Bluegrass Saturday Night – Nov. 16 2019
  Featuring Kenny & Amanda Smith Band and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band
    with special guest Downtown String Band

McKinney Performing Arts Center
111 N. Tennessee Street, McKinney, Texas  75069

A great crowd was on hand for our Bluegrass Saturday Night in historic downtown McKinney Texas.  The show featured the GRAMMY-nominated Kenny & Amanda Smith Band and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band, along with special guest Downtown String Band.  Pictures from the show are in our Special Events Photo Gallery.  This event was funded in part by a grant from the City of McKinney Arts Commission, with thanks from the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation.

Winners of the IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award, the Kenny & Amanda Smith Band combines gutsy, heartfelt vocals and brilliant instrumental talents to create one of the most compelling sounds in bluegrass music today.  Kenny, a two-time IBMA Guitarist of the Year, is considered one of the most influential flatpicking-style guitarists of his generation.  Amanda is a winner of the IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year award and delivers some of the most soulful vocals in bluegrass today.

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Bluegrass Band offered amazing musicianship and vocals on innovative bluegrass interpretations of Beatles songs like Eleanor Rigby, Come Together, Back in the USSR, Blackbird, and more.  The Downtown String Band highlighted the bluegrass and traditional music of Gerald Jones, Mike Jump, Michael Morrison, and Alan Tompkins.  

About McKinney Performing Arts Center

This was the third production by the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation at the McKinney Performing Arts Center (MPAC), the multi-purpose theater in the historic Collin County Courthouse.  MPAC is the center of the McKinney, Texas historic district and is surrounded by a variety of restaurants and boutiques.