A Little Bit Country

That the first concert announcement for the 2013 season at the Arkansas Music Pavilion was for a country show should surprise no one.

Or that country songwriter Chris Knight is among the early entrants on George’s Majestic Lounge’s 2013 calendar.

Perhaps Thunder on the Mountain, a three-day music festival that promises to bring in marquee names and a crowd to match, does come as a surprise, but only as a matter of scale, not material.

Country music reigns supreme in many markets, and its megatours historically draw mega crowds. That’s been true in Northwest Arkansas, too. While this market hasn’t drawn in many of the pop stars noted on Billboard’s annual top tours of the year list, it’s done surprisingly well with country musicians. According to the 2011 Top Grossing Tour list - 2012 data is incomplete - several country performers who can claim to be top concert draws have passed this way in the last few years, including Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean. Some likely candidates for top tours in 2012 likely passed through this way, too, with shows by Eric Church in Fort Smith and one by Miranda Lambert at the AMP.

A study released by the Country Music Association in 2011 shows that 42 percent of the population claims to be country music fans. Slightly more of those are women than men, and 20 percent of respondents who claim to be country fans are between 45 and 54 years of age.

It’s all interesting, and it highlights the larger point: Country music has adedicated fanbase.

For years, that market had been notoriously underserved in this region, but 2012 already brought Lambert, Alan Jackson, Justin Moore, Brantley Gilbert, Carrie Underwood (via the Walmart Shareholders event), Hank Williams Jr., Don Williams, Glen Campbell and more.

Good luck naming another music genre that received such high-level billing in Northwest Arkansas this year.

Which leads us to Thunder on the Mountain, which debuts June 6-8 on Mulberry Mountain in Franklin County (home to Wakarusa and Harvest Festival). Although the lineup for the festival isn’t expected for several months, there are some indicators.

One, a source tells me that Thunder on the Mountain may exceed Wakarusa in size, meaning 30,000 or more might arrive for the festival.

With that size crowd, it’s easy to start dreaming big for a performer to match it.

Two, Pollstar.com, the everhelpful concert sorter, lists two artists for Thunder on the Mountain during the dates in question: Bucky Covington and Reckless Kelly. Finally, Thunder on the Mountain is the same weekend as the CMA Music Festival inNashville. Last year’s CMA Fest featured performances by the Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Faith Hill, Dierks Bentley and Rascal Flatts, among others.

While nothing guarantees an artist of that caliber will perform at the inaugural Thunder on the Mountain, it seems pretty reasonable for such artists to pass through the Ozarks, play a night, then head on to Nashville for another round.

Here’s something else Thunder on the Mountain’s arrival ought to tell us, beyond asserting country music’s wide appeal. Pipeline Productions, the Kansasbased group that will present the festival, is the same organization that producesWakarusa (which takes place a week prior to Thunder on the Mountain) and Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival in the fall.

For them to introduce a third festival means a couple of things, first of which is country music has a home in this area. Additionally, it must mean the Mulberry Mountain site, nestled on private acreage alongside Arkansas 23 in the Ozark National Forest, has been a profitable home for the other two events.

Northwest Arkansas and its surrounding area have done well to support the two major outdoor music festivals we already have. I suspect we’ll be just as enthusiastic about a third.