Grace Pettis and Calloway Ritch come to Dallas to show off their new record, 'Blue Star in a Red Sky'

Grace Pettis brings an unusual pedigree to the world of music. For one, she's the daughter of singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis, and together, she and her dad are the only parent-child combo in the history of the Kerrville Folk Festival to win the coveted New Folk award.

It's an honor they share with Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Nanci Griffith, John Gorka and the late Jimmy LaFave. Grace's brothers, Rayvon and George, are also musicians. Music runs deep in the Pettis family's Alabama bloodline.

We have written about her dad's breakup song, "Just Like Jim Brown (She is History)," and we wrote about Grace in our One Song series, which highlighted her mesmerizing ballad "Abilene." Grace is part of an amazing corps of young women who in recent years have dominated the coffeehouse scene.

On Friday night at Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse in Dallas, Grace will share the stage with Calloway Ritch. The two are releasing an acoustic EP titled, Blue Star in a Red Sky. Uncle Calvin's is hosting the EP release show.

Grace and her dad have performed in the past at Uncle Calvin's, and Grace has frequently shared a stage with two of her fellow women in song, Rebecca Loebe and Betty Soo. The name of their band? The Sirens of South Austin.

In our interview about "Abilene," Grace, 30, spoke about growing up in rural Alabama and what that's meant to her songwriting career.

"Obviously, anything you write has a little bit of you in it," she told me. "I think a lot of that small-town-girl-wanting-to-get-out feeling probably came from me. I went to high school in a small town in Alabama, in the mountains. When you're there, you look out and all you see are mountains. You're surrounded by mountains. It's kind of like an embrace, but it's also a chokehold. It feels like a forgotten part of the country. It's simultaneously like being able to see everything from where you are while not being seen — at all."

Details

Grace Pettis will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse, 9555 N. Central Expressway in Dallas. Eric Folkerth opens. The venue is in the fellowship hall of Northpark Presbyterian Church. $15 in advance, $18 at the door. 214-363-0044, unclecalvins.org.

UPDATE: This post was updated at 9 p.m., Aug. 23, to include the information about Grace Pettis releasing a new acoustic EP with Calloway Ritch.