Bela Fleck & The Flecktones at Harvest Fest. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media.

Welcome to 2012. Now that we’re through the New Year’s Eve shows, it feels like a good time to reminisce about the best concerts of the year that was. Here were the rules, which were pretty simple: The show had to take place in this paper’s 13-county coverage area and it had to happen in 2011. That’s it. In previous years, I’ve lumped festivals together, but that’s not terribly fair. First, those have to fall among the highlights of the year, and second, it doesn’t allow us to focus on some amazing individual moments from many of these festivals.

So, without delay, my favorite concerts of 2011:

10) Broncho, Nov. 19 at The Lightbulb Club

A complaint with Broncho’s show? It was really short. How short? Well, I don’t know. I wasn’t at their show at The Lightbulb Club for an official review, I was at their show to meet up with some friends and have an adult beverage. I didn’t have my notepad. I don’t know what songs they played. I just know I enjoyed it.

9) Steep Canyon Rangers, Oct. 13 as part of Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival near Ozark

The Steep Canyon Rangers at Harvest Fest

As I said in my initial review, this was a Steve Martin-less version of the Steep Canyon Rangers, but those who avoided the band for that reason made a big mistake. I didn’t get to watch nearly enough of the band’s performance, but their tight harmonies, musical prowess and energetic approach sold me.

8) Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Oct. 15 as part of Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival near Ozark

Victor Wooten of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

It’s hard to classify Bela Fleck & The Flecktones; it’s even harder to resist being dazzled by their performances. The group, now touring with its original lineup for the first time in more than a decade, used their slot as one of the headliners of Harvest Fest to conjure up a spell of expert playing. When Victor Wooten let loose with his bass guitar, it was a sight (and sound) to behold.

7) Kopecky Family Band (and the Memphis Pencils), May 27 at Smoke & Barrel Tavern

The Kopecky Family Band has been making a name for themselves on the road and the media, like Paste magazine, who named them one of the top touring acts of 2011, are taking notice. The group from Nashville, Tenn., performed in Fayetteville a couple times this year, but I most enjoyed their set on May 27, which served as fundraiser for Joplin tornado victims. That night featured a particularly strong collection of local openers, too, such as the Memphis Pencils, who, sadly, have moved on to other opportunities outside Northwest Arkansas.

6) Lucinda Williams, May 1 at the Fayetteville Town Center

Lucinda Williams

I’ve watched Lucinda Williams several times throughout the years, and, like always, she was good, bordering on excellent when she took the stage her in early May. She’s a strange blend of surly and self-deprecating, but it works for her. Her band was excellent that night, too. But like most, I’ll not forget that night for another reason. After the conclusion of her set, Williams announced prior to her encore that terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan. The crowd hooted in approval and electricity crackled through the room. Williams finished her set with the protest song “Fort What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, and the lyrics held a little more poignancy in that setting.

Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons

5) Mumford & Sons, June 4 as part of the Wakarusa festival near Ozark

I’m slightly jaded here (and spoiled) because I saw Mumford & Sons a week after their Northwest Arkansas performance and thought they delivered a better set the second time I watched them. That may be prohibiting me from ranking them much higher here. However, that may also be shorting them in this instance. The U.K. band stormed this country with their excellent album “Sigh No More” then stormed the Grammy ceremony by playing with The Avett Brothers and Bob Dylan. They then stormed the festival scene, including Wakarusa, where a group danced so passionately that a dust cloud rose in the midday sun. There is a grand power in the ability to make a crowd of 40,000 sing like they did that summer day, and Mumford had the group in the palm of their hands for this performance.

Sharon Jones

4) Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, June 3 as part of the Wakarusa festival near Ozark

If you want retro soul, delivered with passion, you need look no further than Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, who have released a series of fantastic albums. That list includes “I Learned the Hard Way,” which was released not long before Wakarusa took place. A Jones show is a rare treat in this part of the country, and she proved by dancing and belting out her songs the shows are not to be missed when they do arrive.

3) Girl Talk, Sept. 10 as part of the Festival on the Border in Fort Smith

The Fray in Fort Smith

Decked in sweatpants and a T-shirt, and using only a laptop, Girl Talk inspired one of the biggest, sweatiest dance parties of the year. Originally billed as a supporting act for the inaugural Festival on the Border event in Fort Smith, a day-of decision put him on the top of the bill over piano-pop act The Fray. Girl Talk rewarded the crowd with a slew of hits, blasts from confetti cannons and near-constant streams of flying toilet paper launched from onstage blasters. Girl Talk — aka Gregg Gillis — also performed at a secret show in Fayetteville later in the year, but his first show exceeded the schmaltz and fun factors of the second event.

2) Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, April 17 at the Walton Arts Center

The Del McCoury Band with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

In a word, the combined performance by two legendary groups was, simply, joyous. The disparate sounds of bluegrass icons Del McCoury Band and legendary New Orleans residents Preservation Hall Jazz Band joined together for a memorable night of Americana. The two sides traded the spotlight throughout the evening, trading highlights, too, such as a take on “I’ll Fly Away,” and the rousing closer, “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Jim James of My Morning Jacket at Wakarusa

1) My Morning Jacket, June 3 as part of the Wakarusa festival near Ozark

Those who know me best probably saw this coming from a million miles away. From the moment Wakarusa announced that My Morning Jacket would be among the headliners for the annual festival, my anticipation levels for the show and festival became unhealthy with the fear my heart would explode. Surprisingly, considering that level of personal hype, the Louisville-based rockers delivered. Focusing heavily on their newest record, “Circuital,” the band also delivered previous gems with blasts of guitar-fueled frenzy that came at the audience in waves.

Lucinda Williams. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media

Things changed on Sunday night.

About 1,000 folks were gathered to watch Lucinda Williams perform at the Fayetteville Town Center, a gig that was moved there after the threat of cold rain made the open air Arkansas Music Pavilion venue look less desirable for the evening.

By all accounts, Williams was well on her way to delivering exactly what everyone expected of her: a block of country-tinged songs packed with emotion and evidence of true-to-life heartbreak. Those moments were delivered during cuts such as “Concrete & Barbwire,” “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” and a new song, “Buttercup,” which brought the intensity level to a new peak.

And then…

Williams came back from a brief encore to tell the crowd that Osama bin Laden had been killed. She’d learned the news backstage, and with her public announcement, the crowd roared in approval.

This was not some attempt to politicize the concert, nor should this review be read as one, either. News was happening, and I’ll guarantee you this: Those who were there on Sunday will not remember that she played “Pineola” – a tribute to the late Fayetteville poet Frank Stanford – as well as they will remember her announcement, her words and the songs that would follow.

“I feel like I’m dreaming,” she told the crowd after she made the announcement. “I feel like I could cry.”

The three-song encore kicked off with a take on “Blessed,” the title track from her newest album. Fittingly, that song tells us of a blessing we receive from “a soldier who gave up his life.” Next was “Joy,” which talks about someone who has stolen joy and a quest to get it back. The final song was a cover song, and one that Williams was familiar with, having recorded it on “Lu in 08.” But it seemed made for a night such as this. It was the protest song “For What’s It Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, and you could hear the energy crackling through the audience during its performance.

The encore wasn’t even the bulk of the show, and mathematically speaking, it was just three of the 20 songs she played during the course of the evening. But it was an exclamation mark on the night, the difference between a very good but somewhat nondescript show and one folks who were there will be talking about for some time.

Credit is due in part to the emotional nature of the situation, but credit must also be given to Williams and her band. Her voice, equal parts husky and bold and dripping with sadness and other emotions, was keen all night. Her band, particularly guitarist Blake Mills and his delicate slide work, was tremendous.

Her set list was good, too, mixing in works from earlier in her career (several cuts from “Car Wheels”) to her most recent tracks.

