Linden, Texas—Saturday night looks like an appropriate follow-up to the recent sold-out Merle Haggard show at Music City Texas with an evening of homegrown, Texas-style bluegrass.

It’s a night of acoustic tunes and strong harmonies. Hickory Hill and Beatlegras play at 8 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets for general admission seats are $15.

Hickory Hill headlines the night. They’ve been around for nearly 29 years, receiving plenty of accolades along the way for their musicianship.

The band has been honored by the Bluegrass Festival of the United States, Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America, Arts and Entertainment Committee of East Texas and International Bluegrass Music Association. They’ve also been host band for the Argyle Bluegrass Festival and Overton Bluegrass Festival.

“Old School,” Hickory Hill’s latest album, came out in January of last year. The band is based in Avinger, Texas.

Dallas-based Beatlegras, comes to MCT with, you guessed it, Beatles fans gone bluegrass.

Dave Walser, Beatlegras founder and guitarist for the band, said he and his bandmates George Anderson and Milo Deering came together four years ago with their different backgrounds to create something new: classic Beatles songs played with a bluegrass bent.

Walser’s background was in rock (including an interest in The Beatles), while Anderson had more jazz and Milo had more bluegrass. “Between the three of us we end up somewhere in between,” he said.

Beatlegras recently finished a tour of Ireland. Along the way, they appeared on the BBC a couple times, said Walser. He thinks the band has their foot in the door in Ireland now.

“We all three kind of share in the arrangements,” he said about their songwriting approach, noting Beatlegras isn’t “a hillbilly version of The Beatles.”

“We’re very serious about the music part, about being true to the melodies,” said Walser. He notes, too, that The Beatles started out as an all-acoustic band before they went the electric route.

Beatlegras just completed a new studio CD. For past CDs, they’ve covered such Beatles songs as “Back in The USSR,” “Please Please Me,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “Drive My Car,” “Blackbird,” and “Eleanor Rigby.”

They may just play one of those Beatles classics Saturday night.



(For more information and tickets, call 903-756-9934 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. today or visit www.musiccitytexas.org.)