If you want the best jam, you’ve got to make your own, in the words of Michelle Shocked. And artists from the heart of bluegrass country will be sharing some of their homemade jam come Jan. 6.

That’s the date for what has become the annual bluegrass concert to raise money for Amherst County Habitat for Humanity. The show features groups from Nelson, Amherst, Appomattox counties and beyond.

The show, called Bluegrass: ALWAYS Working on a Building, is co-sponsored by the area’s newest Habitat chapter, the Sweet Briar College’s, and the college’s Chaplain’s Office. The show is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., following a student pre-concert at 5 p.m., in the college’s Babcock Fine Arts Center. Bob Langstaff, the general manager of WAMV 1420 AM, will be emcee.

The line-up includes students of Bobby Jennings, 3 Ms (Margaret, Maddox and Mays), Bobby Jennings and Friends, Dixie Blue, Hard Drivin’ Grass and Deer Creek Boys. And that’s just first half of the show.

The second half features Hand Picked Grass, Long Mountain Grass, Reed Creek, Little Mountain Boys, Borrowed Time and the finale, with all musicians invited to play.

As has also become an annual event, a CD of the show is recorded and sold to benefit Habitat. The third CD is out and the fourth one will be recorded at this year’s show.

The concert has become quite a draw.

“We’ve been selling out,” said Lynn Kable of Amherst, who is the production manager and stage manager.

The show showcases one of the region’s strengths.

“This is bluegrass country,” said Kable, “and there are many, many people, who learned bluegrass as children, who are still playing now.”

Some weren’t children so very long ago, at least technically, although maybe not musically. Hard Drivin’ Grass includes 15-year-old twins Zack and Samantha Mays. He plays dobro and she plays bass, while Mason Thomas sings and plays guitar, and Zack Gilmer plays banjo. The Mays and Thomas attend high school in Amherst, while high school student Gilmer hails from Afton.

 That means Deer Creek Boys “are no longer the babies of the bunch,” Kable said.

Deer Creek bassist Jason Tomlin still goes to Amherst County High School, but brother and guitarist Justin and mandolin player Cason Ogden have entered college. At 36, banjo player David Carroll is the old man of the group. Deer Creek Boys have won first place at the VFMA State Competition and, in November, were named artists of the month by bluegrassradio.org.

“On the other hand, we have people like Marshall Mays, who is 79 years old,” Kable said, “and Bobby Jennings, who has been playing in the area for 50 years.”

Marshall Mays is one of the 3 Ms, playing bass and singing. He and lead singer and guitarist Elbert Maddox and Margaret Ann White, who plays guitar and sings harmony, play old time bluegrass and Gospel.

Jennings, who teaches music at Appomattox High School, will play with students and then with friends.

Borrowed Time runs on Wendell Evans, Keith Ogden and Danita Evans. Donny Reynolds, Bonny Beverly, Jerry Clendenen and Jane Crim are Dixie Blue.

Mike Massie, Wayne Kidd, T.W. Massie, Kenneth Ford, A.D. Massie, Scott Massie and Ronnie Wood are Nelson County’s Little Mountain Boys. Long Mountain Grass is made up of Winkie Doss, Ronnie Wood, Brad Bryant, Bob Williams and Omar Moore.

Reed Creek is Mike Moorefield, Mike Reynolds, Glen Davis, Dave Montgomery and Kevin Wright.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for children under the age of 12. Those over the age of 60 and students with ID pay $10.

All proceeds benefit Habitat so it can keep building, Kable said, with plans to build houses 26 and 27 in 2007.

“Habitat for Humanity is extremely grateful to the bluegrass community for being supportive,” she said. “It has been a huge contribution.”