Skip to main content

Nature Center Brings Bluegrass Groups to Ogden

Jul 06, 2016 09:19AM ● By Tori La Rue

The Barefoot Movement, a Nashville-based, acoustic, bluegrass band, was the first performing group in the 2016 Ogden Nature Center Summer Concert Series. They performed June 9. – Catherine Truman

By Tori La Rue | [email protected]


The Ogden Nature Center kicked off their 2016 summer concert series with a performance by The Barefoot Movement, an acoustic, bluegrass band from Nashville. 

Families and friends, most from the Ogden area, watched as Noah Wall, the singer-songwriter for the group, played the fiddle, and Tommy Norris strummed the mandolin while Alex Conerly sang and picked at the guitar on June 9. 

“They were so charming,” said Diane Stern, who is an independent contractor for the series. 

Stern booked The Barefoot Movement for the concert because the nature center concert series tends to bring in more folk and bluegrass style music than other concerts around Ogden, including those in the Ogden Twilight series, Stern said. The nature center series culture is low-key which contributes to its unique profile, she said. 

“This is a small venue and it is cozy. You can bring picnic and dinner, and it is really very relaxed and homey,” she said. “It was really so comfortable and inexpensive so people can come with their friends and family.” 

 The next and final performer in the 2016 summer series is Kristin Andreassen, who will be visiting the center on August 11 at 7 p.m. Stern’s booked this singer-songwriter for two concerts in the past and invited her back for this year’s series because she has been a crowd favorite. This year Andreassen is bringing two friends to the center with her: Rayna Gellert on fiddle and Jefferson Hamer on bass. 

Andreassen usually adds step, a kind of percussive dancing, to her performances. Oftentimes audience members get off their feet and join her, Stern said. There’s a lot of research that goes in to determining who should come to the series, but Stern said she is confident that Andreassen be a good choice. 

Tickets for Andreassen’s concert costs $16 for adults and $10 for children if purchased in advance at ogdennaturecenter.org or $18 for adults and $12 for children if purchased at the door. Spectators may bring food or buy it on site from Union Grill.

Stern, who’s planned the series for the past seven years, said she’s excited to see nature center regulars come back to the series for Andreassen’s concert, and she said she hopes she sees some new faces too because the nature center, located at 966 W. 12th Street, is an unusual venue for a concert.

“The thing that is singular about a concert is at nature center is that you are out in a glen in a natural setting, and you don’t get as much of that in the world these days,” she said. “You come off of 12th street to get to the center, and it is the city, and then you come here you are completely removed.

“It’s like little a little vacation while you’re at the concert, and when it’s over, the world is out there waiting for you to come back.”