News Article

Bluegrass Monday Welcomes The Rick Faris Band, Monday, June 23

JONESBORO – The Rick Faris Band will perform a concert of bluegrass music at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 23, at the Collins Theatre, 120 West Emerson Street, in Paragould. The concert is part of the Bluegrass Monday concert series presented by KASU 91.9 FM. 

Faris has been a professional bluegrass musician for over two decades. For a dozen years he recorded and toured the country with his three brothers and his parents as the Faris Family Bluegrass Band.

Then, Faris was part of the acclaimed bluegrass ensemble Special Consensus for over a decade. During his time with that band, the group won five International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards and was nominated for two Grammy awards.

Faris began a solo career in 2018, working with the label Dark Shadow Recording. He has scored multiple #1 bluegrass hit songs, and his album The Next Mountain reached #1, spending 17 months in the top five of the charts. Faris will release his fourth album later this summer.

In 2022, Faris won the IBMA’s New Artist of the Year award and is the reigning IBMA Songwriter of the Year. He is also a member of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. 

When not traveling with his band, Faris builds custom guitars through his business, Farris Guitar Company, LLC, in Owensboro, Ky.

The Rick Faris Band includes fourth-generation bluegrass musician Gibson Davis, who plays banjo. His father is a member of Joe Mullins’ band, The Radio Ramblers. Henry Burgess is a 17-year-old mandolin prodigy mentored by Byron Berline, a former member of Bill Monroe’s band, the Bluegrass Boys. JimBob Faris, Rick’s brother, plays bass, adding family harmonies and comedy to the group’s performances. 

More details about the Rick Faris Band are available online. 

The admission fee to the Bluegrass Monday concert is $10 per person, payable by cash at the door the night of the concert. Everyone aged 18 and under will be admitted free. Advance tickets can be purchased at www.kasu.org/tickets. All ticket proceeds go to the musicians, compensating them for their performance.

Groups of eight or more may request reserved seating by contacting KASU’s Marty Scarbrough.  Otherwise, the theatre doors open at 6 p.m., and seating is first-come, first-served. 

Acoustic musicians are invited to participate in a bluegrass music jam session at 5 p.m. in the Joe Wessell Building, adjacent to the Collins Theatre. A section of seats in the theatre will be reserved for jammers and their guests so they can play until the concert starts.

The Bluegrass Monday concert series is a non-profit presentation of KASU-FM, providing music fans with an affordable and outstanding evening of family-friendly entertainment. These concerts occur on the fourth Monday night of each month except July and December.   

The concerts are presented with support from sponsors including, the Paragould Advertising & Promotion Commission, Bibb Chiropractic Center, Gardner-Milner Law Firm, the Posey Peddler, Kiss The Cook, Holiday Inn Express and Suites of Paragould and KASU.

KASU is the public media service of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, broadcasting at 91.9 FM and streaming on a variety of online platforms. For more information, contact KASU program director Marty Scarbrough at mscarbro@AState.edu or 870-972-2367. Additional information is also available on the Bluegrass Monday Facebook page.

The Rick Faris Band (from left) Rick Faris, Gibson Davis, JimBob Faris and Henry Burgess.