The Grape Jam Bluegrass Festival will be held Oct. 25-26 in downtown Grapevine, starting at 6 p.m. on Oct. 25 and picking back up at 10 a.m. on Oct 26.
Performances will be held at Weems Alley, Liberty Park, Gazebo Park and the Train Depot along Main Street. Find a full list of bands performing here.
How we got here
The group of musicians and bluegrass music fans formed the Southwest Bluegrass Club in 1974. The first meeting was held at Chisholm Park in Hurst in 1974 with 84 charter members at the time, according to the club’s website.
“It was a group that came together and said, ‘Hey, we love this music and we want to keep this music going,’” said Bob Hatfield, Second Vice President of the Southwest Bluegrass Club.
The Grapevine group is the oldest charter in the state of Texas, he said.
The details
Over the years, the club has provided scholarships to aspiring bluegrass musicians and promoted local and national bands with concerts, according to the website.
The founder of the club was Tom Uhr, who had a band called Shady Grove Ramblers, which was the vocal band of the year in 1974, according to the Texas State Historical Society.
The backstory
The club became the start of musical careers for artists who became household names, Hatfield said.
“One of the unusual things about this club is that [it was a] starting point for two Grammy Award winners,” he said.
Brad Davis, who will perform at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Oct. 26, was named the No. 1 acoustic guitarist to listen to by Guitar World Magazine, according to his website. He’s performed with country artists Marty Stuart, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow and Dwight Yoakum. His brother, Greg Davis, played the banjo and was part of Brooks and Dunn’s "Only in America" song.
Perhaps the most well-known group from the club is The Chicks, formerly The Dixie Chicks, who started playing at bluegrass festivals in the late in 1980s before gaining fame in country music in the 1990s, according to the website.
One more thing
Hatfield said the membership dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic but now there are more than 170 members in the group from children to older adults.
“We are excited to to see the growth [from] this time from three years ago to where are now,” he said.
- 184 E. Wall St., Grapevine
- www.southwestbluegrassclubdfw.org
