Grammy-nominated bluegrass duo Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum will play to a sold-out Acoustic Brew audience at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Lemont, about 10 miles way from State College.

The group's 1996 album, The Oak and the Laurel, was nominated for a Grammy. The last time the two musicians came to the State College area was 1996, Mel DeYoung, head of the booking committee for Acoustic Brew, said.

Despite the long delay in returning to Centre County, Lewis said she is looking forward to playing Saturday's show.

"We've wanted to go back [to the State College area] ever since," Lewis said. "The crowd there is very enthusiastic."

Lewis knows a lot about enthusiastic crowds. She has been playing bluegrass professionally for about 20 years. Bluegrass has been a part of Lewis' life ever since she heard the Byrds when she a teenager, she said.

Rozum said he had a more circuitous route of finding his passion for bluegrass. Originally from Boston, Rozum was a fan of the Beatles and British rock when he was in high school. "I went to Woodstock in 1969," Rozum said. "But after Woodstock, [rock] music got too popular. It was too commercial."

Looking for something else, Rozum began listening to acoustic country songs made by British musicians, he said.

Between getting a degree in biology at Northeastern University in Boston and listening to jug band and "old-time music" on a local radio station, Rozum said, he decided to become a bluegrass musician.

Rozum's path to playing bluegrass led him to Pennsylvania on a couple of previous occasions, he said.

"The first bluegrass festival I went to was in York, Pennsylvania, in 1973," Rozum said. He later made his second trip to Pennsylvania after he attempted to ride a bicycle from Connecticut to Arizona.

"I wanted to see something different from Connecticut," Rozum said. "I got as far as Shamokin, Pennsylvania. That's about 300 miles."

Eventually, Rozum made his way to Tucson, Az., where he lived when he met Lewis. Now both musicians live in Berkeley, Calif., and tour the country playing both as a duo and in Lewis' new group, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands.

But Lewis and Rozum said they like the intimacy they have with an audience when they play as a duo.

Lewis and Rozum are able to able to put on a tremendous show together, Acoustic Brew booking agent DeYoung said.

"It's a very sweet, powerful sound they have together," he said.