John D. Hale calls performance at SEMO District Fair 'humbling'

When John D. Hale attended the SEMO District Fair as a boy, he never dreamed that one day he would be a headline entertainer at the event.

"I've showed livestock there. I've seen a lot of shows there," Hale said.

The John D. Hale Band took the grandstand stage Saturday evening at the fair, becoming the first area band in recent memory to perform there. A crowd of about 1,700 fans turned out to see the band, which calls Jackson home and has a strong local following. Fair board president Pete Poe estimated that walk-up sales accounted for about 60 percent of the attendance.

"It's pretty humbling, really," Hale said about performing at the fair.

The quartet, which has released two albums on independent label Camelback Records and will record a third in the fall, treated the grandstand audience to its blend of musical styles.

"We're not really a country band, not really a bluegrass band, not really a rock and roll band," Hale said, calling their style "a mixture of all three. We'll leave it to the fans to label us."

Shawna Rogers of Scott City said she and her husband have seen the Hale band about 20 times. She said it's the sound that keeps them coming back.

"It's not your garden version of country," Rogers said. "They've got their own sound. It doesn't sound like anyone else."

Jordan Priebe and girlfriend Lindsey Miller of Pinckneyville, Ill., made the two-hour drive to Cape Girardeau to see the John D. Hale Band after seeing them open for Josh Turner at the Show Me Center in December. Jordan said the band's more traditional country sound hooked them on the music.

"They're what country should be -- not this pop-country stuff like you hear on the radio nowadays," Priebe said.

While most of the band's 150-plus dates per year are played in clubs and theaters, band members are no strangers to high-profile appearances. In addition to the Show Me Center performance with Turner, they've toured with stars such as Miranda Lambert and David Allen Coe.

The band opened the show with "Love Pulled the Trigger" and "Heartbreaker," both songs that featured Hale singing lead with harmonies bassist Cody Phillips of Dogwood, Mo. Audio problems early in the show kept much of the lead guitar work of Mason Watkins of Sikeston, Mo., from being heard, but eventually the problems were rectified.

The band, which spends a lot of time playing in Texas and finished an East Coast tour recently, used the occasion to debut a new song, "Gotta Find My Way Back to You." Hale said the song was inspired by the wives and families of the band members back home in Missouri while the band is on the road.

Pertinent address:

410 Kiwanis Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO