Clint Black, Charlie Daniels Band Perform at Hot Springs Balloon Festival

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.
​
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.”