The Red Brick Bluegrass Festival, formerly known as the Blueberry Bluegrass Concert in the Park, is set for Saturday, May 4, at Festival Park in downtown Nacogdoches. This free family-friendly concert is made possible by Presenting Sponsor Rex Perry Autoplex and will feature The Purple Hulls, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band, and Riley Gilbreath and Lone Star Blue.
“We have a great crowd every year, regardless of the temperature, which is a testament to the dedication of bluegrass lovers,” organizer Scott Waller said. “However, we know a lot of folks miss out because of the extreme heat, so we wanted to move the show to a weekend when everyone can enjoy it.”
The festival also will feature food trucks and vendors with some great options for delicious food, cold lemonade, and snow cones. Organizers encourage attendees to bring blankets and lawn chairs. The event is family-friendly, so please leave your coolers and alcohol at home. Pets on a leash are welcome. For more information, please visit facebook.com/redbrickbluegrass.
The weekend of great music kicks off Friday night with a Jam session from 6pm to 9pm. You and all your friends are invited to bring your instrument of choice and a comfortable chair to join in the fun!
THE ACTS
The Purple Hulls are identical twins Katy Lou and Penny Lea Clark. The Clark sisters were raised on a working family farm in Kilgore, and they paid for college with money from the family's purple hull harvest. After graduation, they moved to Nashville, where they began touring with various country artists and writing songs for Nashville’s largest publishing company, Sony Tree. The sisters returned home in 2012 to care for their terminally ill father and they stayed in East Texas after he passed away, helping their mother with the farm while continuing their music career.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band performs classics by The Beatles, with a bluegrass twist. The band, started by guitarist/vocalist Dave Walser, features bassist George Anderson, multi-instrumentalist Milo Dearing on fiddle, flute, dobro and anything else with strings, and Gerald Jones on banjo and mandolin.
Riley Gilbreath, a bluegrass/country artist from Crowley, Texas, was named The Texas State Banjo Champion in 2019, at age 15. In 2021, Riley formed Lone Star Blue, which includes 23-year-old Cole Gore, 21-year-old John-Samuel May and 21-year- old Sam Smith.