Bluegrass and Jam! brings two big nights of pickin’ and strummin’ to Cooper Lake Center

Eight bluegrass bands will spread their hard-driving, high-octane music over two nights at the Bluegrass and Jam! festival August 1 and 2 at Cooper Lake Center.

Four of the outfits will be on the big outdoor stage beginning at 6 p.m. each night at the Center, which is between Paris, Texas, and Sulphur Springs, Texas, just west of Texas Highway 19. Patrons will want to bring lawn chairs.

Admission is $12 for each day of the bluegrass festival. Children 11 and under will be admitted without charge.

The lead group on Friday, August 1, will be David Davis and The Warrior River Boys, with three other strong bands, The Acousticatz, The Bluegrass Solution, and Hickory Hill, also on the bill. On Saturday, August 2, Louisiana Grass will be spotlighted, backed by Mark Phillips and IIIrd Generation, Welch Mountain and The Keisler Brothers.

Bill Grant, whose imprint on bluegrass in the region is well known, will emcee both nights. Bill intends to do some pickin’ himself and he’ll be joined by Amy AsbillPatrick.

“We’ve brought together groups from five states—as far as Mississippi—for Bluegrass and Jam! andthe forecast is for a couple of nights of memorable music,” said C.H. “Bud” Swayne, chairman of the event.

Swayne noted that bluegrass fans often travel far afield to hear the music they love, and when they get to a concert site they unpack their own instruments and put on impromptu concerts.

“We’ll have a sound-equipped jamming stage for these folks,” Swayne said. “They’ll be welcome to get up there anytime during the day and go at it, right up until the concerts begin on the big stage.”

And because bluegrass people often bring their own housing with them, any RVs and trailers that are self-contained (don’t need electrical or sewage hookups) will be permitted to park on the grounds of the Center, Swayne said.

Two units of Cooper Lake State Park are nearby with full-service facilities for other traveling campers, he said. In addition, he said, a score of motels and motor hotels are within 25 miles of Cooper Lake Center.

For mail-order tickets or information, call (toll-free) 1 (877) 808-1831.