Wyoming’s Big Show® Double Header with LOCASH and Drake White & The Big Fire

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Drake White (left) will be opening with his band The Big Fire on Thursday, August 3 at 7:30 prior to headlining act LOCASH (right) hitting the stage at 8:30 pm.

Rock Springs-Wyoming’s Big Show After Dark Concert Series announces country double header with LOCASH and Drake White & The Big Fire on Thursday, August 3. Country music fans will get a treat with the double header opening up with Drake White & The Big Fire at 7:30 pm and the hot Nashville recording duo LOCASH to follow at 8:30 pm.

Under Reviver Records, LOCASH’s Chris Lucas of Baltimore, Maryland and Preston Brust of Indianapolis, Indiana have risen to country music stardom. Their smash No. 1 hit “I Know Somebody” topped Billboard Country Airplay and Country Aircheck after their RIAA Gold-Certified “I Love This Life” single ascended to the top of the charts. Both hits are included on their new album “The Fighters”, representing their first full-length project with Reviver Records.

The non-stop LOCASH duo is continuing their North American tour to promote “The Fighters”, which includes additional dates that are part of Live Nation’s “Ones To Watch” headlining tour. LOCASH is also featured in Comcast Built Ford Tough ® dealer advertising campaigns and in Pennzoil® Garage sessions.

Drake White, front man for his group The Big Fire, has drawn inspiration from his late grandfather, a preacher with an ability to touch crowds. That inspiration, along with White’s love of the outdoors, has resulted in White’s debut album Spark.

“I learned how to play guitar and keep people’s attention around a fire,” White explained. “A spark can start a fire that can keep you alive and sustain you. So, this is the beginning for me. This is the first strike of the flint.” The Hokes Bluff, Alabama native then added, “I went through five or six sermons of my grandfather and picked out certain little snippets. I just think they kind of fit. They’re weird and people are asking what they are. And that was my point, to get people talking about it.”

The spirit of Spark comes from those simple, early days spent enjoying the outdoors among friends in the warm glow of a fire. And although he’s now a city dweller, White still seeks the freedom and deeper connections he felt when the chorus of nature and the strums of his guitar blended into one harmonious song—the kind of contentment he sings about in the swirling majesty of his single “Livin’ the Dream.”

“We grew up free,” White said. “We grew up on four-wheelers, riding through the backwoods. We grew up hunting and fishing and being out in the Appalachian Mountains. People don’t understand how beautiful north Alabama is until you see it in person.”

“Save for “Livin’ the Dream,” White wrote or co-wrote the remaining 11 tracks on Spark, working with producers Ross Copperman and Jeremy Stover. The first sound on Spark, before the pulse-quickening “Heartbeat” kicks into gear, is the voice of White’s grandfather speaking from the pulpit. Several of these ghostly transmissions from the past appear on Spark, all extolling the virtues of love, brotherhood, and nature. It’s a touch of the surreal that nods at White’s fondness for Pink Floyd’s psychedelic masterpiece The Wall, but which is also a deeply personal gesture that matches his vision perfectly.

White has his own message, though, of finding some harmony amid the demands of modern life, one that goes down easy in the uplifting Zac Brown-assisted Southern rock anthem “Back to Free” and the cautionary-but-soulful “I Need Real.” It’s a simple message of not letting oneself be swallowed up by technology and seeking out honest, genuine connections with others.

“When I’m at home, my wife and I keep our phones in the bedroom,” White said. “We listen to records. We hardly turn the TV on…Before social networking was a smartphone app, we did it around a fire. That goes way back.”

With his gospel-derived, passionate delivery, White seems to have inherited his grandfather’s ability to touch crowds with a sermon—his divine vocal improvisations at the end of the honky-tonk flavored “Story” will get people out of their seats. White stressed that he isn’t a preacher, but doesn’t see a problem with putting his own methods for surviving the world out there.

“Some of the best songs, like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s worth” or anything by Bob Marley, have a little bit or preaching,” White explained. “I never want to come across (as) too preachy, but instead I’m saying, ‘Hey man, this is my life, and this is what I do to be happy and I’m figuring it out just like you.’”

Spark covers an entire spectrum of emotions beyond these statements of character and self-definition. In “Making Me Look Good Again,” White cruises on a Rhythm and Blues groove to express his gratitude for his better half, while “Waiting on the Whiskey to Work” finds him embodying a man spun out on love and heartbreak. Then, in the tropically-themed “Equator,” he flies south to give his nomadic side a little time to play. In the album’s “Elvis,” White touches on the way hard work plays into the business of making dreams come true.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day and Elvis wasn’t born the king,” White said. He added, “I’m gonna be an artist ‘til the day I die. Don’t matter if I make money at it or I don’t…I do this because this is what I am supposed to do.”

Wyoming’s Big Show®- the Sweetwater County Fair After Dark Concert Series will continue to announce the rest of the weeks line up on March 21 and 22 and will announce additional details on the Sweetwater Events Complex Facebook page.

The Sweetwater County Fair is the largest annual event in Western Wyoming, drawing over 70,000 visitors in 2016. It features the largest midway in the area, a Grandstand Stage with top-ranked performing artists, traditional county fair exhibits and food, and fun for the whole family.  Additionally, the Sweetwater County Fair was named the NUMBER ONE summer event in Wyoming by Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine.

Additional attractions for the 2017 Fair include Graffiti Artist Arcy, Fido 500 Mini Dog Races, Lady Houdini, Lanky the Clown, Marty Davis’s Legend of Pioneers, Animal Specialties Petting Zoo, Sting Ray Encounter, Prehistoric Adventures with Tonka, Twinkle Time, Roberto the Magnificent and much more.