OK, just for a goof. How much would someone have to pay you to go to the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Lee Greenwood? A hundred bucks? Three hundred? How about nine zillion? I mean, I’m as middle-of-the-road as the next thirtysomething blue-collar worker bee, but Lee “God Bless the U.S.A.” Greenwood?! “Xenophobic” Charlie Daniels? The amount of barely concealed hate-mongering and fake patriotism on display between songs will be enough to make any reasonable person wanna move to France.
And just imagine all of the nauseating Confeddie flags that will be visible on the people there and on their black-belching, environment-scorching pick-’em-ups. The worst part is that funds from Hannity’s Freedom Concerts — the series started in 2003 — go to a good cause, the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, a charity created by Ollie North that provides college scholarships to children with a parent severely disabled or killed in military action. I’m sure there’ll be some people at the show who consider themselves middle-of-the-road, but allowing yourself to be regaled by a paranoid, delusional codger like Charlie Daniels is tantamount to buying a “book” (for lack of a better term) by Ann “I Hate, Therefore I Am” Coulter. Save your ears and send the scholarship fund a check for something between $54 and $140, the range of ticket prices. Anyway, here’s where I won’t be on Sunday at 7 p.m.: Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie (1001 Performance Pl., 214-373-8000). … In an article in the Arkansas Times last year about Fort Worth singer-songwriter Nathan Brown‘s Dead Media, a record label that releases material only on 8-track, a source says that he’s glad Brown is trafficking only in 8-tracks but that the Fort Worthian won’t “be a millionaire doing it.” Well, Brown may have at least become a 10-thousandaire had Cheap Trick not found an Arlington company to produce a limited run of 8-track copies of The Latest, the venerable pop-rock band’s, um, latest album. Evidently, the band’s manager searched the internet and found only one 8-track production company, the one in Arlington (Kate’s Track Shack or KTS Productions). (KTSP is the first name that pops up on a Google search. The Dead Media doesn’t come up at all.) The upshot for Brown is that other bands may jump on the 8-track bandwagon, and when they do, Brown will be ready. He’s currently locating small-electronics repairmen to help fix old or broken machines and, according to a recent e-mail he sent me, Brown “will start recording local bands for release.” He already has done 8-tracks for several bands from Little Rock, his former city of residence, including Crisco Kids, San Antokyo, and The Evelyns. More releases are forthcoming (though none are local as of yet). For more info, e-mail Brown at the_dead_media@yahoo.com. … 817 Texas Music star Casey Donahew has a new album coming out, Moving On, and a new lead guitarist, Fort Worth’s John Zaskoda. Though known for his blues playing and smoky voice, JZ can also tear up some countrified pickin’ and a-grinnin’ as evidenced by his performance on a viral clip of him and the rest of Donahew’s band onstage before what appears to be a few zillion people: http://www.kyte.tv/ch/307220. Donahew’s out on the road now and doesn’t have any local shows scheduled. Visit www.caseydonahewband.com.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
