When the Flye Point Music and Arts Festival kicks off its inaugural season Saturday, there will be the familiar sounds of veteran American singers, such as Odetta, Judy Collins and David Mallett. But the one-day program, which also includes the Celtic quartet Ballykelty and storyteller-bagpiper Jennifer Armstrong, features some of the newest names in a wave of younger singer-songwriters whose talents are fresh yet whose lineage reaches back to legendary performers.

Both the Mammals, a fusion of rock and old-time music, as well as the duo Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion bring family connections along with their music to the stage. Guthrie is the granddaughter of songwriter Woody Guthrie and daughter of Arlo Gurthrie of “Alice’s Restaurant” fame. Mammals guitarist and banjo player Tao Rodriguez-Seeger is the grandson of singer and songwriter Pete Seeger. Mammals fiddler Ruth Ungar is daughter of folk singer Lyn Hardy and fiddler-composer Jay Ungar, who may be less familiar to mainstream audiences but contributed to the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack for Ken Burns’ PBS documentary “The Civil War.”

You could say the careers of these young musicians started long before they stepped onto stage professionally. In fact, it might be fair to say their roads to music started in their cribs.

Sarah Lee Guthrie said she never felt pressured to go into the family business, but by age 12, she was singing alongside her father. By 15, she did a live solo with Pete Seeger. When she was 18, her mother discouraged her from going to acting school in favor of music.

“So I hit the road with my dad,” said Guthrie, who, at 25, is the youngest of Arlo’s four children. “I grew up with music. I have it in my blood. My dad had picking sessions in our living room.”

Still, Guthrie credits her husband, guitarist and singer Johnny Irion with inspiring her to pursue songwriting and to play the guitar as accompaniment to her own songs. They have been playing together since 1997.

“It was hard at first,” said Irion of adjusting to his wife’s family ties. “It’s a lot of heavy stuff there. But more and more, you get to know it and honor it and it becomes fun. It’s not an image thing.”

For Guthrie, the inspiration that Irion provided brought her own career path into focus.

“That’s something love does to you,” said Guthrie, who rejected folk music for punk rock as a teen. “That’s the only explanation I have. I didn’t see it coming. I had no idea I would love playing music with Johnny so much. Dad had a great deal to do with that, too. But we don’t take this stuff too seriously. We just have fun.”

While Mammals guitarist Rodriguez-Seeger does not remember a time in his life without knowing Guthrie, it’s just as likely that they first met at one of Arlo’s picking sessions or onstage at a folk festival. Several years ago, he, Guthrie and Irion toured as the trio RIG, an acronym of their last names.

“Sarah definitely feels like family,” said Rodriguez-Seeger, who spent a part of his childhood in Nicaragua.

Rodriguez-Seeger, who is 31 and lives in a cabin in upstate New York, said he and other offspring artists receive a lot of publicity because of their bloodlines, but he was quick to point out the talents of other band members.

“Sarah Lee and I come from a family of famous musicians so we get a lot of lip service, but the rest of our gang, who didn’t have this culture of music around them all the time, worked even harder,” he said. “They really embraced music the way Sarah and I didn’t.

When you grow up with the fame, it makes you a little more careful and less enthusiastic from the start. People have a tendency to hero-worship. They do it to me. They do it to her. They do it to Ruth [Ungar].”

The most important part of their work, both Guthrie and Rodriguez-Seeger said, is standing on the stage with an audience eager to hear music.

Sometimes, however, political statements – often the underpinnings of folk music – can also rile audiences. But even that, said Rodriguez-Seeger, has the power to stimulate connection. He recalled a concert in Spokane, Wash., where the Mammals performed “The Bush Boys,” a song critical of President Bush and his administration. A group in the audience walked out, making derisive hand gestures to the band.

“I liked that. I thought it was exciting,” said Rodriguez-Seeger. “They actively listened to our words. At least they weren’t apathetic. The only thing is: I wish they had hung around to talk to us. Music has the power to bring people together. It’s humanizing.”

It also seems to create strong family bonds. When Guthrie and Irion tour, they bring their daughter Olivia, who is not yet 2.

“Olivia has done over 200 shows,” said Guthrie. “She fits right along with everybody and knows exactly when it’s time to sing ‘This Land Is Your Land.'”

Popularized and written in 1940 by the child’s great-grandfather Woody Guthrie, the familiar tune might even be called a song for generations.

The Flye Point Music and Arts Festival will take place 11 a.m.-7 p.m. June 26 at The Lookout Inn in Brooklin. Tickets cost $40 for adults and $15 for children and are on sale at Borders Books & Music in Bangor, the Grasshopper Shop in Ellsworth and Oven Works in Blue Hill through June 25. Tickets may also be purchased at 359-2127 or by going online to www.fpmusicfest. Tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at the gate.