By Mark Kneubuhl
Special to LIVE!
September 24, 2007

The Concho River Music Fest at the San Angelo, Tex. River Stage (held September 22, 2007 in San Angelo, Tex. at the River Stage) was more like a family reunion than a concert for the performers and diehard fans. Eleven rising Texas country music acts with over 50 musicians, who almost all either knew each other well, or had at least crossed paths several times in the recent past, performed. Even the dozens of roadies, sound techs and the “traffic controller” himself, Big Mike, were adopted into the “family” before the night was over.

Behind the stage, which provided a curtain between the performers and the thousands of fans, Blaine’s Pub friends, family and volunteers cooked up a storm of good food all day long. Burgers for lunch and a “broke da mouth” barbequed brisket for dinner that was so tender and tasty that we ate it again for desert.

Some of the artists, like Johnny Cooper and Django Walker, had to rush off to other gigs after their performance, much to their dismay. Others, who normally suffer from severe road-weariness and anxiousness to get back home, stuck around knowing that although it’s not home, at least they were with family.

Performers Bleu Edmonson, Brandon Rhyder and Wade Bowen are three such brothers joined at the G-string, who preformed in that order at last Saturday’s mega-event in San Angelo, Tex.

Bleu is a humble person who continually thanks is fans and the powers that be for any success he has achieved to date. Brandon, aside from being a first-round, knock-out stage performer, is also a food critic. And of course we all know Wade Bowen… but did you know he actually reads San Angelo Live! magazine, cover to cover?

Listen to the Podcast linked above for interviews with many of the performers who traveled to San Angelo, Texas to entertain a large and appreciative crowd at the San Angelo River Stage.

 

Winning the Gamble

By Joe Hyde
Publisher

 

“It was a $100,000 gamble,” Blaine’s Pub’s partner Steve Brown said near the end of the evening at the Concho River Music Fest in San Angelo, Tex. The last act of the day, Randy Rogers, was nearing the end of his set. By that time, it was apparent to all that the event was a resounding success.

Although the Blaine’s crew wants to keep the exact crowd counts secret, thousands purchased $30 or $35 tickets for the event. And then there were the corporate sponsorships, the vending contracts for food and drink and the merchandise sales. The weather certainly helped bring the crowd out—it was sunshine all day!

Brown, along with his daughter Shannon and her husband Leon Roach have been building upon the tradition of Blaine Martin’s downtown bar for over a year now, since they purchased it. This music fest was an idea that has its roots in the traditional Blaine’s Picnic that has since moved to Boerne since the San Angelo City council outlawed “Bring Your Own Bottle,” or BYOB, events at the city-owned River Stage.

Organizers, volunteers, performers, and members of the audience alike appreciated the way the event commenced Saturday. “The last two Blaine’s Picnics did get a little out-of-control,” admitted a long-time Blaine’s supporter. She thought the vending of the beer instead of allowing BYOB helped keep the crowd in control and the crowd size was “just about right.”

Ever since BYOB was prohibited at the venue, many have tried to turn a profit with shows at the River Stage and failed. Famous acts, such as The Bellamy Brothers and Rick Trevino, have performed at the River Stage within the past two months to small audiences. The common refrain heard around here is that citizens of San Angelo has been so conditioned to be able to enjoy BYOB at the River Stage that no River Stage event will ever be successful since BYOB was outlawed.

The success of the music festival, according to Brown, is because of its content. Brown sincerely believes in the popularity of each band in the 11-band line-up which, according to Brown, consisted of the fastest-rising stars on the Texas country music circuit. Brown had a lot of time to observe and listen to all of them every week at Blaine’s over the past year. And he watched the crowds closely.

“You put on a great show and make sure you tell as many people about it as you can,” Brown said. And on the Texas country circuit, a ton of free advertising travels by word-of-mouth. There is also the Internet that sustains (or adds to) word-of-mouth advertising. “All of these bands promote themselves heavily on the Internet,” Brown said. Blaine’s Pub mirrored how the bands promote themselves. Their Web site, blainespub.com was a constant source of worry for Leon Roach. The Wednesday before the show, he lamented that some fans had called to inform him the Web site was down. They were getting hammered with “hits.”

San Angelo LIVE! played a role in getting the word out via the Internet as well. As the event approached, the top referring hits on sanangelolive.com were Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engine requests for every variation of “Concho River Music Fest” and “San Angelo River Stage” imaginable. On the week leading up to the event, inbound Internet search engine referrals for the event exceeded 1,000 visitors per day on sanangelolive.com.

McLaughlin Advertising, the local advertising agency assigned to promote Blaine’s, prepared a full court promotional package, including an event logo, print advertising ads (such as the inside front cover of the September 2007 issue of San Angelo LIVE!), and radio.

The success of this show will mean that others will rethink using the River Stage and build off of this show’s success. That will bring more performances to San Angelo, filling the city’s coffers with Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars and facility rentals. The other is that the Blaine’s team has created an event where many of the top Texas country performers can get together and enjoy the comradery.

Brown’s face lights up when he talks about the family atmosphere and comradeship amongst the performers at the event. “A lot of these guys never get to see one another on the road,” Brown said. Now they can.

While Brown and family are building on the downtown bar’s name with a keen business sense, Brown is thankful of the vision Blaine brought to West Texas. “One thing you have to remember,” Brown said. “If it weren’t for Blaine, Texas country would not be nearly as big in San Angelo as it is today.”

Blaine’s Pub is already drawing up plans for another music festival. Stay tuned for details.

