When Root Doctor takes the stage at Old Town BluesFest 2003 Friday night, vocalist Freddie Cunningham can feel free to go back to his... well... roots.

Cunningham said the Lansing-based quintet is so used to playing in bars and belting out funk and R&B tunes to satisfy the diverse crowd, that BluesFest is a nice respite from the usual lounge circuit. It allows his bandmates to ease up and focus on the blues.

"It's a whole different feeling than playing at a bar," Cunningham said. "The people seem to be in a more festive mood -they're there to have a good time.

"We do so much club work and when we do festivals, the under-21 crowd can hear us. That gives us a little more exposure to them and I kind of like that, seeing the reactions we get, if any at all, from the kids that listen to our music."

Root Doctor played at the gubernatorial inauguration last year and Cunningham, 59, said he had a blast playing in Lansing, where he has spent his entire life.

Cunningham's band is one of more than 15 acts to grace five stages during the two-day event at East Grand River Avenue and Turner Street.

The event kicks off Friday at 5:30 p.m. National acts, such as Nick Moss and the Flip Tops, will converge with local acts, such as Those Delta Rhythm Kings, for the free festival.

Also on tap at the event are educational workshops, one of which features a lesson on how to play slide guitar from Kalamazoo-area guitarist Doug Beckman. For those looking for a tasty brew, a beer tent will be on the premises along with brunch and a screening of the Martin Scorsese documentary, "The Blues".

And Terry Terry, president of the Old Town Business & Art Development Association, said this year's festival will include 15-20 food and crafts vendors. Fans should expect "a lot more blues" than last year and more than 130 volunteers are expected to work the event, he said.

Terry said putting together a festival, where his group relies on more than $80,000 in gifts and financial donations, is not as easy as it looks.

"We're lucky if we come out in the black," Terry noted. "Our mission is to create an open space where people can come out, enjoy it and make friends.

"We have 15 bands over two days and it costs (fans) nothing. It's a dilemma we have, trying to get big bands to come."

But Terry said he was able to lure some national acts to Lansing. Nick Moss and the Flip Tops hail from Chicago and plan to take time out of their schedule to land in town. For Moss, it will be his first trip to Lansing in more than seven years, and he said he's excited to bring more blues to the capital city.

"What people could find in blues music is what they're missing," Moss said. "There's just something pure and raw and true in blues music that could help people. I wish it were popular across the country."

There's also a stigma attached to blues artists, Moss said. Many people envision blues players as black men, but that's not always the case. Even early in his career, Moss thought he was weird, being a white guy who loved to play the blues.

"I always thought I was playing songs wrong because it didn't sound like rock 'n' roll," Moss said. "I realized white people can play the blues. When you're little, you think only blacks play the blues."

Some of the blues acts to be featured at the festival can be credited to the Capital Area Blues Society, who helped booked the diverse mixture of artists this year. Jason Strotheide, vice president of the society, said his group has helped create blues festivals in the past, but none located so close to the heart of Lansing.

"We tried not to just pick the popular bands," Strotheide said. "We're trying to expose people to some of the blues acts they might not have known about."

Strotheide, also a musician, said the blues should appeal to everyone.

"It's the spirit of it, man. It's an easy music to appreciate, it's a music for the people and it appeals to all creeds and cultures."

Kristofer Karol is The State News music reporter. Reach him at karolkri@msu.edu.