There’s going to be foot stomping and hand clapping like the Old Red Church in Standish has never seen before when the Spruce Rooster, an old-time music group, shakes the rafters of the historic building at their concert this Saturday.

The performance will be a departure from the church’s regular policy. Usually the church, built in 1804, is opened to the public only for the yearly Colonial Service held in August.

Eleanor Dudek, president of the trustees of the church, would like to see that policy change.

“I think that the Old Red Church should be open more often,” she said. “Having it open once in the summer I don’t think is enough.”

The Spruce Rooster has performed on the church lawn after the Colonial Service for the past two years. But this will be their first concert inside its hallowed and historic halls.

Two of the group’s members are Standish residents and one of them, Michael Bendzela, who plays lead fiddle, is an Old Red Church trustee.

An adjunct English professor at the University of Southern Maine and part-time Standish fire/rescue worker, Bendzela, 45, discovered his love for old-time music about seven years ago.

At that time, he and Peter Scott, 36, a social worker at South Hiram Elementary School and the group’s guitarist, began attending bluegrass festivals around the area.

“Mike and I were really into bluegrass,” Scott said. “We went to jams in Buxton put on by the Bluegrass Society.”

The music was contagious and soon Bendzela decided to take up the fiddle.

“After two-and-a-half to three years of heavy practice every day, I could play,” he said.

Bendzela attributes his success to his teacher, Ben Guillemette, of Sanford. Guillemette, a former Northeastern fiddle champion, is now a violinmaker and crafted the instrument Bendzela plays.

Once Bendzela learned the fiddle, he and Scott, who has played guitar since age 13, would regularly get together and jam. They changed their focus from bluegrass to old-time music, which is sometimes called string band.

According to Scott, old-time music is “a blend of different cultures and traditions based around the fiddle,” as opposed to bluegrass, which “has more jazz influence with solos and tighter harmonies.”

And Bendzela added, “It’s traditional American public domain tunes – a lot of them southern oriented.”

During their early years of jam sessions, other musicians who joined them came and went. But, over the last two years, Scott said, they “kind of got it together” and found three others to fill out their group.

Sandra Chaffin, who plays the fiddle harmony with the group, is a classically trained violinist from Brunswick. Limerick resident Dan DuBourdieu plays bass. And Alan Davis of Falmouth plays the claw hammer banjo.

Not to be confused with the bluegrass banjo, the claw hammer banjo, according to Bendzela, doesn’t have a resonator and has a “more clucky, more percussive sound.”

When they realized they were getting serious, the group decided they needed a name and came up with Spruce Rooster.

Although the Spruce Rooster may not be a household, or barnyard, name, the group has a lot to crow about. They’ve played for small events – family reunions, graduations and, of course, the Old Red Church, to name a few.

But their joy in getting together to play this music may just outweigh their need to play in public.

“When I was a little kid my father and mother used to listen to a lot of bluegrass music so I had that in my heart,” Scott said. “I’m a person who came to my music just for the love of it – as a hobby.”

Saturday’s Spruce Rooster concert will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Donations are accepted and refreshments will be sold.