by Julian Spivey
Country music stars Clint Black and the Charlie Daniels Band performed free concerts to a packed crowd during the third annual Legends Balloon Rally in Hot Springs, Ark. at the Memorial Field Airport on Friday, Sept. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 25.
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The festival, which started in 2008, features great country music and the hobby of hot air ballooning. Last year’s performances included country singers Tracy Byrd and Tracy Lawrence.

Black performed a nearly 90-minute set on Friday night that included nine number one country hits and many of his career bests.

Black opened up the concert by performing his number one single “The Shoes You’re Wearing,” from his 1998 album “Nothin’ but the Taillights,” to a jam-packed audience of country music fans. The other eight number one hits Black performed during his show included his first ever number one “A Better Man” from his 1989 debut album “Killin’ Time,” the song “Killin’ Time” from that same album, “When My Ship Comes In,” “Walkin’ Away,” “Summer’s Comin’,” “A Good Run of Bad Luck,” “Like the Rain” and “Nothin’ but the Taillights.”

Black also performed many of his other notable hits like the beautiful love song “Something That We Do,” that he co-wrote for his wife and actress Lisa Hartman Black, “State of Mind,” “Put Yourself in My Shoes,” “Nothing’s News” and his most recent top 20 country hit “Spend My Time,” from his 2003 album of the same name.

He also performed the never released as a single “Tuckered Out,” which he said was written in response to something that country music legend Tanya Tucker said to his guitar player and co-writer Hayden Nicholas, that Black said couldn’t be repeated to the family-friendly audience. The song is a tribute to great country artists and Black said that 38 different artists are mentioned in the song’s lyrics.

Black’s best performance of the night was probably his best known song “Killin’ Time,” which is easily one of the 25 greatest country songs ever recorded. His other best performances included “A Better Man” and “Nothin’ but the Taillights.”

Following his set, Black returned to the stage much to the approval of the Hot Springs crowd to perform his notable cover of The Eagles’ classic “Desperado” before leaving the stage to a standing ovation.

The only disappointment from Black’s performance was that he didn’t perform his 1990 number one song “Nobody’s Home,” a personal favorite of mine.

On Saturday, the Charlie Daniels Band took the stage to perform for the enthusiastic crowd of thousands.

Daniels played about a 90-minute set filled with many of his country and Southern rock classic hits and the band jammed on a few instrumentals, including one entitled “Black Ice” that must have lasted at least 10 minutes and included a great extended drum solo from drummer Pat McDonald.

The Charlie Daniels Band classics included his 1975 hit “Long Haired Country Boy,” which proved to be a fan-favorite, his 1980 top 20 country hit “In America,” his 1986 top 10 hit “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,” “Simple Man,” from 1989, as well as “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” and “(What This World Needs Is) A Few More Rednecks.”

The set also included some surprises like a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” a version of “Amazing Grace” and an instrumental version of “The Star Spangled Banner” on fiddle. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard the National Anthem on a fiddle and believe me it was amazing.

Daniels finished up his set with an outstanding version of his most famous song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which was a number one country single in 1979 and a number three hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Watching Daniels thrill the crowd with his fiddle playing as both “the devil” and “Johnny” from the classic song was well worth the drive down to Hot Springs itself. It’s definitely one of the finest concert moments I’ve personally ever seen, right up there with seeing Merle Haggard perform in a cow field in Melbourne, Ark. a few summers ago.

The only disappointment from the set was that Daniels didn’t have time to get to some of his classics like “Uneasy Rider,” “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” and “Stroker’s Theme.”     

by Julian Spivey
“1964-The Tribute” thrilled a packed Reynolds Performance Hall audience on Friday, Sept. 10 proving why they are the ultimate Beatles tribute band.

The group includes Mark Benson as John Lennon, Todd Rainey as Paul McCartney, Tom Work as George Harrison and Terry Manfredi as Ringo Starr.

The tribute Fab Four, which have been together for 27 years or about three times longer than the actual Beatles were together, played around 30 early Beatles tunes as the crowd sang, clapped and danced along. “1964-The Tribute” tries to recreate the buzz that surrounded the Beatles British invasion in 1964 and during the next few years while the foursome toured before becoming an entirely studio group in the late ‘60s.

“1964-The Tribute” opened the almost two hour concert with “I Saw Her Standing There” from the Beatles debut album “Please, Please Me” from 1963. The song featured Rainey on lead vocals as McCartney and got the show off to a nice rocking start.

The tribute group followed with hit after hit including the number one tune “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “From Me to You,” “Please Please Me,” “Act Naturally,” “Eight Days a Week,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” among others.

Midway through the show the group took a 10 to 15 minute intermission before they returned to the stage for the second half.

When the second half of the show kicked off with the Beatles 1963 hit “Twist & Shout” the entire Reynolds crowd leapt to their feet. This performance was likely the crowd favorite of the night.

The second half of the concert continue with hits like “Ticket to Ride,” “I Feel Fine,” “In My Life,” “Yesterday,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Nowhere Man,” “Help!” and “Day Tripper.” 

The band finished off their set with “She Loves You,” one of the Beatles 27 number one hits. However, after a minute or two of the crowd desperately cheering for more “1964-The Tribute” returned to the stage for an encore that included “Rock & Roll Music,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Long Tall Sally.”

Among the best performances of the evening where “Yesterday,” “I Feel Fine,” “Nowhere Man,” “Ticket to Ride” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” with “In My Life” perhaps being the very best performance of the show.

Another great aspect of “1964-The Tribute” was the onstage banter between the four, especially Work as Harrison before announcing some of the songs. You could generally tell that the foursome loves what they do for a career.