“There’s something happening here/ But what it is ain’t exactly clear,” go the lyrics in “For What It’s Worth.”

But Williams’ Sunday night guests knew a little bit about what’s was happening. There was magic on the stage, and real emotion in our collective conscious.

About the opener: Billy Joe Shaver was wild. Not wild in the sense that he moved about the stage frantically. That wasn’t the case at all. In fact, he lamented to the crowd that he didn’t play guitar as much as he wanted to because he couldn’t lift his arm high enough after dislocating his shoulder.

No, Shaver was wild in his stories, which dominated much of his 45-minute opening set. For instance: After a fan screamed “I love you, Billy Joe,” he retorted by saying, “I love me, too.” He talked candidly about popping pills, his faith (“If you don’t love Jesus, go to Hell,” he told the crowd more than once) rendezvous with women (“I did everything that wasn’t a farm animal,” he said) and the time that he shot a man in the face during a Texas bar fight. That’s a true story. Shaver didn’t need that to add to his country outlaw street cred, as he’s got 40 years worth of albums as proof. He played the bulk of his hits, including “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” and “Old Five and Dimers.” He may have lost some of his voice over the years, and he certainly missed a few notes along the way. But he still had every ounce of his bravado, and in this business, that goes a long way.

Billy Joe Shaver setlist: 1) Georgia on a Fast Train; 2) Wacko from Waco; 3) Honky Tonk Heroes; 4) That’s What She Said Last Night; 5) Ragged Old Truck; 6) Old Five and Dimers (Like Me); 7) I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal; 8) When Fallen Angels Fly; 9) Live Forever; 10) Ride Me Down; 11) You Asked Me To; 12) Try and Try Again; 13) [I did not catch the title of this track] 14) ) [I did not catch the title of this track]

Lucinda Williams setlist: 1) I Just Wanted to See You So Bad; 2) Car Wheels on a Gravel Road; 3) The Night’s Too Long; 4) People Talkin’; 5) Pineola; 6) Concrete & Barbwire; 7) Well, Well, Well; 8) Crescent City; 9) Buttercup; 10) Lake Charles; 11) Ugly Truth; 12) Born to be Loved; 13) Too Cool to be Forgotten; 14) Steal Your Love; 15) Righteously; 16) Change the Locks; 17) Honey Bee

Encore: 18) Blessed; 19) Joy; 20) For What It’s Worth

Lucinda Williams. Photo by James Minchin III.

Lucinda Williams can pick nearly any tour route she wants. She’s a multiple Grammy winner, and she’s got a basketful of songs she can bring with her wherever she goes.

And, she always — especially recently — chooses Fayetteville.

Williams’ father, Miller Williams, is a former University of Arkansas instructor who still lives in this town. He was recently named Fayetteville’s Poet Laureate, too. Lucinda Williams still has friends here, and she relishes the chances to play and spend time with family.

Which is why she scheduled a performance here around a quick break from touring so she can spend more time here, she says by phone from a recent tour stop in Tennessee. During our phone conversation, Williams chatted with me about her time in Fayetteville, the impromptu gigs she played here last fall, one of her songwriting icons, Bob Dylan, and her newest album, “Blessed.” You can read the story that resulted from the interview here, if you are a subscriber to our newspaper or its print edition.

Williams and her band will be joined by country musician Billy Joe Shaver for a show Sunday (May 1) night at the Fayetteville Town Center. The show was to be at the Arkansas Music Pavilion, but was moved in anticipation of bad weather. Premium tickets purchased for the AMP show will be honored (with preferential seating) but all remaining tickets are now general admission and are $25. You can get those tickets through AMP partner Walton Arts Center by calling 443-5600 or through its website. The concert will begin about 7 p.m.

We’ll see you at the show.

Blake Shelton

Need a reason to celebrate?

How about this one: It’s the weekend!

There’s plenty going on this weekend, from the Race for the Cure to Fayetteville’s Springfest and much much more. And, thank goodness, there’s plenty of live music, too.

