Brushy Creek, a bluegrass band from the Metroplex, will be one of the featured bands at the “Pickin’ for the Pantry” Bluegrass Concert Saturday, Nov. 14 at the Gilmer Civic Center. The benefit will assist the Upshur County Shares Food Bank, a project of the Ministerial Alliance of Upshur County.

The concert begins at 6 p.m. with tickets $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

While the Upshur County Shares Food Bank makes use of the resources of the East Texas Food Bank, there are items which individuals coming to the bank require which are not available at the area resource.

Among those are staples such as flour, sugar, salt, pepper and cooking oil, coffee and tea, diapers for children, dried beans, sugar free items, low salt canned goods and personal grooming items like toothpaste and toilet paper.

All funds raised at the concert will go to help the families who come to the Food Bank once a month for assistance. Over 200 families were assisted in July, with the numbers up from previous months.

Brushy Creek is no stranger to Upshur County, having performed here in April.

Although the members live in the shadow of Dallas, they have roots which reach deep into the soil of East Texas. Guitarist Adam Stone grew up in Hughes Springs.

Stone started playing guitar at an early age, when his parents would take him 27 miles to Mt. Pleasant for guitar lessons. After losing interest in the guitar for 6 years, in his freshman year in high school, a friend got him to form a band.

With the band as a motivator, he started taking lessons from Monty Montoya, a well-known musician from Linden. It wasn’t long until Adam was playing local gigs with his friends.

It wasn’t until 1981, while dating his girlfriend (now his wife) Susan, from Avinger. John Early and the late Rolan Foster (Hickory Hill) were sitting in the living room at Susan’s house playing. With the tight harmony and the clean acoustic picking, Adam immediately fell in love with Bluegrass music.

Adam teamed up with local drummer, Dennis Hall and guitarist, the late Mark Terrell from Ashdown, Ark., to form the band Southern Crossfire in 1984. They played honky tonks and gigs throughout the Ark-La-Tex area.

His employer transferred him to Garland in 1986. There he met up with musicians David Miller and Alan Smith. They started jamming from time to time at each others’ houses. Alan’s cousin Bart Smith would sit in, also playing guitar and singing. Four years later they formed the country band Rough Country.

In 2001, when the motion picture Oh Brother Where Art Thou sent a shockwave throughout the nation over bluegrass, Adam picked up the phone and contacted his ole buddies David Miller and Bart Smith. This was the birth of Brushy Creek.

Adam credits the Lord Jesus Christ, his parents for putting up with all the noise coming out of his room, and John Early of Hickory Hill for all of his encouragement and support.