If you want to get picky about it, blue moons are only supposed to show up every two and a half years or so.

But for the second consecutive January, there will be one in Bismarck.

And this time it'll last for two days.

Speaking of being picky, this blue moon happens to be a pickin' and grinnin' bluegrass band. Blue Moon Rising, the Tennessee quintet that sold out a concert here last winter, is coming back for two shows later this month.

"Everything went so well last year that it just made sense to bring them back again," Jill Wiese, a Washburn musician and promoter of the concerts, said. "A lot of people last year couldn't get tickets or were out of town, so we decided to bring back a band that a lot of people know. They're so fun."

Wiese, a member of the bluegrass band Cotton Wood, met and hit it off with Blue Moon Rising at the Missouri River Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival at Cross Ranch State Park in 2005. Tim Tipton, the bass player for Blue Moon Rising, called Wiese later that year and asked if his band could come up from Nashville, Tenn., to play another show in North Dakota.

"When they came to the Cross Ranch festival we just bonded with them," Wiese said. "We kind of sponsored them and hung out with them that weekend, and have developed a long-lasting friendship."

Blue Moon Rising performs in three- and four-part harmony, and also has some masterful gospel tunes. The band is Tipton on bass, Keith Garrett on mandolin, lead and baritone vocals, Chris West on guitar and lead, tenor and baritone vocals, Justin Moses on resonator guitar, fiddle and tenor vocals and Justin Jenkins on banjo and baritone vocals.

They will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26-27 in the Sidney J. Lee Auditorium at Bismarck State College. The Missouri River Boys will open for the headliners on Jan. 26, and Cotton Wood will kick off the Jan. 27 concert.

In addition to the concerts, Blue Moon Rising will put on a free show in Fort Yates on Jan. 26 and will host a bluegrass workshop at BSC on Jan. 27.

In conjunction with the Fort Yates outreach concert, Wiese has put together a fundraiser to bring guitars to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. She has raised enough money so far to purchase six guitars, and also is getting a free guitar from both Eckroth Music and Jacobsen Music.

"I don't know how she got started on it, but Jill told me she wanted kids to have fun and play the guitar and be interested in music," Kim Cournoyer, the middle school and high school band teacher in Fort Yates, said. "I have some guitars here, and the kids use them all the time. But they're ancient. The school board here is great and has been so supportive, but we ran out of money to buy anything else."

Wiese said local musicians really spoke highly of Cournoyer, and said she had turned around the music programs at the Fort Yates schools. Wiese also was part of a suicide-prevention convention on Standing Rock a few years ago, and thought music might give kids a healthy outlet for their energy and emotions.

"They have talented kids that want to play, but don't have enough instruments," Wiese said. "I wondered how we could help them, and that light bulb just came on. Maybe some kid might latch on to the guitar and have some hope and have some fun. They might not pick bluegrass style, but maybe they'll stick with the guitar and have some hope. If it even changes one kid's life, then that's great."

Blue Moon Rising will help Wiese deliver the guitars, and also will perform at the Standing Rock Community Middle School at 1 p.m. Jan. 26.

The bluegrass workshops will be held at BSC from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 27. There will be workshops for fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass and banjo. There also will be a harmony class and a song-writing class.

Tickets for the Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 concerts at BSC are $15. Tickets for the concert and the workshop are $20. They're available at BSC, Eckroth Music, String Bean, Jacobsen Music and Night Life Music in Bismarck. In Washburn, tickets are available at Chase Drug & Java Rose; and in Center, tickets are available at the Corner Express.

For more information, or to make a donation to the guitar project, call Wiese at 701-462-8628 or 701-315-0017.