 

The Back Stage Perspective

By Kansas
Contributor to LIVE!

 

The Concho River Music Fest was one of the biggest events this San Angelo, Tex. has seen in a while. I was there for almost all of it. The crew at Blaine's Pub put on a music festival that had everyone smiling all day. And it wasn't just because of those, shall we say, inexpensive beers. Ok, maybe a little of that smile was because of the beer.

Nature didn't make it easy on me. Every time I drank a beer, it seemed to immediately sweat out of me. The sun beating down on everyone like that had its perks though. The ladies were definitely bringing their “A” game summer wear. And all well-prepared men had a pair of mirrored sunglasses to combat being caught for a wandering eye.

Anticipating a long day ahead of me at the Fest, I arrived a little late. But I did get to catch a good bit of Johnny Cooper, and of course everything else that followed. I'm not going to review the music here, just in case you were wondering. We all know each one of the eleven performers Saturday put on great shows. I figured I'd give you a bit of a sneak peak into some of the more interesting things that happened back stage.

Johnny Cooper at 19-years-old is the youngest performer out there that I know. But he's making a name for himself at such an early age. By the time I was 19, I had already started tarnishing my name. And, if you think we were hot out there on Saturday, think happy thoughts for Johnny. That long, curly hair of his must have made it feel like he stuck his head in the hot dog bun warmer at a Town and Country Food Store after enduring almost an hour of playing in the hot sun at high noon. Not that I've ever done that. Or at least would ever admit to it.

Brandon Rhyder is truly as nice as he seems. Although with a few in him he's apt to start pulling your chain a bit. Sometime when Stoney Larue was playing I needed a new beer. Simple enough task. As I was leaving the cooler, one of my legs didn't want to move. Things were moving a bit slower for me, so I had to take an inventory of what was going on. Beer, check. Brandon Rhyder standing on my foot and play punching me, check. Wait, what?

Brandon was goofing around, he had no reason to leave. No one else really wanted to leave either. Only two of the artists that performed at the Concho River Music Fest left early. And that was because they had gigs to go to elsewhere. Every other artist milled around backstage visiting with one another, the staff, and the fans. And they had a good time.

Darren Kozelsky particularly had a ball. I could tell every time you saw him he was having a blast being back in San Angelo. He was running around back stage with a grin so big he could have probably sold advertising on his pearly whites. And his lovely wife Amy was there too.

Wade Bowen was well, Wade Bowen. He's kind of a quiet guy. I like that because that tells me he leaves it all onstage. But he and I must have chatted for a good 45 minutes before I broke it off so I could go get another beer.

Carrie Rucker has to be the sweetest girl in San Angelo. You may think, because of my being a bachelor and all, that I am blowing smoke, but it is the truth. To top it all off, she sounds amazing when she sings. The Blaine’s folks put her on stage, unannounced, just before Bleu Edmondson. A large crowd of local fans gathered at the railing to the stage to cheer for her. She played the five original songs from her CD to be published in October. I expect big things from her down the road.

Bleu Edmondson is really passionate about his new album, Lost Boy. I almost had to tell him to calm down a bit when we were talking about it. He gave me the autographed CD and he has a reason to be passionate. I’ve heard a ton of Texas music and I want to stress that Lost Boy is fantastic. I love that he was so into his music, though. He's not in it for the money. Something he said that I'll try and remember now

"I don't try and make money. I do all right. I don't try and put butts in the seats. I do all right there too. I just try and make the best music I can for people that want to feel something with their music."

I thought that was a fantastic thing to say. I know I didn't get into radio for the money, and just knowing that there are other people out there as passionate about their craft as I am.

Those are just some of the artists. Now throw in the band members, the folks from Blaine's Pub, and a handful of people from other places that I can't remember at the moment, and a bucket of beer. Add to that the great music from whichever artist was onstage at the moment, and you have a great time.

I don't know if they made money on that, if not the folks at Blaine's should find a government grant or something so we can do that more often.

Most of the musicians hung around the event, even after their time on the stage. One reason is that most of them know each other. Of course these guys are hardly home to enjoy such relationships and rely on concerts like the Concho River Music Fest to catch-up with old buds. Frequent San Angelo performer, Zach Huckabee (left) giving a high five to old friend, Bart Crow. (LIVE! Photo/Mark Kneubuhl)	Stoney LaRue and band, taken from behind the stage. See the full house of fans? (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
The Randy Rogers Band headlined the Concho River Music Fest 2007. By the time the band took the stage, the River Stage was packed with cheering fans. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)	A contingent of U.S. Marines volunteered to help with backstage tasks. They were raising money for the annual Marine Ball. From right: Wayne Crawford, Will Dawsey, James Peterson, Chris Caldwell, and Christi Chambasian. All of them are sergeants in the Marines. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
Micky and the Motorcars. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)	From the backstage vantage point, one can’t help to notice the support that the musicians at the Concho River Music Fest gave to each other. Pats on the back while heading to the stage and hugs after the exit. On the left, Micky Braun of Micky and the Motorcars psycs-up his old friend Bleu Edmonson (with guitar), who is heading off to the stage. (LIVE! Photo/Mark Kneubuhl)
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Bleu Edmondson joined Wade Bowen on stage for a song at the Concho River Music Fest 2007. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)	The price of alcohol was a concern for the promoters of the event. According to Leon Roach, show organizer, the intention was to make the prices fair and reasonable. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

For more pictures of The Concho River Music Fest 2007 in San Angelo, Tex. at the River Stage held on September 22, 2007, please see this link.