Brown County local and Indiana native Rich Hardesty and his all star band are scheduled to perform their blues, classic rock and reggae hits at the Brown County Playhouse (70 S. Van Buren Street) on Saturday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m..

Originally from La Porte, Hardesty grew up visiting and camping in Brown County with his father.

“I never stopped coming, when I first moved here it was surreal because I was like ‘do I really live in little Nashville?’ ” Hardesty laughed. “I’ve been hiking the trails my whole life, it’s my home and I love it here. It’s the best place I could imagine living. I wrote a song called, Little Nashville on my mind. It’s getting a lot of attention right now, I wrote that here in little Nashville and it’s for my love of Nashville.”

Hardesty’s passion for music sprouted in junior high school when he played piano and was in the choir. He said he would scribble down songs and try to make the lyrics rhyme. He later played guitar recreationally while attending Indiana University before he was encouraged by a professor to turn his music into a career.

The all star band consists of Gregg Wright, Dig Lewis, Boz Skaggs and Jenn Christy all of whom have performed with other recording artists during their careers including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner and John Mellencamp.

“When it comes to playing in Brown County, I’ve always brought my Indiana band,” said Hardesty. “I’ve got my grassroots guys, but I couldn’t get that band together because of logistics so I thought why couldn’t I still do this show because I had already committed to the Playhouse. As for the all star band, these guys have been all over the world.”

Hardesty originally connected with the members of his all star band around the year 2000 in New York City, since then they have written, recorded and performed music together continuously.

“We’ve been working and playing together for two decades and they’re coming here to Indiana,” said Hardesty. “We toured around here, but now they’re coming back, it’s almost like we’re doing it for fun. But, we will be doing shows in California because of this probably, we have the reach. The Indiana University Alumni Association used to back me out there, I used to live out there, so I can see us doing this for fun maybe a couple of times per year. Because I have my Indiana guys, I’m not looking to get rid of my friends but it’s always good to have good guys.”

Tickets for the event are $15 and can be found online at: app.opendate.io/e/rich-hardesty-and-his-all-star-band-september-07-2024-545576#tickets.

Hardesty’s most recent album, ‘Jahmerican’ was released in Jamaica in June. Grammy award winner for Reggae Album of the Year 2024 Julian Marley is featured on the album.

He first experienced Jamaican culture during spring break in college and has visited around 40 times since. He has recorded with many Jamaican artists as well as written many songs based on the country.

Hardesty and Grateful Dead tribute band Hyryder are planning a group trip to Jamaica, including eight resorts in January and all are invited. Each band is scheduled to play six shows between Jan. 25 and 29.

Other excursions include waterfalls, farm trips, cliff diving and meeting the locals, according to Hardesty.

Brown Countian Kyle Hill is organizing community relief efforts to give back to the locals during the trip.

“We’re going to give back, we are going to leave the island in better shape than when we came,” said Hardesty. “We’re going to give clothes to the kids, we’re going to have a pay-it-forward benefit. We’re going to put a lot of shoes on a lot of kids’ feet so what we’re doing is encouraging all of the fans to stuff their suitcases with shoes and clothes to leave with the people.”

Packages range from $719 to $1,999.

More information can be found at www.jamaicandaydream.com.

“We don’t know what the numbers are going to be for the first year, but our goal is to do this for two decades every year so it’s like a big family reunion,” Hardesty said.