Spokane’s Palomino hosts Americana night with Bluegrass in the City

Musician Alex Ashley didn’t see the type of show he was interested in attending in Spokane, one that celebrated bluegrass, the first genre of music he learned to play as a child.

Given the number of rural communities around Spokane, this surprised Ashley, who said bluegrass has grown from small towns like the ones in Eastern Washington.

But rather than look elsewhere for such a show, Ashley, with the help of the Palomino owner Mark Fechter, decided to produce one himself, a concert the duo is calling Bluegrass in the City and bringing to the Palomino on Saturday.

“My idea was if you can have a night that’s devoted to this great music that everybody loves that deserves our attention and at the same time help out a local business that’s trying to offer its community something great, that’s a two-birds-with-one-stone situation,” Ashley said.

Bluegrass in the City will feature local acts Brown’s Mountain Boys, a quartet that plays both traditional and original bluegrass songs, Lucas Brookbank Brown, who infuses a dose of soul into his bluegrass tunes, and the No Going Back Band, a quartet that has opened for acts like Della Mae and performed everywhere from benefits to beer festivals.

Highlighting local artists was important to Ashley, who said Spokane’s music scene is often overlooked.

“Don’t wait for the big bands to come through town so much; get out and support guys that are right there in your backyard that play like pros,” Ashley said, “You’d be surprised the talent that’s in that city.”

Also overlooked is bluegrass itself, a genre praised for its honesty and the insight it provides into life in Appalachia and similar regions, but which often gets swept into the “I’ll listen to anything but country music” argument.

“When you hear that music, you’re hearing a story being told and that’s not something that you necessarily hear in modern music all the time,” Ashley said. “Today you hear a lot of music that is telling you how country it is or how blues it is or how honest it is. … But you want to hear how authentic it is. I think bluegrass is one of the few genres that really does that.”

Ashley hopes this authenticity will draw audiences in and make Bluegrass in the City a recurring event.

“If it doesn’t go well, then it was fun and hopefully nobody lost any money,” he said with a laugh. “It’s fun, and if people like it, there will be more of it.”