Singer-songwriters Will Hoge and William Elliott Whitmore brought their fall co-headlining tour to The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark. for a wonderful night of stories and songs on Thursday, September 21.

It’s interesting how some of these pairings take place. Hoge mentioned on the stage the two artists had never even met each other until the day before and their music while both falling within I’d considered to be the genre catch-all known as Americana music wasn’t all that similar. Hoge’s music is more alt-country, whereas Whitmore’s was more bluesy-folk. Whitmore’s performance is more guttural, while Hoge’s is more thoughtful. Both musicians were friendly and talkative on the stage with Hoge being more storyteller-ish and Whitmore having a “I’m just happy to be here” type vibe with the crowd.

The crowd was a bit of a surprise to me too even though I’d been to many White Water Tavern shows before – it’s truly become my favorite concert venue in my surrounding area – I was surprised that the majority of those in attendance on Thursday night seemed to know Whitmore better than Hoge, whereas I was the other way around. I’ve been a fan of Hoge’s songwriting for many years and had seen him previously across town at Stickyz Chicken Shack and had never heard of Whitmore before.

By the end of the evening, I would be thrilled with Hoge’s set and have found a new artist in Whitmore from whom I’d be looking for upcoming music. Hopefully, those in attendance for Whitmore felt the same about Hoge.

Hoge peppered his set on Thursday with a handful of songs from his most recent album – 2022’s Wings On My Shoes. He opened the show with “Birmingham” off the album and later included the lovely “The Last One to Go,” the hilariously biting “Whose God is This,” taking on a particularly insidious brand of religion you’ll see from many within this country, and he’d finish the show off with a fantastic performance of “John Prine’s Cadillac.”

Among my favorite performances from Hoge’s 12-song set on Thursday night was “Still a Southern Man,” about how it’s past time to tear down the hate-filled Confederate battle flag and how one can be a Southerner without believing in such a hateful symbol of the region’s past. It’s likely my favorite Hoge song period and it’s a message I love that Hoge has enough bravery to perform for a crowd in the Deep South, in a city that has certainly had its share of racist moments in its past.

I also loved Hoge’s performance of “Even the River Runs Out of This Town,” which was my favorite track from his 2020 album Tiny Little Movies. It’s such a beautifully solemn take on running one’s course in a particular place.

The biggest surprise from Hoge’s set for me was the performance of “Can I Be Country Too?,” which had just been released as a single to streaming platforms a couple of weeks prior and I figured might be too new and unknown to play in a short set in a small room, especially as the recorded track is a collaboration with numerous artists from the Black Opry, Shoes Off Nashville and more. It’s a song that Hoge was inspired to write after the recent controversies within the country music community surrounding such vitriolic views like Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and its accompanying music video. With lines like: “What if I believe that black lives matter” and “What if I think gays gettin’ married’s OK” the song speaks to me as someone who believes both in country music and inclusivity among all. There’s no doubt that “Can I Be Country Too?” is going to end up being one of my favorite songs of 2023.

Speaking of country music, Hoge had quite the big country hit as a songwriter when Eli Young Band took his “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” to No. 1 on the charts in 2012 and garnered Hoge a couple of Grammy Award nominations for co-writing it. His performance of the song on Thursday was another highlight of his set.

Thursday night was Hoge’s debut at the White Water Tavern, which is sort of hard to believe, but I sure hope he’ll be back for more in the future.

Despite never having heard Whitmore’s music I hung around for his set – as any music listener should do – and I’m sure glad I did. I was immediately taken by his banjo playing and the bluesy guttural vocals of songs like “Lift My Jug” and “Diggin’ My Grave.” The musician out of Iowa was playing the White Water Tavern for the second time. I believe he said and raved about the small venue he claimed would be his home base if he lived in the area. It’s just a small one-room bar with a tiny stage in the corner but there’s always something magical about the venue and the artists who perform there constantly rave about it.

One of Whitmore’s biggest receptions on Thursday came from his cover of punk band Bad Religion’s “Don’t Pray On Me,” which is quite the sight coming from a bluesy folk singer from Iowa. A couple of my favorites of his set were the tale of the C.I.A. LSD tests called “Mk Ultra Blues” and “Old Devils,” about the elder leaders of the country and how they never seem to change. But my favorite performance from his set was “Johnny Law,” a Woody Guthrie-esque jam about a bad cop getting his jollies from being a bad cop.

Whitmore seems like an interesting cat, and I’ll be paying more attention to his stuff from now on. It’s always nice when you get to a show to see one artist and come out as a fan of another.