Oklahoma-born country musician Blake Shelton has recorded eight No. 1 country hits during his 10-year career, and in 2010 was named the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year. He recently released the song “Honey Bee,” which is expected to be included in a forthcoming album. Shelton will appear on the University of Arkansas campus for a concert sponsored by the university’s student-fees driven Headliners Concert Committee. The show takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 30) at Barnhill Arena. A limited amount of tickets were distributed to students, and tickets for the general public are $31.50 and are available by calling 443-5600 or through www.waltonartscenter.org.

The next evening, you can say farewell to one of the busiest acts on our live music scene. After spending about two years performing in the various clubs and coffee shops and other stages of Northwest Arkansas, Candy Lee has decided to seek opportunities Jacksonville, Fla., and will be moving there soon. But, she won’t go before she’s had the chance to celebrate her time in Fayetteville with a show on Sunday (May 1) at Greenhouse Grille. Joining her for the show will be local acts such as The Cadre and Tiffany Christopher Band. Donations are being accepted to fund the move and an East Coast tour. The farewell event begins at 5 p.m.

Elsewhere, Lucinda Williams and Billy Joe Shaver are performing at the Fayetteville Town Center. The show, which was originally scheduled for the Arkansas Music Pavilion, was moved due to a bit of chilly weather that’s supposed to be here then. We’ll have more on this show a little later today, so check back.

There’s also the first Mulberry River Jam, which is taking place at Byrd’s Adventure Center near Ozark. We’ll have more on it later, too.

Of course, that’s only the beginning. See you out at some concerts, okay?

Bassnectar and fans. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media.

A Bassnectar concert is not one best observed from the sidelines.

At least, that’s what I took away from the set by Bassnectar - real name Lorin Ashton – on Friday night (Feb. 25) at Fayetteville Town Center. He sold out that venue, just like he has with several of the shows leading up to his return performance in this part of the country. He is indeed one of the hottest electronica acts on the touring circuit right now.

He was featured at Wakarusa last year, and he’ll be there again for the 2011 version of the festival, which will take place in early June at Mulberry Mountain in Franklin County. None of that tempered the enthusiasm for this show, and the promoters could have sold many more tickets. Demand was high enough to prompt one would-be concertgoer to offer his tickets (face value $27) for $80 on the Facebook event page designated for the concert.

This was a show for the Facebook generation, and if there were many people over 30 there, they were running merch tables, serving as security or, in the event of at least one mother is saw twiddling her thumbs in the corner of the venue, serving as a chaperone.

As for Bassnectar, he spent the evening working at a quick pace, bounding between the two computers he’d brought on stage with him. His sounds are best described as electronica, but that’s a broad term and doesn’t tell the whole story. He spent the night mixing songs that were recognized (like a bit from Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”) with those that were less recognizable. With these songs sped up and slowed down at his whim, I had the feel constant feeling that I should know a song but couldn’t quite place it.

All of this, of course, was augmented with the night’s two prominent themes: bass, and lots of it, and lights, which were also present in large quantity. As Bassnectar shifted the tempo of his tunes, the video screen behind him shifted along with them, scrolling up images of flying creatures and patterns of bright colors.

But that didn’t make the show. The crowd did.

It was a young crowd, and they were enthusiastic for all of it that I watched (although it should be noted I left the concert about an hour into its run). With many of them dressed in strange outfits (I saw a wizard and a Luigi character, for instance) and toting around glow sticks, the exuberance of the crowd was hard to deny but difficult to replicate from the rear of the venue while trying to take notes and carrying a heavy camera bag. In short, I wasn’t much into it, but I was the only one.

Except for maybe the mom in the corner.

Bassnectar

If you wanted tickets to Bassnectar’s upcoming show in Fayetteville, which will take place on Feb. 25 at the Fayetteville Town Center, you are too late.

George’s Majestic Lounge, which is producing the concert, announced a sell out early this (Jan. 18) morning.

