Don't let their ages fool you. Martin Stevens, 14;  Athena Patterson, 13;  Tristan Schumacher, 12,  play grown-up music. Calling themselves Athena and the River City Boys, they play a mix of bluegrass and tradition country music, similar to the tunes in the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou".

Athena and the River City Boys have the hands, voices and stage presence to perform mountain music with the best.

GRESHAM- The sound is authentic, you might even say bona fide, a blend of country, bluegrass and old-timey music growing from the same deep cultural roots that produced the Grammy-winning soundtrack of "O Brother, Where Art Thou."

But the players whose hands flash on fiddle, banjo, bass and guitar, and whose voices take up the mournful mountain songs are flat-out kids. The oldest just turned 14; the youngest is 12.

They call themselves Athena and the River City Boys, known to their friends as Athena Patterson, Martin Stevens and Tristan Schumacher. Hailing from the decidedly nonhotbeds of Portland, Vancouver and Gresham, respectively, they are suburban middle schoolers who play and sing grown-up songs from the hollers.

And they are good enough that the adults in their lives can look into the future and say "Nashville" without it being brag or bombast.

"They're all talented enough to go play with the big boys if they want to," says their coach, Chick Rose, a transplanted Texan. "They could go."

High school and driver's licenses will have to come first, and Athena and the boys are having enough fun being kids that they don't spend a lot of time fretting about the future.

Rehearsing for a recent appearance at Borders Books in Gresham, they teased one another about miscues. They playfully counted up brunette Athena's alleged "blond moments": "The record is, like, eight" she said. "Nine, actually," Tristan corrected. And they argued about who was the tallest: Martin, who was 4 inches shorter than Athena when the band formed last fall, has just sprouted ahead.

When they pick up their instruments, however, the kid stuff takes a seat backstage. They jump into complicated instrumentals such as "Orange Blossom Special" and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," and do justice to a wide range of classic songs.

The three know one another from their mutual connections in children's theater groups. Drawing upon that, they have a relaxed stage presence that doesn't get into the way of the music.

"It's real important that they're a team, and they buy into that, Rose says. "together, they're amazing."

Athena, 13, a seventh-grader at Alice Ott Middle School in southeast Portland, plays guitar, dobro, and a bit of mandolin and banjo-not to mention drums in her school jazz band. It's when she opens her mouth to sing that jaws drop. Her voice is so mature that when she belts out a standard such as "I Fall to Pieces," it sounds as if she swallowed Patsy Cline.

No accident there. She grew up listening to country-flavored singer-songwriters such as John Prine and nicknamed her guitar "Wynonna" as in Judd.

Still, she even stuns her band mates, who would just as soon tease her as praise her.

"She sounds better than some of the country stars today," Tristan says.

"Athena's voice is just amazing," Martin says. 

"She has the most powerful voice I've ever heard."

Martin, 14, is an eighth-grader at Discovery Middle School in Vancouver. His older brothers play bluegrass, and he decided at age 6 that he wanted a fiddle for Christmas.

"He can play any instrument you give him, " Tristan says. "He was practically born with all this stuff in his hand."

At this point, all this stuff includes banjo, mandolin, dobro and guitar, for starters.

"If I had to have one person in a band, I'd get Martin Stevens in a minute," says Rose, their coach. "He can play any instrument, and he sings."

Tristan, 12, is a sixth-grader at Pleasant Valley Elementary in Gresham and is the youngest and newest band member. He plays bass and is coming on strong with the banjo.

"He's come so far," Martin says. "He just learned how to play the bass four months ago and is really, really good."

Rose says Tristan also has the potential to be the group's comic "shtick guy." Rose is letting him listen to country skits that aren't too corny but are down-home and innocent enough that Tristan could pull them off.

Rose, 57, grew up favoring western swing music and bluegrass. He taught his two younger brothers to play guitar, performed some himself and has always enjoyed music as a hobby. In the past 15 years, he's focused on helping beginners.

"My bottom line is to get something in their hands that they can make music with as soon as possible," he says.

Rose sits in on about one-third of the band's performance numbers, playing rhythm guitar. He helps them with their technique, gives tips on stage business, and helps the kids keep it real by making sure they know the lore of traditional music: From Bill Monroe and Bob Wills to the Carter family and Ralph Stanley, from Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to Ricky Skaggs and Nickel Creek.

"We all know if the kids don't pick it up, it will die," he says.

Consider the torch passed. At a time when their peers are fawning over Britney Spears or mouthing gangsta rap, Athena and the River City Boys are locked into country and bluegrass. It's not an easy space for middle schoolers to occupy. Athena says a common reaction of her classmates is, "Country, ew, that's gross."

But the band members know they're plugging into something right. Tristan says he prefers the country beat, the faster the better. With a tune such as "Orange Blossom Special," "Your fingers are about dying at the end," he says. Martin says traditional music is simply more fun to play than any other.

The success of "O Brother, Where Art Thou" made the band's music more acceptable among other kids, says Angela Patterson, Athena's mother. "She feels more hip," she says. "She feels pretty important, because it's roots music."