Southern Drawl Band performing free country music July 23 in Carson City

An award-winning Nashville band is the next group to star in a free summer concert series at the Brewery Arts Center.

Head down to the Minnesota Street Stage outside the Brewery Arts Center Saturday evening for free music under the stars by Southern Drawl Band. As with every concert in the series, there will be food and drink on hand as well as children’s activities and fun for the whole family.

Thanks to a national award from the Levitt Foundation, the Brewery Arts Center has been able to bring in national caliber entertainers every week this summer.

Sponsored in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, a private family foundation that empowers communities to transform neglected public spaces into thriving destinations through the power of free, live music, the Levitt AMP CARSON CITY Music Series is presenting 10 free, family-friendly concerts to the public.

Saturday’s performance will open at 7 p.m. with Carson City’s own Whatiddo. Nashville’s Southern Drawl Band will take the stage at 8 p.m.

Sweating out its own brand of country music, Southern Drawl Band has been relentlessly touring the U.S. from coast to coast since the band’s beginnings in 2012, playing over 200 shows a year to sold-out crowds of fiercely loyal fans. The country rock group’s ambitious tour schedule prompts fans to travel hundreds of miles for their shows.

“Tirelessly building our grass roots fan base from the ground up is the key to our success,” says Mike Nash, front man and guitarist for the band.

Growing up in Nashville, Nash played music in east Tennessee solely as “Nashville Mike,” but it was a request for an Old Crow Medicine Show song that led him to call former Southern Drawl band mate Rich Killingsworth. They formed a band and made a name for themselves in the local music scene playing classic country covers in small venues. That eventually brought them opportunities to perform alongside prominent country and rock artists Lynyrd Skynrd, Jimmy Buffett, Aaron Tippin, Neil McMcoy, Blackberry Smoke, Pure Prarie League and Cody Canada.

In 2012, the University of Tennessee debuted the band’s music video for their rock cover of the official Tennessee state song, “Rocky Top” by the Osborne Brothers. The video was played on Neyland Stadium’s Jumbo-tron and watched by a crowd of over 102,000 people during football season. Southern Drawn Band’s cover went on to become one of the famed song’s most popular versions and was even played on NBC’s Sunday Night Football for millions of viewers in celebration of Peyton Manning’s record breaking touchdown pass in October of 2014.

Coming up the next week is Whitney Myer on July 30 and SambaDá on Aug. 6. Both performances are at 7 p.m.

The public is invited to bring their own picnics, blankets and lawn chairs to the concerts, which will have an open lawn and lot setting. The Levitt AMP concert series is at 449 W. King St. at the corner of King and Minnesota. Admission is free.

Brewery Arts Center recently announced plans to apply for the grant again for next year as the Levitt Foundation has a history of awarding AMP grants for multiple years. Online public voting for Levitt AMP Carson City will begin Nov. 1. If awarded again, the BAC will produce another 10-week concert series next summer.

For more information, go to http://levittamp.org/carson_city.