GRATIOT — Gratiot Community Park will be the site of a Bluegrass Gospel Concert on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.  The concert is hosted by the Evangelical Free Church of Gratiot.  In case of rain, the event will be held at the Gratiot Community Center.  Featured performers will be Bluegrass Express.  There is no charge for this event and the public is invited to attend.  A free will offering will be collected. 

Bluegrass Express was formed in 1980 by the father-son team of Gary and Greg Underwood and has performed extensively ever since, from Michigan to Mississippi and all points in between. Featuring tight harmony that can only be found in a family band along with superbly proficient instrumentation. A liver performance is certain to delight audiences of all ages.  Collectively, they have over a dozen studio recordings to their credit. The recent all-gospel recording project “Answer to my Prayer” received critical acclaim throughout bluegrass and gospel circles and beyond.

Founding member and band patriarch Gary Underwood grew up in the tiny east central Illinois town of Custer Park. One of his earliest musical influences was the fiddle playing neighbor “Fiddy” Crater. Gary developed a great interest in the fiddle at a young age and was hooked from then on. In the early stages of the band, Gary switched to the guitar to handle a large portion of the vocals. An accomplished song writer, he is still featured on occasion on the fiddle and spends time repairing and restoring vintage violins. 

Co-founder Greg Underwood is the product of a childhood filled with music. By age 12, he was playing mandolin and singing on stage. Greg received “Most Promising Male Vocalist” and “Most Promising Mandolin” from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America early in his career.  Greg now handles the bass chores for the group along with lead and harmony vocals. He has written many songs performed by the band.  Among his many credits, Greg sang and performed with Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin, and spent two years playing bass and touring with Grammy winning artists “The Cox Family.” 

Jacob Underwood first took the stage with the group at the age of three, won his first fiddle contest at the age of ten, and became a full-time member of the band at age 11, playing mandolin and fiddle. Jacob later switched to banjo as his primary instrument and has won numerous contests in banjo, mandolin and fiddle. In 2016, Jacob released a solo instrumental CD “The Banjo Files” featuring numerous A list musicians as special guests on the project. He recently released a “true” solo project “As Time Goes By,” playing all of the instruments with a bluegrass treatment on songs of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, and was joined in vocal collaboration by Norway’s “Attitunes” vocal group on two selections. Jacob’s single “Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus” off his brand new all gospel CD “My Hope is in the Lord” reached No. 8 on Bluegrass Today’s Gospel Weekly Airplay chart in the spring of 2022. 

Nick Dumas joins the group on mandolin and grew up in Brier, Washington. He was introduced to bluegrass music at a very young age by his grandfather’s country gospel band. He soon joined the family band The Three Generations, and later became a co-founder of two popular Northwest-based bluegrass bands Northern Departure and North Country Bluegrass, touring both regionally and nationally. As a highly respected mandolin player and singer in the region, Nick relocated in 2015 to become the new Special Consensus mandolin player. He made his Special C recording debut on the 2016 Compass Records band release “Long I Ride,” which received the 2016 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year Award for the tune “Fireball.” Nick also appeared on the 2018 Compass Records band release “Rivers And Roads” that won two IBMA awards (one for Album of the Year) and a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. In late 2019, Nick released his first ever solo recording called “Story of a Beautiful Life”. Nick is now part of The Fiddler’s Farm house band at his home in Sturgeon Bay. Nick released a new CD on Skyline records in 2022 and his most recent single “Riding the Boston and Maine” sat at No. 7 on the Bluegrass Today airplay charts in late August.