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Brad Paisley
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n A little after 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night in North Little Rock, big fish are looking enormous on the huge video screens in Verizon Arena and country music’s brandnew Entertainer of the Year is rocking “I’m Gonna Miss Her” while a crowd of 9,688 sings along. One of his best and most popular songs, it’s the tale of a guy who has to choose between his gal and his favorite hobby, and it’s classic Brad Paisley. So are “Catch All the Fish” (and “drink all the beer”), “Mud on the Tires” and “Waitin’ on a Woman.” Paisley rolled into town on his H20 tour with pals Darius Rucker and Justin Moore and a string of 18-wheelers that may amply hold his equipment but could soon run out of space for all of his hits. Always toting a down-to-earth personality, Paisley seems humbled by his popularity and acclaim, including the new title he earned a week earlier by finally winning the Country Music Association’s biggest award. As part of his performance of the poignant “Letter to Me,” a note sent back in time to himself at 17, he recalled uncomfortable years as a teen and told youngsters in the audience to hang in there, “I’m living proof high school is not
HUMBLE: Brad Paisley remains down-to-earth despite success. necessarily the best years of your life.” From the fun and outrageous “Celebrity” and “I’m Still a Guy” to the haunting “Whiskey Lullaby” (with duet partner Alison Krauss joining him via video) to the tender “The World” and “She’s Everything,” he handles diverse subjects, tempos and styles with ease. No Paisley concert is complete without a certain couple of songs, so when he left the stage briefly, you could bet he’d return for “Ticks” — as in “I’d like to check you for” — and his “Alcohol” anthem on which he was joined by Rucker and Moore. That’s the one where he salutes so-
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Verizon Arena, Nov. 19
called adult beverages for “makin’ the bars with lots of big money and helpin’ white people dance.” Along with past chart toppers like “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” “Alright” and “It Won’t Be Like This for Long,” Rucker showcased his most recent No. 1 — “Come Back Song” — and nearly brought the house down with a rollicking version of the Hank Williams Jr. classic “Family Tradition.” The engaging former lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish also offered up that band’s “Let Her Cry” and something Continued on page 29
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ARKANSAS TIMES TIMES 26 NOVEMBER 25, 2010 • ARKANSAS
‘Billy Blythe’
Nov. 19, Women’s City Club
n “Billy Blythe” represents an “opportunity to bring opera back to the people,” director Jeremy Franklin told a near-capacity crowd at its premiere Friday night at the Women’s City Club. The production, Franklin reminded the audience, is “by, for and about Arkansans” — by natives Bonnie Montgomery and Brit Barber, composer and librettist, respectively; for Arkansans but also, implicitly, regular folks who don’t know Verdi from verismo and about the man who, more than anyone else, has come to represent what Arkansas means to the world abroad, Bill Clinton. Of course, as the title suggests, “Billy Blythe” is not a familiar Bill Clinton story. Rather, Montgomery and Barber look to Clinton’s childhood, specifically to 1959, the last year kept his birth surname Blythe. But those on Friday hoping for a story that captures that pivotal time in the future president’s life only got a tease. Because that’s all the performance was — not a true premiere, but rather a costumed workshop production of four scenes, only about half of the full opera. Still, one got the gist. And it was prom-
ising. Montgomery successfully managed to weave ragtime and folk traditions into opera structure. Her rollicking opening instrumental theme, which she played on the keyboard herself (Giovanni Antipolo otherwise provided the accompaniment), especially evoked the era. And while the scenes staged Friday were sometimes hard to follow — they were mostly nonconsecutive — Barber’s libretto teased drama out of a day in the life of the Blythe/ Clinton household: In the opening scene, she finds passion amidst Virginia (Kelly Ponder) and Roger Clinton (Evan Jones) sleepily recalling their idyllic life in New Orleans. In the closing scene, the couple reunite rambunctiously, while young Billy (Christopher McKim) works up the courage to stand up to his drunken stepfather. But the night’s most resonant piece focused on the relationship of the opera’s central characters, Billy and his mother. It begins a touch purple, with Virginia complimenting her son on the coffee he’s made for her. “Thick and syrupy — oh, how this coffee oozes of your father’s zest of life,” Ponder sings, before she and McKim launch into a beautifully elegiac duet about William Jefferson Blythe, who died in a car crash before his son was born.
LOVE DUET: Montgomery and Jones at White Water. The cast for the workshop was roundly excellent. McKim managed a Bubba accent without laying it on too thick. Jones conveyed Roger Clinton Sr.’s combustible nature with gusto. And mezzo-soprano Ponder soared as Virginia Clinton; her second scene aria was a showstopper. The crowd agreed, rewarding cast and crew with an enthusiastic standing ovation. Later, at the late night after party at White Water Tavern, another crowd with Montgomery, herself a mezzo-soprano, thrillingly taking on the Virginia Clinton role. Like at the earlier showing, the crowd stayed quiet during the performance. At midnight at White Water Tavern, that may’ve been a first. — Lindsey Millar
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