The ninth annual Arkansas Country Music Awards, held June 1 at the University of Central Arkansas’ performance hall, didn’t need any help becoming a memorable night.
Big names were already coming to induct this year’s Arkansas Country Music Hall of Fame class, including Crystal Gayle, honoring producer and songwriter Allen Reynolds, and Ricky Skaggs, honoring The Whites, including his wife, Sharon White. Add a stage full of Arkansas musicians — from rousing and reigning Entertainers of the Year Cliff & Susan to family bluegrass sensation Sylamore Special to 19-year-old rising star Waylon Wyatt — and the evening was already set to be something special.
Then came a moment months in the making. Arkansas Country Music Awards Vice President and cohost Charles Haymes had been keeping a secret since last September.
“Ladies and gentlemen, will you please make welcome to the stage Mr. Garth Brooks.”
Yes, that Garth Brooks. Right there in Conway on a Monday night. He wasn’t there to perform or promote an album. He came to thank a friend.
“I would not be here tonight if it wasn’t for Allen,” Brooks told the awestruck audience about Reynolds, who helped shape some of country music’s biggest careers, his own included. “I don’t mean geographic. I mean, I wouldn’t be here. I’m not even sure I’d still be alive.”
The moment’s star power was huge, but something else shone just as brightly. It was the way Brooks redirected that spotlight toward Reynolds, the North Little Rock native whose grounded presence matched the place that raised him. “When I think of Arkansas … it’s the land of common sense,” Brooks said.
That line carried. It spoke beyond Reynolds and about the kind of people this state produces — talented, humble and steady in a way that doesn’t demand attention but makes an unquestionable impact. For a small state, Arkansas has an extraordinary way of leaving a big mark.
The Arkansas Country Music Awards celebrate that spirit, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas are proud to be the event’s longest continuous sponsor.
Garth Brooks may have been the surprise, and a big one. But Arkansas was still the story, and its far-reaching influence is no surprise at all.
Play on,
