A three-time Grammy Award winner is set to headline a small-town street festival in East Tennessee this weekend, as country singer Linda Davis takes the stage in downtown Bean Station, a community of fewer than 3,000 residents, for the 29th Annual Bean Station Harvest Festival. The free event runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes live music, craft vendors, food trucks, and inflatables for kids.
Davis is scheduled to perform a live concert at 2 p.m., with special guest performer Kerrie Diamond Hardwick joining her, according to the Grainger County Journal. The festival's full lineup and schedule were confirmed by the Grainger County Chamber of Commerce, which also noted the event is free to attend.
Opening acts include regional touring band Blue Stump, which announced its festival slot as part of an October regional tour spanning East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, per the band's own show listing on Blue Stump's website. Also on the bill is the Ernest T. Bass Review, an Andy Griffith Show Mayberry tribute act, rounding out a lineup that blends nostalgic small-screen comedy with live country music.
Who Is Linda Davis
Davis won her first Grammy in 1994 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for “Does He Love You,” her 1993 Billboard No. 1 country duet with Reba McEntire, according to Grammy.com. She picked up two more Grammys in 2017 for her work on the gospel album *Love Remains*. Davis has recorded five major-label solo albums over a career spanning more than four decades in country and Christian music.
Davis is also the mother of Hillary Scott, co-lead singer of the multi-Grammy-winning country band Lady A. Mother and daughter recorded *Love Remains* together in 2016 under the name Hillary Scott & The Scott Family, a faith-based project that topped Billboard's Christian charts and earned two Grammy wins, according to Davis's Wikipedia entry.
A Town Built on Crossroads History
Bean Station carries a history that stretches back long before its modern incorporation. Founded as a frontier outpost in 1776 by pioneer William Bean, the town is recognized as one of Tennessee's oldest permanently settled European-American communities and once served as a key junction along Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road and the Great Indian Warpath, earning it the nickname “A Historical Crossroad,” per Wikipedia.
Despite those 18th-century roots, Bean Station is in Grainger County. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, as reported by Data USA, the town has a population of 2,967 residents, a median household income of $44,785, and a homeownership rate of roughly 82 percent.
Agriculture and Lake Tourism Drive the Region
Bean Station sits in Grainger County along Cherokee Lake, in a county of roughly 25,000 residents known across East Tennessee for its agricultural heritage, including its reputation for Grainger County tomatoes and more than 700 beef cattle farms, according to Grainger County Tourism. Agriculture and lake tourism remain core economic drivers for the surrounding region, making the annual harvest festival a seasonal highlight for area visitors.
Vendors will begin setting up well before Saturday's opening, with logistics scheduled for Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and again Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. ahead of the festival's 9 a.m. start, per the Chamber of Commerce. For a town of fewer than 3,000 people, hosting a three-time Grammy winner alongside local bands and a Mayberry tribute act marks a notable moment for downtown Bean Station this fall.
