The acoustic music community agrees that the Walnut Valley Festival is the best. Every year in September, the Kansas shindig hosts the definitive instrumental contests. To put it in perspective: Alison Krauss has won the fiddle title. Chris Thile of Nickel Creek has won for mandolin. We've got two local champions in Mark Cosgrove (flatpicking) and Rolly Brown (fingerpicking). Every Thanksgiving weekend the pair sponsors their own guitar summit, complete with workshops and a concert. Cosgrove, owner of Plumsteadville Natural Foods, seems to gig a good bit, both with his own band Good Medicine and internationally with the likes of Jerry Douglas, among others. Brown, who did the Guitar Wizards public radio show for years, is a rare site on local stages—his acupuncture practice and guitar camps see to that—so let's talk to him a bit.

City Paper: This is the 12th annual concert. How'd it get rolling?

Rolly Brown: The first years were just Mark and I, then we started bringing in players who were only known to the contest guitar world: David Greer, Stephen Bennett, John Carlini, Steve Kaufman. This year it's Emory Lester, a mandolinist originally from Virginia. He's not known to the general public, but see the testimonials from [newgrass greats] Trishka and Grisman on my Web site. … Guitar Wizards and these concerts grew out of the desire to get real music out to the public, to inspire people to be influenced by that sort of music.

CP: How did you start on guitar?

RB: My older brother knew a couple chords. … Then I ran away with it. … I had my own little 30-dollar guitar and stole his thunder. Right from the beginning I found people that others weren't listening to [in Cleveland in the '60s] like Dick Rosmini, Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen. Ever since I've played the guitar I've been somebody who avoided tunes that everybody knew. … When I played in coffeehouses, I'd play Townes Van Zandt rather than James Taylor. There are too many good tunes out there that aren't getting heard.

CP: Who's your biggest live influence?

RB: In 1969, I met the Rev. Gary Davis at a festival and that changed my life. He managed to translate the sound of piano music onto the guitar and he did it without playing note for note. … Some things you can only credit to genius, can't really explain that technique. I never thought it was possible to do what he was doing. … He sat down with me at the end of that weekend for two hours and out of the goodness of his heart taught me. When I was traveling I'd look for other Gary Davis students—Andy Cohen, Ernie Hawkins. I spent a good bit of time studying that.

CP: Blues is only part of your palette.

RB: My guitar growth went from folk to blues to ragtime, then to jazz. … When I started in jazz, I started with Joseph Federico. That laid the groundwork for my later studies with John Carlini. Joseph Federico was Dennis Sandole's protegé—Sandole taught Pat Martino and taught theory to John Coltrane. My study of jazz is big. I still love everything I ever played, but I love jazz most. And about 10 years ago, from hanging around with Mark, I devoted time to becoming a bluegrass player.

CP: How? You need other players; bluegrass is not a solo art.

RB: True! I'd been playing with a metronome and Mark said, "You gotta play out." I started going to festivals, and then to Steve Kaufman's guitar camp as a student in '98. … Subsequently I got hired as a teacher. [Duties] vary from year to year, could be finger or flatpicking—and within flatpicking I teach jazz or theory.

CP: How did you get into acupuncture and tai chi? Did it have anything to do with the crippling effects of hours of guitar playing?

RB: No, not at all, although I think tai chi, with its emphasis on profound relaxation, can have a very beneficial effect for any musician. And I have treated a lot of musician injuries with acupuncture. My interest in acupuncture and tai chi grew out of an earlier interest in Taoist and Buddhist thought, and in Chinese martial and healing arts in general. Also, tai chi and guitar are both about daily practice, constant repetition and rediscovery. Music is a form of meditation. These three paths—guitar, tai chi and acupuncture—are all endless journeys, which interests me.

CP: So, your philosophy is?

RB: Life is short! Music is important! Don't procrastinate about something you actually want to do! Go to guitar camp for a week. Go to jams and festivals! Music enriches your life! Do what you love! You'll be happier and healthier. You'll meet some wonderful people, one of whom may be yourself.

Sat., Nov. 26, afternoon workshop 1-4 p.m., concert 8 p.m., with Rolly Brown, Mark Cosgrove and Good Medicine, and Emory Lester, Buckingham Friends School, Lahaska, Pa., 215-297-9660, www.rollybrown.com/concert05.html