One was when 15-year-old Judge freshman Jimin Brelsford, a junior fiddling champion in both California and Utah, joined workshop hosts The Special Consensus to rip through Bill Monroe's "Wheel Hoss."

Another was when half a dozen students hopped on stage to form an impromptu bluegrass choir for "You Are My Sunshine." Or when English teacher Tim Dolan took a turn on lead vocals for "Little Maggie" and "The Long Black Veil."

The workshop was organized by the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association as a means to help keep bluegrass - which The Special Consensus leader Greg Cahill introduced as "a totally American-born form of music" - alive and growing.

And judging by the nodding heads, tapping toes and raucous bursts of applause from the 200 or so students after each song played by Cahill and Co., the workshop succeeded in converting a few kids to the cause.

Ruby White, a 17-year-old Judge senior and opera singer, joined the band for "You Are My Sunshine." She said she's always been interested in bluegrass, at least "since the whole 'O, Brother, Where Art Thou?' thing," and the band's willingness to speak about the harmony singing and instruments greatly appealed to her.

"I really liked how they break everything down for you, technically," White said, adding, "I wish I could play banjo."

Banjoist Cahill and his bandmates - singer and mandolin player Ron Spears, bassist Tres Nugent and guitarist Justin Carbone - spent about an hour exploring the roots of bluegrass, its various instruments and related genres through songs and spiels, a program The Special Consensus has been presenting all over the world for more than 20 years.

The IAMA's Tony Polychronis said bringing the workshop to Salt Lake City was a natural part of the organization's mission to support acoustic music in all its forms. And as Cahill made clear to the students, bluegrass "is always acoustic. We don't use amps. We don't use drums."

Kate Burns and Katie Panzer, both 18-year-old seniors from Salt Lake City, were given the OK to ditch photography class for the workshop, and both were buzzing about the music as they left.

"My dad and I are really into the blues and bluegrass," said Burns, who's played "a little fiddle" since she was 7. "I didn't know what to expect [from the workshop], but I really liked how they introduced the instruments and really broke down what they were doing."

Panzer concurred, adding that having The Special Consensus play live was a bonus.

"I like listening to this kind of music live more than on CD," Panzer said.

Brelsford said getting on stage with The Special Consensus wasn't hard since jamming with other players is an inherent part of bluegrass, saying, "We just find out what key it's in and go." But the fiddler who started playing classical music at 5 and bluegrass at 10 is already expanding his horizons beyond bluegrass at 15.

"I'm getting more into jazz violin lately," Brelsford said. "And Irish and Celtic music. And ska."

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Contact Dan Nailen at nailen@sltrib.com or via his blog "Urban Spelunker" at www.sltrib.com/blogs. His phone number is 801-257-8613. Send comments about this story/review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.