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It
was a night of pure country at Billy Bob’s Texas
Saturday for the final stop of the Honky Tonk
Tailgate Party tour featuring David Ball, Daryle Singletary
and Rhett Akins.
The evening started off with the traditional sound
of David Ball playing some of his past hits,
including “Look What Followed Me Home” and
“Honky Tonk Healing”. He launched into the
title cut of his l994 album Thinking Problem, dedicating
it to a special girl from Seguin.
Ball
gave the audience some swing music to savor and yodeled
his way through another number. “When the Thought
of You Catches Up With Me” is a beautiful ballad
Ball penned on the aforementioned album, and the audience
loved it, but what they were really waiting for was
Ball’s current patriotic hit playing all over
country radio, “Private Malone”. The story
of a young soldier who never makes it back from Vietnam
but leaves a note in his “66 Corvette for the
next owner is unashamedly sentimental, but oh so right
for the times we are living through in this country
today.
Next up was Daryle Singletary, one of the young guns
in country music, with a penchant for covering George
Jones’ songs. His deep bass voice lends itself
to George’s style but it makes him seem like
a wannabe. He has some decent songs to his credit
, however, including” Amen Kind of Love”,
the successful “I Let her Lie” and “Too
Much Fun”. Singletary roamed the stage and made
lots of contact with the audience, but just wasn’t
as popular with them as the final act, Rhett Akins.
Akins is another pretty boy in a hat, like Singletary,
and judging from the females in the crowd a
big hit. Young and good-looking, and just a bit cocky,
he played up to the fans performing
“Don’t Get Me Started”, “When
She Said Yes” and “That Ain’t My Truck”.
David
Ball, older and probably more genuinely talented,
came back onstage with Singletary and some of the
finer moments in the show commenced. All together,
the boys whooped and hollered their way through several
covers, including Hank Junior’s “All My
Rowdy Friends.”
The never tiring back up band relentlessly held up
their end through the entire show. Their fine
guitar work was a definite plus.
Having these guys perform as a group was probably
a good idea since an entire evening with just one
of them, with the exception of David Ball, would have
gone stale after about thirty minutes. Their combined
talents made for a fun and entertaining evening for
some good old boys and girls at Billy Bob’s.
After all, if you get bored you can always go watch
the bull riding.
-
Susan Moore,
dallasmusic.com
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