A Laid Back Celebration! The Kentucky Headhunters Invade Whitesburg For Their Levitt Amp Series

Wow! If you missed Thursday’s kickoff event for this year’s Levitt Amp Whitesburg series you missed an absolutely stellar good time in Whitesburg, KY! If you weren’t there, you missed the return of live music to the Mountain Heritage Stage and the return of free weekly concerts from the Levitt Amp Concert Series. But don’t worry because for the next 9 Thursday’s there will be free music from national and regional acts. All different styles of music, so there should be something for almost everyone’s tastes.

Have I mentioned the huge crowd? I’ve not? Well shame on me! This is the start of my third year covering the Levitt Amp Whitesburg Series and last night was by far the biggest crowd I’ve seen for one event! I’ve seen some big crowds at the Mountain Heritage stage but they are generally during the annual Mountain Heritage Festival (Goose Creek Symphony comes to mind) so when you combine the year that was 2020 with Laid Back Country Picker and The Kentucky Headhunters that is going to equal a huge enthusiastic crowd! After the terrible, terrible year that was 2020, it seems a lot of people were ready to get outside to celebrate some Kentucky music.

Kentucky music was exactly what this big crowd came for and that’s exactly what they got. Starting the night off with what the Kentucky Headhunters Facebook page called mountain royalty was Laid Back Country Picker and Honey. Laid Back and Honey are from just up the road in Lawrence County, so the drive down to Whitesburg was a short one and I am sure that the Magoffin County Cadillac obeyed all posted speed limits! Laid Back started his set with “Kingsport” (the title track of his latest record). His setlist included several of my personal favorites like “Truck Stop Sam”, “Magoffin County Cadillac” and “David Bowie” which Headhunters guitarist Greg Martin joined Laid Back for some killer guitar solos! I am positive that Laid Back Country Picker and Honey left Whitesburg with many many new fans!

The Levitt Amp Whitesburg 2021 series has some series headliners this year that include Capture Kentucky favorites Arlo Mckinley, Joslyn & The Sweet Compression, and Magnolia Boulevard. The most serious of all those headliners are probably tonight’s, a multi-platinum selling, Grammy Award-winning Kentucky band – The Kentucky Headhunters! Not only was this a big night because of the Headhunters but it was also a big night for one of the main sponsors on the Levitt Amp Whitesburg Series. Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation (MCHC) was celebrating its 50^th year anniversary, so in honor of tonight’s headliner and a thank you to the community they provided everyone in attendance with free, yes I said free, slaw burgers, fries, and a bottle of Ski!

The Headhunters are made up of Fred and Richard Young, Doug Phelps, and Greg Martin. Fred, Richard, and Greg have been together as a band since the late 60’s, Doug joined the band in the mid 80’s. So to say these guys know how to work and crowd and stage would be an understatement! But the folks in Whitesburg didn’t need much encouragement after being without any live music for a year and a half they were ready to be entertained! They were ready to dance, they were ready to sing, they were ready to have a good time and the Kentucky Headhunters were ready to provide the soundtrack for every bit of that! A soundtrack that started with “Dixie Lullaby” and was in high gear from there on out with a big setlist that had the mega-hits “Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine”, “Oh Lonesome Me” and of course “Dumas Walker” sprinkled throughout! Laid Back Country Picker and Honey joined the Headhunters on stage for the final song which closed out an epic fist show in this ongoing music series in Whitesburg.