Free concerts bring bluegrass to Lorenzi Park Band Shell

Any time local musicians get together for a bluegrass jam session, there’s no set lineup of songs and no featured player with a backup band. Instead, there is plenty of picking and plucking and a whole lot of smiling.

That’s what to expect at the Ward 5 Bluegrass in the Park concert, a free, monthly two-hour event planned at the Lorenzi Park Lake Band Shell, 3333 W. Washington Ave. A special show is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 2 at the park’s Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza, with band shell shows set to resume in January from 2 to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of every month.

“(City Councilman) Ricki Barlow for Ward 5 is the one who kind of envisioned this,” said Paul DePatta, spokesman for the Sagebrush Stringband, which got the idea rolling. “They’d just done a beautiful remodel of Lorenzi Park with the new band shell, and he wanted to see that the community got involved, to participate and have fun with it. Ricki Barlow, he really did us a big favor. You’ve got to have a place to plug in and play.”

Barlow said that with the renovation of the band shell, he was looking for more opportunities to bring entertainment to the park.

“When this opportunity availed itself, I figured this would be a great opportunity for families to reconnect,” he said. “It came together rather quickly. Everyone understood the vision I was trying to accomplish. All heads came to the table and came up with the process for us to achieve that. The rest is history.”

The loose-knit group of musicians also can be found in the northwest, as the Sagebrush Stringband plans to host weekly jam sessions at 6 p.m. Thursdays at Mountain Crest Park, 4701 N. Durango Drive. The jam sessions there began about two years ago.

“The first time we planned it, I said a quick little prayer, ‘Please let someone show up,’ ” DePatta said. “Well, I think we had seven. Now, we’re never less than 12, and we’ve had as many as 20.”

Things are a little more structured at Lorenzi Park.

“My goal is for it to grow and become a permanent staple (at Lorenzi) for the community to embrace from this point going forth, for generations to come,” Barlow said.

At the concerts and jam sessions at Mountain Crest Park, expect to hear songs such as “Old Joe Clark,” “Good Old Mountain Dew,” “Angeline the Baker,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and other standards. Sometimes musicians will introduce the others to new songs, even some they’ve written.

“Proper etiquette is to bring along five or six copies, so others can follow the chords,” DePatta said.

The group had its second annual Mountain Crest Bluegrass Festival in April. Since then, the Lorenzi Park venue came along. It benefited from a $5,000 grant from NV Energy, which allows it to pay its Lorenzi Park musicians a stipend.

Looking for more opportunities to play, the Sagebrush Stringband also can be heard at the Southern Nevada Old Time Contra Dancers sessions, which are held at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St. For more information, visit lasvegascountrydance.org or call 702-229-6383. There, the musicians go by the name Sagebrush and Shamrocks. They also plan to appear in Logandale at a bluegrass festival set for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

Concert attendees are invited to bring a lawn chair or a blanket, and food trucks are scheduled to be on hand. For more information, visit lasvegasnevada.gov/ward5 or call 702-875-3879 or 702-839-0807.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.