attributed the band's unique sound to the wide array of musical influences on each band member, which includes everything from Van Halen to Miles Davis.

The Hickory Project, centered in Wellsboro, played in the Acoustic Brew Concert Series last year as the opener for folk artist John McCutcheon.

Acoustic Brew publicity manager Jim Colbert said the group performed so well that they wanted to ask them back.

The series is dedicated to keeping the acoustic and folk music scene alive in the area.

"A lot of the music we bring in you would have to normally drive three hours to see," Colbert said. "We try and be another source of that and keep the folk tradition alive."

While some band members have known each other since middle school, the band known today as the Hickory Project began in late 1999.

"We started a jam session and it was like playing with my own family," Hannigan said. "We knew what the other people were thinking."

The band's diverse style consists of nearly all-original material, allowing them to relate to many different age levels.

"When we put things together, we don't want to appeal to one particular age group. It's 16-year-olds to 70-year-olds. Even when we write our music, we naturally assume that the audience will be mixed ... it breaks barriers with all groups," Hannigan said.

Throughout the past five years, the Hickory Project has played all over the United States, has toured twice in Australia, has been to Ireland twice, and has participated in the European World of Bluegrass.

But being part of Acoustic Brew is still exciting, said Sue Cunningham, fiddle player and vocalist for the group.

"This concert is a really great venue to play," she said. "There are so many people there interested in keeping the music alive. It's really exciting."

The Hickory Project is also doing a free bluegrass workshop from 4 to 5:30 Saturday afternoon. People are encouraged to bring their guitars, banjos, mandolins or even basses if they are interested in participating. The workshop is also open to those wishing to simply observe.

"To be involved in the world [of music] is not only rendered to performing," Hannigan said. "You have to be really involved in the community and give something back."