My head was spinning Saturday.

Generally my head is always spinning come late September, when Bend Roots Revival — the annual Whitman’s Sampler of music in Bend — returns each year. Thanks to the 100 primarily local acts performing over three days, this is the best time to get a handle on the local scene’s many mutations over the course of a year: who’s still together, who has new music, who has new bands, etc.

For the 10th festival in 11 years and fourth held on the Deschutes Brewery warehouse grounds, founder Mark Ransom and the other volunteer organizers added one more stage — the Music Makers Stage — to the six that have taken root (ha!) at this venue. The new stage, located in the center lawn of the warehouse grounds in the art zone and kids area, brought the total number of performances this year up to 120.

You’d think one stage wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but that would be wrong. By late afternoon I was fighting off vertigo while running back and forth across the warehouse grounds, torn amongst headbanging to punk-funk power trio Dr. Green Dreams on the Bucha Buena Stage; taking in some Balkan funk with Alovitiman on the Black Butte Porter Stage; grooving along to Butterfly Breakdown on the 4 Peaks Stage; and checking out Minnesota singer-songwriter Dennis Warner on the Music Maker Stage.

Trust me, I’m not complaining. Or, if I am complaining, it’s because I couldn’t physically be in four places at once.

General event manager Samantha Harber said the new stage was well received by the thousands of attendees who passed through the festival over the three days.

“It was just a really fabulous addition to that area, so were the aerial silks — that kids zone just really grew,” she said. “We’ve been working on it for the past couple of years, to just really grow that as a part of it because kids are what the main goal is in that festival.”

As usual, funds raised from beverage sales donated by Deschutes Brewery and donations will go to Roots’ parent organization Rise Up International’s programs in Bend-La Pine Schools. Harber said the festival raised just less than $30,000, with about $8,000 coming from donations.

Though String Theory Music was absent this year (Moon Mountain Ramblers, which features String Theory founder Joe Schulte, had another commitment Saturday, according to Ransom), kids were well represented among the performers. Six kids in the Cascade School of Music super band — AKA Gen 17 — kicked off the 4 Peaks Stage at 12:30 p.m. Saturday with a set of classic and modern covers, from Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” to Van Halen’s “Jump.”

That turned out to be a perfect start to the day, but it was only the beginning. As I’ve done the past two years, I present here my top five “finds” from Roots 2017, in no particular order.

5. The Rye Smiles

Or just Rye Smiles — the band isn’t really sure if it likes the definitive article, as frontwoman/guitarist Amy Bathen announced early into its set on the 4 Peaks Stage at 2 p.m. Either way, what’s important is the quartet’s impressive performance, anchored by heartrending melodies from Bathen and violinist Amanda Wren. Bathen’s original songs combine the best of Americana traditions new and old without slavishly kowtowing to either, with a rhythmic and melodic adventurousness that feels rare in this genre.

4. The Bucklys

The laid-back rock/soul trio formerly known as The Diggs played the penultimate spot on the new Music Makers Stage at 6:30 p.m., and caught my ear as I was running back to the other side of the festival for I-don’t-remember-what. It was driven from my mind by the band’s effortless musicianship, anchored by bassist Marc Saccoman (also of B-Side Brass Band) and drummer John Cashman’s steady grooves and Bill Huggin’s slinky guitar and crooning vocal. The group is a prime example of the power trio, in which every musician is firing on all cylinders — no slouching here.

3. Streetlight Moon

The neo-classic rock quartet’s early-evening set on the BIGS Stage was perhaps the best-sounding: Guitarist Andrew Cooper’s meaty tone in particular set the bar high for future hard rockers at Roots. But it was vocalist Stephanie Slade who made the performance, strutting about the stage while belting out barnstormer after barnstormer like a demonically possessed Ann Wilson. While the band’s Zep roots were on full display in the tightly coiled riffs and punishing rhythms, the set provided just one more proof the foursome is evolving into its own rock ’n’ roll animal.

2. Jazz Bros.

The most exciting, most challenging music presented at Roots on Saturday, bar none, was created by a couple of kids just barely (or not even) in their teens. Keyboardist Maxwell Friedman, 13, and violinist CJ Neary, 11, led this quartet through an afternoon set on the BIGS Stage with a mind-melting mix of instrumental fusion, post-bop, funk and soul that left this reviewer feeling more than a bit disoriented, in a good way. I was familiar with Friedman and Neary before this show, but had never seen them perform together; now having seen them, it feels like the most natural, obvious thing in the world. Bend prodigies unite.

1. AM Clouds

I received an email in late August from AM Clouds bassist Pete Ficht containing the band’s three-song, debut EP “War of Love.” I listened and was duly impressed (you can read the review here). Fast-forward to Saturday at Roots and the band’s set on the Redbird Stage at 4:15 p.m., and I’m standing right up front with my jaw on the ground all over again. This is the only band whose whole set I saw, start to finish — I just couldn’t tear away. Strains of Matthew Sweet, Big Star and even some Mike Ness in singer/guitarist Bruce Moon’s commanding vocal performance added up to one hell of a power-pop explosion. And then Ficht announced that this was the band’s first performance ever. Color me impressed all over again.

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com