Abita Springs is now in the thick of its celebration of roots music, and this weekend some local amateur practitioners will take the stage at the Town Hall to demonstrate that the native genres are alive and well and the future looks promising.

The first New Harmonies Talent Show will take place Saturday at 6 p.m., and word has gotten around that some of the performers are definitely worth checking out.

Admission costs $3, and the proceeds will benefit the new Abita Springs Trailhead Museum. The show is part of a two-month tribute to American roots music and its local components. The Smithsonian Institute traveling exhibit, New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, opened the new Trailhead Museum earlier this month and will remain on-site through May 28. And Abita has lots going on in conjunction. Organizers hope the talent show will be an annual event.

Fifteen performers, selected from the 30 who auditioned, will each sing and or play a piece of gospel, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, Cajun or other music considered fundamental to the national musical heritage.

Folk musician Rose Anne Bivens, bass guitar player Ed Whiteman and radio talk show host and music man Bernie Cyrus will judge the competition. The top three contenders will appear at the Abita Springs Crawfish Festival at the Trailhead Plaza on May 3 and at the same location for a New Harmonies “informance,” an information and performance program on May 11. They’ll also get to audition for the Abita Springs Opry.

Coordinator Mary Davis said there were some “talented young people” at the audition and that she’s working to make the show a “great, memorable event.”

The contestants and the songs they will perform follow:

• Helene Smith-Tavormina, 11, jazz, a capella, “Summertime”

• The Lambert Brothers Band, Grant Lambert, 12, Clark Lambert, 10, Ford Lambert, 9, Lee Lambert, 7, country, “Jambalaya”

• Amanda Phillips, 6, country, a capella, “Fly Away”

• Graham Hamaker, 14, folk, singing/guitar, “I Am Always the One Who Calls”

• Kayla Carbo, 15, country, a capella, “Jesus Take the Wheel”

• Chance Casteel, 15, band-Greg Terry, 50, and John Shelton, 34, blues, “Red House”

• Stephan Calvert, 16, bluegrass, fiddle, “Mississippi Sawyer/Over the Waterfall” medley

• Arielle McCarthy, 14, folk, fiddle, “Swallowtail Jig” original

• Monique Fabre’, 24, gospel, a capella, “Yes, God is Real”

• Billy Lilly, 53, folk, singing/claw hammer banjo, Banjo medley in D major

• Blue Onions, Max McClintock, 18, band-Simon Williams, 21, Wade Hymel, 20, and Dylan Burke, 15, blues, “Blue Before Sunrise”

• Jay Garrett, 41, blues, singing/guitar, “Moonlight in Vermont/Ain’t Misbehavin’”

• John Markezich, 44, folk, singing/guitar, “A Lot of Love in a Grocery Store” original

• Frank Cox, 58, country, “I wish Old Hank Was Still Around” original

• Michael Millet, folk, singing/guitar, “The Ballad of Donald White”