Kathy Mittelsteadt, 49, didn't know. Didn't know what she was getting into when she walked into a little downtown Mandan coffee shop for a coffee break on a recent Saturday morning.

She expected there'd be coffee. There was.

And she expected a coffee-shop-like ambience. And, again, there was:16-foot-high tin ceilings in the historic-building space, mocha-colored walls, signs like "Give me the coffee and nobody gets hurt," and a flickering flame in the cast-iron stove.

But she didn't know there'd be strings attached.

That at a table nearby, there would be a bunch of people with strings, willing to entertain her for free. For hours.

"It's a real find," said Mittelsteadt, who was drinking a cup of coffee with a side order of guitar.

More than a year ago, a couple of local acoustic musicians, Kelly Kiemele and Les Vaagen, decided that Saturday mornings during the wintertime needed to be filled with something. There was no lawn to mow, after all. So they started meeting at Cappuccino on Collins, 103 Collins Ave., Mandan, with their instruments. Jamming, practicing.

There isn't a stage at the coffee shop, owned by Kiemele's daughter, Tara Kiemele. The musicians sit at a table like everyone else, giving customers a close enough look that people can easily watch the musicians' hands and see how they do what they do. And since it's acoustic music, unplugged, the volume level is just an accent, doesn't eliminate customers' ability to have conversations with their co-coffee-ers.

The musicians start ambling in around 9 a.m., get some coffee and away they go on guitars, mandolins, harmonicas - typically from about 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Kiemele and Vaagen started these sip-and-strum sessions with just the two of them. The two, also known as the Old Five & Dimers, play vintage country, bluegrass, Civil War-era tunes and some contemporary music and can be found here and there on the programs of various music festivals and other gigs. Kiemele, who restores early 20th century instruments, often is strumming and cradling one of his masterpieces while he croons.

But it's not just two musicians anymore at the sessions. Now, it's up to about six musicians, different and new players some weeks. They play through the hiss of the coffee machine, and the bean grinding and the slamming sounds of coffee grounds being disposed of.

Other musician regulars include Paul "Butch" Irvin, 58, of Bismarck, who thinks the Saturday morning sessions are saving him money.

Irvin, a truck driver, says his job is stressful, fighting icy roads and other issues, and playing on Saturday substitutes for the $100-an-hour counseling sessions he would have needed instead, he said and laughed.

"It's very therapeutic," he said.

Irvin, a guitarist who quit playing about 30 years ago and took it up again about six months ago, is known to like Rolling Stones tunes, Neil Young and Eric Clapton, and could be heard on a recent Saturday playing and singing Blind Faith's and Clapton's, "Can't Find My Way Home."

Another regular, Vern Erickson, an artist, painter, and sometimes a guitarist who likes to play the old Jimmy Rodgers' tunes, Hank Snow, Doc Watson and such, credits the Saturday sessions with making him better. "I've learned a lot from these guys."

And another regular, Bob Shaver, who works for the North Dakota State Water Commission, plays harmonica and guitar, and is known to get up in the mornings 11/2 hours before he would need to so that he can practice - his goal being to learn a new song that week and have it ready by the Saturday jam session.

There's a lot of gray-haired musicians, or bald ones. Not Travis Stramer, though, a 30-something computer guy by day, and a somewhat-stage-shy steel guitarist by Saturday, who, when he first started jamming, knew two songs and now knows about six or seven, Kiemele said.

Kiemele said people generally bring a song or two that they want to play and the others join in.

He said there's no telling what the "flavor of the day will be,"music-wise. Depends on who's playing that day.

A Montana guitarist stopped by and played one morning. So did fiddler Preston Schmidt, a Mandan native, now a university student studying in Tennessee. Also bringing a guitar and harmonica in at times is Randy Keller, an insurance agent whose office is across the street.

But whoever wants to wander in and play is welcome.

Anyone.

Take note, beginners.

"A lot of beginners feel intimidated to come because they're beginners, but that's actually a good opportunity," Kiemele said.

Kiemele said he really believes that guitarists can't move to the next level without playing with other guitarists.

"Jamming with people is when you start to evolve … It's the only way to get to the next level," he said.

He said some things that guitar players do, strumming styles and such, are passed from one player to another, and can't be found on any guitar tablature or sheet music. Kiemele himself, who has played for decades, learns something new each time he jams with the group, he said.

He said they expected the Saturday sessions would stop after last winter ended. Didn't happen.

"No one wanted to stop,"he said.

It's not just playing, it's the "funning." The quips fly between songs. One tune that Stramer led on had a Caribbean feel, which led another jammer to quip at the tune's end that he should wear a grass skirt next Saturday while playing it. Another laughed and said he'd have to bring matches.

Cheap entertainment for them and nearby coffee drinkers.

They played through the summer of 2007, didn't stop. Then fall, no stopping - and now they're playing through this winter.

Kiemele said great things have happened. Like the guy in his 60s who, after listening to them, decided that he wanted to learn to play an acoustic bass. And has now bought one.

Kiemele enjoys seeing people who obviously come in just to get coffee and leave, but upon discovering music, linger.

"People have told me, 'Oh my gosh, I didn't know you had music,'" said Tara Kiemele. Another person told her it makes the Mandan scene a "a little bit more big city."

The jamming sessions are leading to other things.

Prime Steer Smokehouse has convinced some of them to perform together at the restaurant Sunday nights.

So now, even more practice time: This Saturday at the coffee shop, and then Sunday at the Prime Steer, 2815 Memorial Highway - from 6:30 to 8 p.m., no cover charge.

They will take suggestions. They're having trouble thinking of a name.

For now, just call them good.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@; bismarcktribune. com.)