Friday, November 22, 2024

Cowboy Fresh

Tuba City to host Kane Brown on March 31

TUBA CITY

Submitted
Kane Brown

When Kane Brown canceled his September 2016 show, nearly 1,000 fans were devastated. Now, the country music newcomer is going to make up for the cancellation of the show last fall.

The day before his first-ever concert on the Navajo Nation, Brown posted on Twitter, “R.i.p papa I love u.” This post, Mike Sixkiller says, had him worried.

“I didn’t know what ‘papa’ meant,” said Sixkiller, the community events coordinator and the Western Navajo Fair manager at Tónaneesdizí Local Government. “But we (the chapter) were hoping he’d continue with his concert still.”

Sixkiller and his team had sold around 800 concert tickets – prices varying depending on seating – and gave away around 200 through contests and promotional trade for advertising. And they were excited.

We decided to go all out,” Sixkiller said. “We got a big tent, got Pepsi as sponsors, got a stage, a huge sound system, bleachers – I mean it was definitely rez. It wasn’t like going into a nice venue or anything like that, but it was legit rez.”

One thousand attendees would have filled the venue at the fairground on Sept. 24.

“We would have had about 1,000 attendees for the Sept. 24 show, which would have made for a packed house,” Sixkiller explained. “Kane Brown canceled when the stage was set up, the sound was set up, everything was decorated, the Porta-johns were up – everything was set up as could be!”

As Sixkiller and his team finalized the last details on Sept. 23, they got word that Brown canceled the show. Overwhelmed, Sixkiller informed his team of Brown’s announcement. And even more overwhelmed, he had to inform those who bought tickets.

“They understood,” Sixkiller said of his team. “We came back to the office and sent out a memo and a video explaining why the show was canceled.”
Sixkiller and his team said preparing for Brown’s Sept. 24 show was no small feat.

“You’re talking about months of preparation for something like this,” said Sixkiller, who stood outside the venue at the fairground on the evening of the show to inform stragglers of the cancellation. “Maybe a couple people showed up and they were decked out. I’m talking ‘Cowboy Fresh.’”

Just two months after the stabbing of his sister, the 23-year-old rising country music personality was hit once again by tragedy: the death of his grandfather, with whom he had a special bond. Brown wrote a song about this grandfather titled “Granddaddy’s Chair,” in which the first verse was written a number of years ago before it was completed after being motivated by the recent passings of his friends’ grandfathers.

“Kane Brown’s people were really cool,” Sixkiller said. “They got in touch with us and offered to return any day in the year 2017.”

Because autumn is several months away still, Sixkiller and his team chose the Friday before the annual Spring Festival, March 31. In the entertainment world, Sixkiller says, Friday is the second biggest day to have such an event. Saturday is the paramount day, which the Sept. 24 show was scheduled on.
“So we got Friday, first pick,” Sixkiller said. “He built his end-of-March tour around us. And talking with Kane Brown, he’s a burger-frybread kind of a guy. I think he’s going to fit in perfectly with the crowd here.”


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About The Author

Krista Allen

Krista Allen is editor of the Navajo Times.

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