Delayed Dogwood Festival Saturday in Quitman

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The Kelly Moore Band will perform during the Dogwood Festival in Quitman Saturday at Jim Hogg City Park pavilion from 3 to 5 p.m. and the concert is free.

There will be an array of activities for the festival Saturday after being postponed from last March due to COVID-19 concerns. There will be plenty of candy for youngsters and several vendor booths. 

The fun begins at noon with a .5 (half-mile) “fun run” and a corn-hole tournament beginning at 1 p.m. Registration for the tournament begins at noon.

Event organizer Brandi Box urged people to follow COVID-19 protocol. “We will be following social distancing protocol and we are asking everyone to wear a mask. We will have hand sanitizer set up too. We will be trying to keep people safe and we want them to come out and have a good time with their families,” Box noted. 

Vendor spots are $20 each, but if a business owner from Quitman just wants to hand out candy, there will be no charge. For information concerning the festival contact Box at 903-730-0296. 

Moore is a Texas-born singer-songwriter. His sincere style as a performer has been called genuine and heartfelt. He has a style all his own, yet within his vocals and lyrics one can detect influences of country, folk, blues and southern rock. 

Kelly first picked up a guitar when he was 15-years-old and wrote his first song when he turned 16. He later formed The Kelly Moore Band and began playing in venues across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee.

He recorded his first CD “Round One” in 2004 and is noted for making it to the regional finals of Nashville Star. 

He recalls his earliest influence as being his father whom he said, “had the best singing voice I’ve ever heard to this day.”

By 2012, he had made a life-changing decision to go into music as a ministry and began leading musical worship at a local cowboy church. During that time, he formed Kelly Moore Music Ministry. By 2016, the band had grown into its current outreach ministry with band members Eugene Allen (banjo, fiddle, mandolin), Delene Allen (keyboard, synthesizer), Steve Campbell (bass), and Andrew Raley (drums).

The Kelly Moore Music Ministry has played mostly in Texas and New Mexico and has opened for such acts as country performer Aaron Watson. The band has played for countless churches, conferences, regional festivals, rodeos, county fairs, private events and charitable fundraisers benefitting veterans, law enforcement and causes for children.