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Homegrown’ concert series opens with Moon, Beller
Fresh off of two of the biggest downtown musical weekends of the year, a more intimate concert experience will kick off its fall season Thursday on the Greencastle courthouse square.
Local favorite Gus Moon as well as Paige Beller of Dayton, Ohio, will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday at Music on the Square, the first two acts of the Homegrown on WGRE fall concert series.
While DePauw is in session, Homegrown (formerly “Locals Only on WGRE”) will host a host a monthly listening room concert featuring artists from Indiana and the surrounding region. These all-ages shows are free and open to the public.
All of the shows will feature independent, original artists performing a stripped-down set in a listening room environment.
This is the fourth year of brothers Dennis and Glen Furr hosting their weekly radio show on DePauw’s WGRE. For this season, they decided to do a bit of rebranding from Locals Only to Homegrown.
“This year we’re calling it ‘Homegrown on WGRE’ to be a bit more inclusive for the community and on campus,” Dennis said.
The show itself remains largely unchanged, with the Furr brothers sitting down once a week with a local or regional artist for a performance and interview in the WGRE studeo.
“Our idea is to still feature original artists from Indiana and the surrounding region,” Dennis said. “We’re stretching into Ohio and Kentucky a little.”
One addition to the show is third DJ Ben Detro — who goes by Ben Costley on the radio. Detro has formal training as a DJ, so the Furr brothers are pleased with what he brings to the show.
Homegrown airs on WGRE each Thursday at 10 a.m.
Once a month the format changes a bit for these listening room shows, which will be recorded live at Music on the Square and then broadcast on the radio thereafter.
“It’s an awesome setting — great acoustics, great lighting, great sound system,” Dennis said. “It’s a listening room concert — people just sit down, shut up and listen to the show.”
The pairing of Moon and Beller for the first concert is not accidental, as Dennis describes them both as “singer-songwriters with a really heartfelt writing style and performance.”
Gus Moon, the stage name Putnam County native of Anthony Mullis, has been recording recently so the Homegrown performance will give fans a chance to see him perform that has been rare of late.
As for Beller, her appearance is a testament to the expanding reach of Homegrown on WGRE.
“We have expanded our horizons and we’re reaching out a little bit,” Dennis explained to open the first broadcast of the school year last week.
That broadcast featured Steven Dunn, formerly of Bloomington and Indianapolis, and now of Nashville, Tenn.
All of the old Locals Only/Homegrown shows are archived and available at homegrownonwgre.blogspot.com.
The Furrs hope the monthly concerts can be part of positive momentum downtown Greencastle has seen as a developing destination for music and food.
“I feel like the first sign of real results was last year when they did Taste of Putnam County downtown and lined it up with First Friday and actually had to block off three streets,” Dennis said.
Other upcoming Homegrown on WGRE concerts will feature:
• Tuesday, Oct. 3: Noble Roots (Cicero), Bridge 19 (Louisville).
• Thursday, Nov. 9: Cari Ray (Nashville, Ind.), Cole Woodruff (Indianapolis).
• Tuesday, Dec. 5: Flatland Harmony Experiment (Indianapolis), Black Market Vinyl (Greencastle).
Sponsors who make the series possible include WGRE, Music on the Square, Glen Furr Agency, Harvest by Red Barn Farms, Greencastle Music Center, SMF Payroll Services and Electra’s Acres.