Mist desisted for Kenny and Amanda Smith Band’s first set at the 10th annual Niles Bluegrass Festival Friday evening.

In fact, a few rays of sunshine illuminated the quintet of guitars, upright bass, banjo and mandolin, though it remained cold and windy.

“I think this is our fourth time here, including last year,” Smith said, pointing out that the tuning was the group’s biggest problem as it played during a cold spell.

The festival warmed up on Saturday and drew young and old alike to hear (and dance) to such group’s as Audie Blaylock & Redline. Carnival games, food and hula hoops were a few of the highlights the crowd had the opportunity to enjoy.

The Kenny and Amanda Smith Band is typical of the kind of top bluegrass bands from around the country that descend upon Niles each year for a few good jams.

The band in 2003 won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Emerging Artist of the Year award.

Originally from Nine Mile, Ind., Kenny is considered one of the most influential flatpicking-style guitarists of his generation.

A two-time IBMA Guitarist of the Year award winner, his professional credits include six years with the Lonesome River Band and a solo CD, Studebaker, released on Sugar Hill Records in 1997.

Born in the small town of Davisville, W.Va., Amanda grew up singing in church choirs and participating in talent contests at fairs.

“I always sang, my mom and dad said, even before I can remember,” she says. She started playing guitar in high school to accompany herself, and discovered bluegrass music through female artists such as Rhonda Vincent and Alison Krauss.

Amanda met Kenny at a Lonesome River Band concert, and the couple of 16 years began dating and playing music together almost immediately, followed in 2001 by their debut CD, Slowly But Surely, in 2001, with the hit “Amy Brown.”

The band’s second release, House Down the Block, on Rebel Records, solidified its position as one of the best new bands in bluegrass. Their third album, in 2005, was Always Never Enough. In 2007 came Tell Someone, their first-ever all-gospel project, also on the Rebel label.

“About two weeks before we were supposed to go in and record it, my dad was involved in a fatal tractor accident, and it just changed the whole project,” Kenny says. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone through an experience like that, coming out of the funeral, then going right in and doing a project. But it was emotionally a whole different outlook. You just feel closer to the Lord after something like that happens and it really made a difference in the project. I think that’s why it touched other people. It was more of a healing process for us. Some of the songs just totally spoke to us while we were singing them.”

Those heartfelt performances resulted in Grammy, GMA Dove Award and IBMA award nominations. The tune “Shoutin’ Time” was nominated for Song of the Year at the Singing News Awards.

In September 2008, the band followed with their fifth album, Live and Learn.