NORTHEAST TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL

by
Maryann Miller

The pavilion at City Park in Winnsboro rocked on Saturday, June 20th for the 9th Annual Northeast Texas Music Festival. Kicking off nearly 12 hours of continuous live music was local singer, Dale Cummings "The C", followed by Kimberly Green. They both returned later in the afternoon for more sets, and by then it was probably over 100 degrees in the pavilion When Kimberly took the stage for the second time she joked that if you looked up "trouper" in the dictionary "you'd see these folks. It's great that you braved the heat and came out to support all the talent appearing today."

Kimberly, pictured here, along with Dale, was among a number of individual performers that graced the stage in the afternoon. They included Holly Tucker, Cheyane Smith, Myra Rolen and the Oaklawn Opry Band, and the Luke Williams Band.

For a sixteen-year-old, Luke has quite a stage presence. One would think he has been performing for years, and actually he has. He started playing guitar when he was very young and took the stage for the first time at age 8. He is from Arkansas, but recently moved to Nashville with his father, who plays drums. Pictured here, the Luke Williams band consists of Luke and his father, Carey, (front R-L) and (back L-R) Blake Smith, sound tech; Pat O'Connor, fiddle; Scotty Baker, bass; James Weatherly, lead and rhythm guitar; and Scott Mize, rhythm guitar.

Luke said he looks forward to coming back to Winnsboro again. "This has been great," he said. "Just to be on the same stage with all these other great performers is exciting."

Luke is considered quite an up and coming young country singer/songwriter, and he has opened for such big names as Brad Paisley, T. Graham Brown, Earl Thomas Conley, and The Kentucky Headhunters. Visit him at MySpace

The show was produced by NETEX Productions out of Mt. Pleasant, and Sonny Foster said that it takes a long time to put a show together of this scope. "We start looking for the talent for next year almost as soon as we get the equipment put up from the current one," he said. "And then about three months out we have our volunteers doing all the background work."

Some of those volunteers include members of the Northeast Texas Music Festival Board, Ed and Marabeth Russell. Maralee (L) said they were pleased with the attendance, which numbered about 800. "Maybe even a thousand if you count all the kids," she said. "And we had good support from people from Winnsboro, Pittsburg, Gilmer, Mineola, and the lake areas."

One thing Sonny wanted to point out is the value of the festival. "You have two great headliners," he said. "In any other concert venue you would be paying 50 bucks to see just one. Plus we have all this other wonderful talent all afternoon. What a deal."

The headliners that night were T. Graham Brown and the Bellamy Brothers, and they all cranked it up for the audience.

(L-R: Jeff Jordan, guitar; T. Graham Brown; Mike Caputy, drums: Bobby King, bass: and Dennis Wage, keyboard) T. Graham did a number of his signature songs, and "I Tell it Like it Used to Be" was a particular crowd pleaser. During his performance it was obvious that the heat was taking a toll, but he persevered, giving the audience his all with music and with jokes. As he came off the stage, he joked to Sonny Foster, "I might be too old for this."

A love for music and meeting fans at concerts will probably keep T. Graham going for years to come, despite his dire prediction. He said he was glad to be back in Texas. "Folks are always so nice here," he said, adding a plug for the Double C Steakhouse in Winnsboro. "Now those are some great folks who serve up a great steak."

He also wanted to make sure that readers know about Norma Wilkinson and the Oaklea Mansion. "She was so gracious to invite me to stay there," he said.

Norma, pictured here in the foreground, is on the music festival board and has always generously hosted the performers. The Bellamy Brothers stayed at the Oaklea both times they performed at the festival and David said that Norma treats them like royalty.

"But I do wonder about the ghost," Howard said, and went on to tell about strange occurrences during his visits that has included locked doors that he didn't lock.

"This last time the lights went out," he said. "But just the lights in my room. The TV still worked and all the other electrical things. Just the lights didn't work. Norma said there have been stories off and on about a possible ghost at the Oaklea and maybe it likes me."

Howard joked that he had to come to a little town in East Texas to meet his own personal ghost. His wife has met ghosts in old castles in Ireland and other countries they visited, but he had never seen anything unusual in over 60 trips around the world.

If the ghost spooked him, you couldn't tell it in the performance. The brothers ran onstage to rousing applause and the energy never wavered. (L-R: Howard and David)

Before they took to the stage, David said that they really like playing in small towns and they love coming to Texas. "Both of our wives are from Texas," he said. "So we have a connection. In fact, my wife has the Texas flag hanging in the staircase at our house. I have to stop and salute it every time I come downstairs."

They were pleased to be asked to come back to Winnsboro, and David mentioned how great it was to have his son perform here with him two years ago. "It just worked out that his tour brought him close to Winnsboro, so he was able to join us."

David actually has two sons who are starting to make an impact on the music world, Jesse and Noah, who may someday be known as the next generation of The Bellamy Brothers. But not anytime soon, as Howard and David still have lots of miles and lots of songs in them.

Some special guests were able to meet the brothers up close and personal. Ben Jackie, who is on the festival board, arranged for Marla and Bob Golden to meet the singers. (L-R: Ben Jackie, David Bellamy, Marla Golden, Bob Golden, Howard Bellamy.)

If you judge by attendance and crowd enthusiasm, the festival was a huge success. Despite the heat and the late hour, people were reluctant to let the Bellamy Brothers stop, and folks might have stayed another twelve hours to hear the great music.