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You can smell the roasted peanuts, smoked barbecue and authentic Mexican dishes from the parking lot of the Flamingo Island Flea Market in Bonita Springs.

Once inside, there are all the discounted knick-knacks, locally-grown fruit and vegetables, lavish hat collections and cheap luggage.

Walk outside, though, and you hear the notes of some down-home Americana heaven, a little bluegrass.

Under a pink and white striped tent at the entertainment pavilion, you might find Bobby Shea picking on the guitar, Leslie Weidenhammer plugging at the bass and Karen Batten going to town on the banjo.

It’s bluegrass music from the band The Fleas. The tunes provide a joyous harmony between the stringed instruments and the pickers’ voices provoking foot-tapping from most every pair of legs in the audience.

The performance is part of the weekly acoustic jam session happening every Sunday, except during Florida’s hottest summer months, at the flea market. For seven years, the jam sessions have been inviting acoustic musicians, no matter their experience or talent, to commune and play before an audience looking for bluegrass, country, folk, gospel and Americana music — all free to the public.

On one Sunday you can hear a polished band like The Fleas or the Sawgrass Drifters and later a stage full of unaffiliated pickers jamming through a song.

The music draws some curious flea market shoppers to come by for a few tunes, but it also brings regulars like Georgette Atkins back every Sunday.

Atkins, who has been living in Bonita for 50 years, said she was relieved when a live country music venue at the flea market began. Atkins brings her square dancing partner Johnny Anderson with her. While they don’t get up and dance during the songs, Atkins doesn’t hide her enthusiasm for the jam sessions.

“We’re groupies,” she said. “We’ve been coming since day one.”

Atkins and Anderson can even prove their loyalty; both have their names taped to chairs in the front row of the pavilion.

If Atkins and Anderson are the best-known attendees, then The Fleas are the trademark band. Even their name comes from the venue. Shea, Weidenhammer and Batten met years ago at the flea market. As they got to know each other and get comfortable with each the others’ styles, they formed their band.

“It’s nice to have a representative group for the flea market,” said Steve Cox, an organizer and emcee for the acoustic jam sessions.

Though The Fleas are a semi-professional group, all the members have day jobs.

Shea and Batten work full-time as nurses. Weidenhammer is a deputy in the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

Shea, who plays guitar and bass and sings with The Fleas, is an example of how the jam sessions serve as a workshop that produces skilled bluegrass musicians. The more seasoned musicians help newer musicians by helping them learn “the tricks and licks and rhythms,” as Shea puts it.

“It’s a very inclusive environment for people who are just beginning to play music,” said Shea.

Shea said he was a mediocre musician when he first started playing at the Flea Market years ago. He learned how to play the guitar with the help of other musicians at the Sunday sessions.

“Everybody pointed their guitars (in Shea’s direction) so I could see where it was and so I could catch on,” said Shea.

He watched, learned and became more comfortable with the music. Now he’s a member of one of Southwest Florida’s premiere bluegrass groups.

For Shea, his music is about being part of living musical historical.

“We hold on strongly to the tradition,” said Shea. “One of my goals is to bring music to people who don’t know it.”

But the flea market is not just a showcase for polished groups like The Fleas. It’s also a venue for up-and-comers like Robyn Schoessel.

Schoessel sings and plays guitar on some Sundays at the flea market. She works full time as an environmental educator for the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, an organization associated with Rookery Bay.

Schoessel also plays for the praise band at her church, New Hope Ministries in Naples. She said she’s fairly new to bluegrass styles, but not to folk music. Her father was a folk musician, and she grew up with his friends picking in her home.

“We’d have just a bunch of people playing together in the living room,” said Schoessel.

She’s trying to gain some momentum in the music community, she said. And the Sunday acoustic jam is a great place to start.

“I write folk, bluegrass and gospel music,” Schoessel said. “I’m trying to get to a point where I can start performing them.”

At 62-years-old, singer/guitarist Jim Addi has no illusions about being a country music star.

“I’m strictly amateur,” Addi said.

He used to work in dry wall, but now works as a cook.

Addi has been playing country and folk music for decades.

“I used to play at pit roasts,” he said.

Unlike Shea, who said he’s carrying on a tradition, or Schoessel, who’s now practicing to become a better musician, Addi enjoys playing music for its own sake. Sunday afternoons at the flea market are a time for Addi to get on stage and do what he loves. The fact that it’s in front of an audience just makes it that much sweeter.

“It’s a place to show off,” he said. “To play for more than just my wife.”