HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — Arkansas country/roots music
star Bonnie Montgomery has been added to the Saturday, March 16, free public
concert by Pat Green to open the weekend of fantastic fun surrounding the First
Ever 21st Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Hot
Springs.
“We’re pleased to be able to add Bonnie Montgomery to the free concert,” Visit
Hot Springs Marketing Director Bill Solleder said. “She’s established herself as
one of the best in the country/roots genre, and she’ll be a perfect complement to
country legend Pat Green’s performance on the Bridge Street Stage as the
kickoff to Parade Weekend.”
Sunday’s 98-foot parade will feature Dallas Cowboys running back legend
Emmitt Smith as the celebrity grand marshal and “Yellowstone’s” Forrie J. Smith
as the official starter.
Saturday, March 16, will be a full day of fun on Bridge Street, with The World’s
Shortest Zero-K footrace and entertainment by DJ Courier preceding the
concert.
The schedule:
• 3 p.m. — Bridge Street Entertainment District opens
• 4 p.m. — Zero-K race, with prizes for best costume and slowest finisher
• 5 p.m. — DJ Courier entertains
• 7 p.m. — Bonnie Montgomery performs
• 8 p.m. — Pat Green performs
With roots in White County, Arkansas, Montgomery is lauded for her polished
parlor songs, her lawless country barnburners and for the classical opera arias
she’s penned at the piano.
Dale Watson called her “a sophisticated badass who was born to sing.”
Counterpunch Magazine hailed her operatic compositions as “white trash arias.”
“Billy Blythe,” her 2016 short-length opera about President Bill Clinton’s youth in
Hot Springs, has earned accolades from The New Yorker and Huffington Post,
and her second full-length album “Forever” drew praise from Paste magazine for
its “timeless songwriting.”
Her new album is “River.”
She was named the 2020 Entertainer of the Year with the Arkansas Country
Music Awards, ACMA 2019 Americana/Roots Artist of the Year, the title of
Outlaw Female at the 2016 Ameripolitan Awards and the titles of Best Americana
Artist and Best Female Vocalist at the 2018 Arkansas Country Music Awards.
“Billy Blythe” received worldwide coverage from dozens of networks and news
sources from the BBC to CNN. The opera had its world premiere at Opera Ithaca
after developmental workshop performances in Arkansas and New York City and
has gone on to be performed by opera companies and colleges and universities
around the country.
Montgomery has supported major acts in the U.S. and abroad, including The
Gossip, Billy Jo Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ramblin Jack Elliot, Hayes Carll,
Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Shovels and Rope, Joe Ely, and more.
Texas country music star Pat Green “has had more recognizable hits than you
can shake a stick at, and he will be a great start to St. Pat’s weekend,” Visit Hot
Springs CEO and parade founder Steve Arrison said. “St. Patrick’s Day falls on a
Sunday this year, so we decided to open the weekend on Saturday with a free
concert on Bridge Street.”
The World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade annually attracts more than
30,000 fans from across the country to Bridge Street, which Ripley’s Believe It or
Not declared the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use. It features an array of
40 or more zany entries that include a troupe of marching Irish Elvis Presley
impersonators, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, wacky floats, marching bands
and assorted marchers who adopt the parade’s irreverent take on the boisterous
holiday.
For more information call Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.