Shipshewana, IN (May 10,2024) – On Friday evening, fans of all ages embark on the music theater for some 90’s country by the underrated harmonies that make up the band BlackHawk.
Henry Paul – lead vocals, mandolin and acoustic guitar
Dave Robbins – background vocals and keyboards
Randy Threet – bass guitar and high harmony
Jeff Aulich – lead guitar
Jimmy Dormire – electric guitar
Mike Bailey – drums
Friday night’s show celebrates 30 years of BlackHawk songs as they perform all their hits spanning their career. Although the band has made nine studio albums, this show is focused mainly on their first two albums, BlackHawk (1994) and Strong Enough (1995).
Some of those songs coming off the debut album include, “Down In Flames,” “Goodbye Says It All,” “Every Once In A While,” “Love Like This,” “I Sure Can Smell The Rain” and “That’s Just About Right.”
Coming off the second album are hits like, “Almost A Memory Now,” “I’m Not Strong Enough To Say No,” “Like There Ain’t No Yesterday,” “King Of The World,” “Bad Love Gone Good” and the show ending “Big Guitar.”
Other songs from the show this evening include “Wichita,” the title track from the 2011 album Down From The Mountain and “There You Have It” by the album The Sky’s The Limit.
Paul tells a story of meeting a gentleman in the parking lot earlier before the show, and he asks if there are any artificial vocals or backing tracks to help out musically. Paul jokes that he believes he used the “F” work and told the gentleman, “No, we don’t do that. We just play and sing this old school country music. We play our instruments, and we sing, and that is the answer to that.”
Blackhawk emerged as a trio back in 1991 as Paul, Robbins and Van Stevenson started writing songs together. Prior to the trio joining forces, Dave and Van formed a relationship together writing songs for other artist like Kenny Rogers and Restless Heart. Tonight’s show features Robbins showcasing the Restless Heart singles “Big Dreams In A Small Town” and “The Bluest Eyes In Texas” he had written with Stevenson and Tim Dubois.
Stevenson had to exit the band in 2000 due to his fight with cancer. A year later in 2001, Van lost his battle. Threet who had joined the band in 1992, stepped up after Van’s departure to fill in with the harmonies vacated.
Threet shows that he is the perfect choice for the position as he joins Paul and Robbins for the trio harmony on the 1997 hit single, “Postmarked Birmingham.” With the band off stage and only piano by Robbins, the crowd raises out of their seats and applauds to the excellence of the emotional hit song.
The show concludes after an encore performance and crowd participation of the song “Stone By Stone” from the debut album. As the song finishes, the band congregates at the front of the stage to take a bow to the the cheering and applauding crowd as they show their appreciation and approval of a great night of music and harmony.
Although there were a few open seats towards the back of the theater, it didn’t appear to hamper the enjoyment had by those in attendance. For those that did make it to the show, they were entertained by one of the biggest under rated bands of the 90’s country music scene. The scene this evening had a wide variety of ages from the seniors who are well educated in music all the way backwards to an infant in the front who was enjoying the show with a large set of ear covers to soften the volume. There were many attending the show that were either not yet born or in their early stages of life as BlackHawk was enjoying their success in those early years. However, those young ones were up and out of their seats, singing and dancing to every word to all the songs played this evening. Just an indication that good country music is irreplaceable and lives on through generations, and that…BlackHawk is good country music.
BlackHawk setlist:
Down In Flames / Goodbye Says It All / Every Once In A While / Love Like This / Between Ragged And Worn / Big Dreams In A Small Town (Restless Heart cover) / Down From The Mountain / Almost A Memory Now / Wichita / I’m Not Strong Enough To Say No / The Bluest Eyes In Texas (Restless Heart cover) / Like There Ain’t No Yesterday / King Of The Road / Your Own Little Corner Of My Heart / Bad Love Gone Bad / I Sure Can Smell The Rain / There You Have It / That’s Just About Right / Postmarked Birmingham / Big Guitar Encore: Stone By Stone
BlackHawk
Blue Gate Performing Arts Center