The performance by “1964-The Tribute” celebrated the opening of the tenth season of the Reynolds Performance Hall. Reynolds opened up 10 years ago with an inaugural performance by the legendary Ray Charles. Since then it has hosted many legends like Loretta Lynn, The Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips and James Brown.

by Julian Spivey
Country music singer John Anderson thrilled a packed audience at the Bar of Ranch in Clinton, Ark. on Thursday, Sept. 2 as part of the festivities for the annual National Championship Chuckwagon Races.
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Anderson, a native of Apopka, Fla., has had a successful country music career that has spanned 30 years, 19 studio albums and seven number one hits.

Anderson kicked off the almost 90-minute set with his most recent number one single “Money in the Bank” from 1993. He followed with one of his many fan-favorites “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday),” a song written by Billy Joe Shaver, from 1981. After performing his fourth song his 1992 hit “When It Comes to You,” there was about a 10 minute delay in the concert to fix a malfunctioning microphone.

Once the microphone problem was taken care of, Anderson sounded better than ever with his genuine twangy voice that emanates honky tonk music at its finest.

Anderson and his band, aptly titled the John Anderson Band, ripped through classic Anderson hit after hit which kept the majority of the crowd tapping their toes in their lawn chairs and even had a few swinging their partners back and forth on the green pasture of Bar of Ranch.

One of the biggest crowd reactions of the night came when Anderson performed the song “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” from his 2009 album “Bigger Hands.” The song was co-written by Big & Rich star John Rich and released as a single by Rich in 2009 and became a huge hit.

During the midpoint of the concert Anderson played a medley of his hits which included his first hit single “Your Lying Blue Eyes” from 1979, his 1982 hit “Would You Catch a Falling Star, “1959,” and 1981’s “Chicken Truck.”

Anderson included the song “An Occasional Eagle,” which was never released as a single, but he said was one of his favorite songs. The song talks of the importance of eagles in America and preaches the conservation of the endangered national bird.

The best Anderson performances of the night were generally the biggest hits of his career like 1982’s number one hit “Swingin’,” which is arguably his biggest and has recently seen a resurgence as LeAnn Rimes’ new single, albeit Anderson’s version is infinitely better. His other finest performances included 1991’s number one hit “Straight Tequila Night,” 1983’s number one hit “Black Sheep,” 1995’s “Bend It Until It Breaks,” his emotional 1994 single “I Wish I Could Have Been There” and his finale of “Seminole Wind.”

“Seminole Wind” from his 1992 album of the same name is close to Anderson’s heart as a native Floridian as it deals with conservation issues surrounding the Everglades. The music video for the song was named by CMT as one of the 100 greatest country music videos of all time.

The only disappointment from Anderson’s concert was that one of his biggest singles in his career and a personal favorite of mine, “She Just Started Liking Cheating Songs” was left off of the setlist. 

The National Chuckwagon Races was a week filled with country music entertainment with Jason Boland and the Stragglers on Sunday, August 29, Neal McCoy on Wednesday, Sept. 1 and Gene Watson on Friday, Sept. 3 in addition to Anderson.    

by Julian Spivey

After a terrible fourth album in 2009’s “Feel That Fire,” it’s nice to see that country music star Dierks Bentley has calmed down a bit and gone the route of mostly bluegrass for his fifth album “Up on the Ridge.”

“Up on the Ridge” is easily Bentley’s best album since his debut, self-titled album in 2003. However, it likely won’t sell as well as some of his others albums because it isn’t mainstream country. The fact that it isn’t mainstream country is likely what makes it Bentley’s best album in seven years.

The first single off of the album is the title track, which is the closest mainstream country sounding song on the album, even with a quick banjo line throughout the song.

The best performance on the album is Bentley’s cover of legendary songwriter Kris Kristofferson’s “Bottle to the Bottom,” which feature Kristofferson, himself, on one of the verses.

The album also includes a bluegrass version of the U2 classic “Pride (In the Name Of Love) with The Punch Brothers and Del McCoury chiming in. The song is definitely an interesting interpretation, especially with McCoury’s one of a kind vocals on the chorus. Interesting doesn’t mean great, but there isn’t a bad song on the album.

Another big highlight of the album is the collaboration that Bentley did with Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson (two of the best country singers around) on the song “Bad Angel.”

The best story song on the album is a take on the Bob Dylan penned “Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) in which The Punch Brothers join Bentley. Chris Thile of The Punch Brothers and formerly of Nickel Creek joins Bentley on the second and third verses of the song.

With songs written by Dylan and Kristofferson, Bentley certainly did a splendid job of choosing songs for this album. Bentley also co-wrote five of the songs on “Up on the Ridge.” The Bentley penned songs are the title track, “Rovin’ Gambler,” “Draw Me a Map,” “You’re Dead to Me” and “Down in the Mine.”

The best of the Bentley penned songs is arguably a tie between “You’re Dead to Me” and “Down in the Mine.” The angelic vocals of Alison Krauss chime in as backup vocals on “Down in the Mine.”

As previously mentioned, there isn’t a single bad song on this album, which once again is a relief coming from the guy who recently recorded the horrendous “Sideways.”

“Up on the Ridge” was recently nominated for a CMA Award for album of the year. Bentley has garnered a nomination for male vocalist of the year and the collaboration with Lambert and Johnson on “Bad Angel” has been nominated for musical event of the year.    

If you’re a country music or bluegrass fan be sure to pick this album up. I guarantee it’s going to be one of the five best albums of the year in its genre.