Feast on Purple Hulls tunes Saturday at Historic Washington
WASHINGTON, Ark.—Katy Lou Clark and her sister Penny Lea Clark seemed destined to grow up and do something creative as a team.
After all, they’re East Texas-raised identical twins who grew up playing sports and singing together, then developed an interest in learning instruments, even attending the same college, where they gradually gave up on basketball and chose, instead, to channel their efforts towards music.
“Our group has been a long time in the making since we’re twin sisters,” Katy said.
As a duo, they’re named The Purple Hulls, and they’re purveyors of country, gospel and bluegrass music. They perform many covers and also write originals.
They’re also performing Saturday at Historic Washington State Park as part of the park’s summer concert series. Showtime for the free concert is 7:30 p.m. at the 1874 Courthouse. Of course, they do well together having worked so closely for so long, including going off to South Plains College. It was there they further developed their musicianship with the banjo, mandolin and guitar.
“We were just doing it for fun at the time,” Katy recalled. They didn’t have a career in mind, and had actually gone to school together to play basketball. But they changed directions, emphasized music and then, once they left college, were encouraged to head to Nashville, Tenn., to play music.
Once there, they typically performed with others as part of a larger group of musicians. “Every now and then we would have a show where we would play,” Katy recalled. But then they joined with their brother.
“We started writing songs for Sony Tree in Nashville as a group,” Katy explained. Eventually, she and Penny returned to East Texas in 2012, their brother staying in Music City. Thus, they became a duo, one whose latest
“It’s acoustic driven, energetic. We love singing harmony with each other.” —Katy Lou Clark
album is titled “Why We Sing,” a title with a meaning for them.
“The whole overarching reason is to glorify the Lord, to glorify God,” Katy said.
Their music is acoustic, and much of it is original songwriting influenced by their own experiences. “We love some of the old fiddle tunes and some of the classic songs of the past,” Katy explained. They play and write gospel, too, and some of their music has a western swing style to it. They don’t have fiddles, Katy said, but with a Bob Wills number they’ll mash it up with the banjo, guitar, mandolin and standup bass.
“It’s acoustic driven, energetic. We love singing harmony with each other,” Katy said of their music.
About playing in a historic, 19th century restoration village like Historic Washington, she thinks it’s a good fit. “It looks like something right up our alley,” she said.
Expect them to take some old songs that were on the fiddle and translate them to the banjo and mandolin. They might do some Bob Wills numbers and original songs.
“We’ll probably do some bluegrass and picking songs,” Katy said.
Saturday’s Music in the Park concert is the second in the series. The third will be Oksana Pavilonis, concert violinist, on Aug. 19.
(More info: Historic Washington State Park.com or 870-983-2684.)