It will now take place at the Fayetteville Town Center from 7-9 p.m. It’s still a free show, and the Town Center parking lot will be free of charge, we understand.

In other outdoor music news for tonight, we’re told the New Rock 104.9 The X anniversary show scheduled for tonight on Dickson Street will take place as planned outside on the street.

George’s Majestic Lounge has been booked as an alternate location, and we’ll update you if it does indeed move there.

The Ray Johnston Band

The chance of Ray Johnston — a walk-on player at the University of Alabama — playing in the NBA did not look good.

Improbably, after months in a gym long after his college playing days were over, Johnston attended an open tryout for the Dallas Mavericks and made the team.

But there was a more important battle for Johnston as his career as a basketball player was cut short. The chances of Johnston surviving leukemia were perhaps even worse.

Doctors put him in a medically induced coma. Now, four relapses and the amputation of seven of his toes later, Johnston is a survivor.

And, he’s pursuing the second most important thing to him (behind basketball): music.

Johnston formed a band after his hospital stay, and has worked hard to make that his new career. His band last year released its debut album, “Sweet Tooth,” and has played regional club circuit, including once previously at George’s Majestic Lounge.

Johnston comes to Fayetteville this weekend to support a cause near and dear to him: leukemia research. He performs as part of the Ryan Gibson Foundation’s local fundraiser.

Johnston chatted with me about not giving up, about finding his music voice and about what he tells those fighting against the ravages of leukemia.

You can read the story on our website if you are subscriber to our print product or its online products.

Also, Johnston and his tour is the subject of a new HD Net series called “Road Diaries.” See the trailer for that show below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Derek Vincent Smith is Pretty Lights

I didn’t expect him to be so eloquent. Especially considering that he had just woken up from a nap and was occasionally talking around bites of a tortilla, prepping for a concert that night in St. Louis.

But Derek Vincent Smith, mastermind behind the electronic-soul music group Pretty Lights, was perfectly coherent and borderline inspirational.

Smith has been developing his style of music for about 10 years, experimenting first with hip-hop beats and progressing to electronic. “It has more feeling and the ability to channel emotion more than typical electronic dance music,” he said of what Pretty Lights does/is.    And he’s spent years championing it to those who might otherwise write off electronic jams, doggedly searching for new people to “just give it a try!”

Which is why it’s especially satisfying that Pretty Lights’ music is taking off, rapidly growing in popularity among dance-ready crowds looking for something “super-fresh.”
Two years ago, Pretty Lights didn’t play outside of its home state of Colorado. This year, Smith’s touring will take him to Europe four times.

It will also bring him to Fayetteville on April 23.

At his concerts, which are characterized by an extensive lightshow (though the name Pretty Lights came far before the techno-dazzle), Smith uses three different devices — a modified keyboard, a mini-controller and a 128-button grid thingamajig called a monome

Click here to view the embedded video.

He’s joined by drummer Cory Eberhard, who “adds another organic dynamic” to the concerts, visually and sonically melding electronic music and the live band scene.

Pretty Lights sold out George’s Majestic Lounge in November, as Kevin Kinder reported in an earlier Tuned In entry, and has moved on to the bigger Fayetteville Town Center. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets cost $20 in advance and $25 the day of the show — that is, if there are any left. Tickets can be purchased at George’s in Fayetteville or online at www.georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Check out Pretty Lights and download some free tunes at www.prettylightsmusic.com.

Blog entry by Sara Sullivan

Well, Pretty Lights is coming to Fayetteville on April 23. His latest EP, “Making Up A Changing Mind,” is out now.

You better have it then, huh? Well, why don’t you go and get it? For free.

Pretty Lights (aka Derek Smith) is releasing the EP free on his Web site. Find that here: http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/#/downloads.

If you like what you hear, you can check him out like at the Fayetteville Town Center at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 and available through the Web site of local venue George’s Majestic Lounge.