HOLLY SPRINGS, Mississippi (AP) — Kenny Brown learned at the knee of Joe Callicott and, as a teenager, became R.L. Burnside's right hand.

Like the men who took time to teach him the blues, the guitarist is giving back, passing on the sound that changed his life. He created this weekend's North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic to celebrate the music and has started an annual workshop in conjunction with the two-day, 30-band festival.

"There were so many great (Hill Country blues artists) and each was just a little different," Brown said. "That's what I tell guys all the time when I teach young cats: 'Man, like develop your own style. Don't just copy."'

Through the workshop, the festival and his new album, "Meet Ya in the Bottom," Brown is trying to preserve and popularise a sound that lost its most influential players, Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Otha Turner, in the last 10 years. He's part of a new wave of Hill Country players that includes many children and grandchildren of those men.

Brown remembers first hearing the sound of Turner's fife and drum band when he was 7, growing up around Nesbit.

"They had picnics across the road from our house," Brown said. "My mama, she jokes all the time, she thought I was gonna fall off the hill because I'd go right out to the edge of the hill right by the road, looking across.

"You could just see smoke and the lights over there, and you could hear the music and they were going all night long. They'd have to whip me to make me come in the house."

Brown and his wife, Sara Davis, are trying recreate those parties with the Picnic, which drew thousands of fans from as far away as France when it started Friday.

And the workshop, attended by ten students Thursday, wasn't much different than the time he spent on the front porch in the summertime or by the potbellied stove in winter at Callicott's house.

"I remember the first time we played together," Brown said. "He started playing something and I knew the chords already, and he slapped me on the knee and said, 'Yeah, boy.' From then on, he was like a grandfather to me. He taught be about life, told me about travels and stories and all kind of stuff."

The same thing was going on at the VFW hall in Holly Springs, a small town in north Mississippi about 40 minutes southeast of Memphis, Tenn.

After a few sessions on topics like open tuning and slide work, the aspiring musicians sat in with accomplished artists like DuWayne and Garry Burnside, Dave Kimbrough and Little Joe Ayers.

And no one was allowed to be shy.

"Come on, baby, come on, baby, come on, baby," DuWayne Burnside sang as he motioned a reluctant student into the circle. Once there, Dave Kimbrough handed her his electric guitar and helped her nail the fingering.

And when another student laid down the best solo of the day, DuWayne Burnside grabbed the mike. "That's my student," he shouted. "That's my student."

Liz Poston, 20, is new to the guitar and the Hill Country sound, but the Memphis native drew raves for her deep, powerful voice when she sang during a couple of jams.

"At first I was really nervous because I'm probably the worst person here, which is OK, but fear's kept me from doing a lot of things," Poston said. "So I said, 'You know, the only thing I can do is learn.' They're really, really nice. There's no judgment."

The group was laying down a fairly danceable example of a Hill Country jam by the end of the day. The sound originated in the area around Sardis Lake, a reservoir in north Mississippi, and with it's hypnotic drone is distinct from the better-known Delta blues.

While nothing can be as sad as a Delta blues song, few things were as joyous as Junior Kimbrough's juke joint on a Sunday night. The Hill Country blues comes from the same fabric as the Delta blues — deep, deep poverty, repression and hopelessness — but often arrives at a different place.

"People used to tell me I don't like the blues, it's too sad," Brown said. "Hell, my blues ain't sad. That's what I play to keep from being sad. I think that's what a lot of the guys were doing, getting rid of their blues."

Brown just returned from Europe, where the Hill Country sound is gaining popularity. Bands like the North Mississippi Allstars and The Black Keys have helped spread the sound to a wider audience in the United States as well.

But Brown believes there's work to be done spreading the blues and he's willing to do his part. He hopes he can make others feel the same way about the Hill Country sound as he does.

"I just loved it and I felt like I had to do it," Brown said. "I feel like that's what I was put here on Earth for. I had a psychic tell me one time I was put here to raise the vibratory rates of the human race or something. It's just something I loved."

North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic: http://hillcountrypicnic.wordpress.com