There’s something so right about country music at a county fair. Like the smell of the livestock and fair food wafting over on the wind, the rings and buzzers from the carnival rides and the rural, blue-collar ambiance of it all enhance the sound.

That’s how it felt at the Pope County Fair in Russellville, Ark. on Saturday, Sept. 16 when ‘90s country music hitmakers Shenandoah came to town.

The band, hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., released six studio albums from 1987-1994 and had 10 top-10 hits, including five No. 1 hits during their run. Vocalist Marty Raybon left the band in 1997 to record as both a solo artist and with his brother Tim as the Raybon Brothers. Neither act had much success.

Shenandoah regrouped in 2000 sans Raybon and toured over the years with a revolving door of singers until Raybon rejoined the group in 2014. The band today includes two original members, Raybon and drummer Mike McGuire, with fiddle player and guitarist Donnie Allen having joined the group in 1990 (with a hiatus in between). The rest of the group consists of guitarist Nicky Hines, bassist Paul Sanders and keyboardist Andrew Ishee.

Shenandoah excited the Pope County Fair attendees by opening the show on Saturday night with one of its biggest hits, 1990’s No. 1 hit “Next to You, Next to Me,” an up-tempo love song with the narrator confessing “they ain’t no place I’d rather be, next to you, next to me” in the Robert Ellis Orrall and Curtis Wright-penned tune that was nominated for Single of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards (where it would lose to Garth Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places”).

The group would continue with its biggest hits over the next 90 minutes or so, including more up-tempo classics like “Darned If I Don’t (Danged If I Do),” their last top-five hit from 1995, and the beautiful “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart,” which they had done as a duet with Alison Krauss in 1994 and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

One of the highlights of the show was when the group did its 1994 No. 1 hit “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too),” which included a spur-of-the-moment dance routine from crowd members who all looked like their name could easily be Bubba breaking it down county fair style.

Another highlight was the back-to-back performances of “Sunday in the South,” a No. 1 from 1989’s The Road Not Taken, a sweet reflection of sacred memories of growing up in the South, and “I Wanna be Loved Like That,” a touching ballad that was No. 3 hit in 1993 which includes a “Rebel without a Cause” movie reference with James Dean and Natalie Wood that I’ve always loved.

Hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., one of the biggest musical landmarks in this country, the band, of course, paid tribute to some of the legendary music that came out of that region – even if Raybon erroneously said no place had more hits at the time (seemingly forgetting Motown of Detroit and country music’s capitol of Nashville and others). This portion of the show included a medley of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition,” Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and culminated with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” which mentions Muscle Shoals and its legendary Swampers session players in its lyrics.

My favorite part of the concert was the two-song ender of the show that consisted of my two favorite Shenandoah songs and two of the group’s biggest hits – which were both No. 1s in 1989 – “Two Dozen Roses” and “The Church on Cumberland Road.”

While Shenandoah released its self-titled debut in 1987, the group truly broke through in 1989 with The Road Not Taken, which included “Two Dozen Roses, “The Church on Cumberland Road” and “Sunday in the South” and is truly a modern classic in what would become known as ‘90s country – a heyday, if not still somewhat underrated era for the genre.  

by Julian Spivey
I was just about to go to bed. I really wish I had. Wish I could’ve put the bad news off for one more night. 

I just saw that Jimmy Buffett has died. There’s no doubt that his music had a bigger impact on my family overall than any other artist. 

He is my dad’s favorite. I remember hearing the music non-stop. Family car rides to visit family in Georgia and Florida meant hours upon hours of Jimmy Buffett. For a little while I hated listening to Jimmy Buffett. But as soon as I set out on my own I listened to the music and it all of a sudden not only was my dad’s but became my own. 

Those feelings in his songs - and it’s his ballads that speak to me the most - are feelings I know down deep. I feel seen in those songs. I also see my dad in those songs. 

My dad isn’t nearly as emotional as I am - at least not outwardly. I’m not sure I ever really know what’s going in inwardly with him. My emotions come from my mom. I hate that I had to break the news to her via text because it’s after 2 am. It feels too impersonal to break that news about someone who’s like a family member - who’s frankly more important to me and probably my dad than actual family members. I hope the news doesn’t hit him too hard. I'm glad she'll be the one to break it to him. 

It’s going to hit me for days. I’m sure I’ll have much more to say tomorrow and in those coming days. 

For now I’ll leave it with a slightly altered line from my all-time favorite Buffett song: “Come Monday, I hope it’ll be alright.”