Weston Stewart is not your traditional banjo player.

He can break down to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” and “Saturday Night Special,” and even the theme song to the movie “Halloween.” However, it was the traditional playing of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” he heard as child for years at the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention that inspired him to play.

The passion for the banjo he discovered at age 10 has resulted in several state championships.

Weston, 19, the son of Maria and Clark Stewart of Anderson, has been attending the fiddlers convention at Athens State University each year since he can remember. His mother has worked as an evaluator at ASU for 23 years.

Weston first approached his mother at 10 years old about playing the banjo but she didn’t take him seriously.

“I thought it was just a passing thought that would go away,” Maria said.

By the time he was 13, however, Weston had saved enough money to buy the instrument and already had a classified ad cut out of the newspaper to present his mother.

Maria then took him seriously. She called around to various shops to find out what type of banjo was best to start out and, by coincidence, a shop owner handed the phone to Scooter Muse. Muse, an established banjo and guitar player based out of Muscle Shoals, talked with Maria and offered to give Weston lessons.

Today, Weston is attending Calhoun Community College, and hopes to pursue a degree in either wildlife biology or veterinary medicine. He has also joined the group Soul Pickers, of Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s, Blue Circle Records. In between school and the group he competes in various competitions.

This year Weston has won three state championships in bluegrass banjo — first place at the 2009 Tennessee State Championship in Clarksville, Tenn., first place at the 2009 Mississippi State Championship in New Albany, Miss., and first place in the 2009 Kentucky State Championship at Falls of Rough, Ky.

Among various awards, he placed second at the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention. He is also endorsed by Nechville Musical Products and string maker Ernie Ball.

Weston’s next endeavor is to begin singing a bit with the Soul Pickers.

“It’s a lot different than playing the banjo,” he said. “The banjo came a lot easier to me.”

The group plans to begin a record in August. It will include some original songs as well as some modern rock and country songs converted to bluegrass, such as, “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Please Come to Boston.”

To find out more about Weston Stewart visit his MySpace Web page at www.myspace.com/weston321. Find out more about The Soul Pickers at www.thesoulpickers.com.