For more than a year, somewhere in the wings, a small group of Iola-based volunteers has been preparing the way for the largest concert to hit Allen County in at least a generation. Well, its finally here the mikes go live in two days.
Frankie Ballard, the Nashville-based rocker, will bring his chiseled jaw, country-blues swagger, and electric guitar to the Davis Athletic Fields in Iola on Saturday. Ballards performance will be preceded by two other nationally recognized country music acts, singer-songwriter Wade Hayes and vocal ensemble Ricochet, a lineup guaranteed to transform the nighttime gig into one of the most star-stuffed musical events to tickle the eardrums of southeast Kansas in a very long while.
Though buckets worth have been sold so far, tickets to the Saturday evening show are still available. Forty-dollar passes will be sold at the gate for those who arent able to secure their standard-issue, $30 pass by Friday.
The showcase marks the First Annual Farm City Days Summer Concert, whose proceeds are being devoted to the upkeep of Iolas historic Farm City Days fall festival.
If theres a ringmaster of this inaugural endeavor, it is Farm City Days secretary and treasurer Aaron Franklin, who had a few fiery hoops of his own to jump through when the originally slated country music star Jack Ingram pulled out of the event at the eleventh hour. But, said Franklin of the Ingram no-show, it was actually a blessing in disguise. The sudden opening in the bill which plunged the indomitable Farm City Days team into what Franklin called solve-it mode resulted in two acts, in Wade Hayes and Ricochet, that have had the serendipitous effect of actually boosting ticket sales.
Having a hunky guitar genius as a headliner hasnt hurt sales either. Franklin admits that its been rewarding to hear his fellow community members muse out loud on the subject: I cant believe Iola is getting these types of artists, theyll say. I cant believe youre getting Frankie Ballard. How do you get people like that [to come to Iola]?
Franklins answer, in a word: resolve. You get a lot [of musicians who] fit your budget. Then you find the people within that budget that will work with your date. Then you have to make an offer to them and hope theyll accept it in time. [Its] almost more of an art than a science, unless you have all the money in the world and say were going to go get Garth Brooks. [But] thats not how these things work.
Ballard, an apparent poet of the vices, is best known for chart-topping singles like It All Started With a Beer and Cigarette. His second studio album was called Whiskey & Sunshine, and while none of the former will be allowed on the concert grounds Saturday evening, there will be plenty of the latter. Daytime temps are supposed to inch toward triple-digits. But by the time Ballard grabs the microphone, the sun will be setting, the music will be rowdy, the stage will be an island of light, and if the numbers pan out more than 1,200 local citizens will be borne into the night atop a wave comprised of the very best in modern country sounds.
