FRANKIE BALLARD, JOSH ABBOTT BAND, & WINGER ANNOUNCED TO PLAY IN ANTHEM
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (January 4, 2016) – Two popular country musicians and another legendary rock band are heading to Sioux City. Up and coming country artist, Frankie Ballard, and Texas favorite, The Josh Abbott Band, will be performing at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City in February. With hits such as “Helluva Life” and “Touch,” respectively, Siouxland’s country fans have plenty to look forward to. Rock band, Winger, is also coming to Anthem this spring to perform hits such as “Miles Away” and “Can’t Get Enuff.”
Dates for each performance are as follows:
- Frankie Ballard – Saturday, February 20
- Josh Abbott Band – Friday, February 26
- Winger – Saturday, April 2
Tickets for Frankie Ballard, Josh Abbott Band, and Winger can be purchased starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, January 9 and are available online at www.hardrockcasinosiouxcity.com and at the Rock Shop.
Saturday, February 20, 2016 / 8:00 PM / Anthem
Frankie Ballard’s breakthrough Top 15 hit, “Helluva Life” is the opener from Sunshine & Whiskey; an album that announces Ballard as one of the genre’s most nuanced singers and writers. He first hit the public spotlight with two Top 30 singles, “Tell Me You Get Lonely” and “A Buncha Girls,” appearing on the Grand Ole Opry and playing packed arenas opening for Kenny Chesney and on major tours with Taylor Swift and longtime idol Bob Seger.
The album includes “Whiskey” and “Drinky Drink,” about which Ballard says, “I’ve been making music for a living for about ten years now and I’ve found myself in a bit of trouble from time to time. The two things that always put me there—women… and whiskey.” “Don’t You Wanna Fall” is about a singer, “a high-wire act without a net,” with a woman he wants off the pedestal he’s put her on. “He’s saying, ‘Come down here to my level where it’s real,’” Ballard says. At the deep end is “Don’t Tell Mama I Was Drinking,” a song that hearkens to the stories of tragedy and despair that were once a country mainstay–“It sounds like something Waylon Jennings would cut,” he says. That diversity is a key component of the record. ”
Sports-obsessed as a kid, he played baseball at Western Michigan University, while he gradually turned a minor interest in music into his main passion. He began playing open mic nights and played drums in a band. By the time he was out of college, he was leading his own band, playing 200+ nights a year within a 300-mile radius and taking trips to Nashville once-a-month. Through it all, he has never lost his love for doing what he does best–taking his music to the people.
Friday, February 26, 2016 / 8:00 PM / Anthem
Weeks before its Valentine’s Day release on iTunes, the Josh Abbott Band’s “Touch” was already well on its way toward being one of the most talked-about songs in Texas music of 2012. Granted, the hot-streak momentum of Abbott’s career had a lot to do with that. In the wake of the breakout success of “Oh, Tonight” (which climbed to No. 44 on Billboard’s country chart) and the title track from 2010’s regional smash “She’s Like Texas,” created a stir that reached all the way to music executives in Nashville and New York City. That set up pretty much any track that the 31-year-old singer-songwriter picked to be the lead single from his band’s much-anticipated third album nicely, ensuring it was bound to garner a fair amount of attention. But from the very first time it was played in concert or over the airwaves, it was clear that “Touch” had a lot more going for it than just good timing. From the erotic tension and release of its slow-burning verses and soaring chorus to the dramatic crescendo of fiddle and guitars at the outro, it’s a song that captures every ounce of the passion, talent, and vision that’s propelled the Josh Abbott Band to the forefront of the Texas music scene in record time. And as the rest of Small Town Family Dream proves convincingly, they’re here to stay.
Winger
Saturday, April 2, 2016 / 8:00 PM / Anthem
Winger is an American hard rock band from New York City. Their debut album, Winger, came out on Atlantic Record’s label in 1988 and achieved platinum status in the United States and gold in Japan and Canada. It spawned such hits as “Seventeen” and “Headed for a Heartbreak.”
To support the album, the band toured for over a year with Bad Company, Scorpions, Cinderella, Bon Jovi, Poison, Skid Row and Tesla. In 1990, Winger was nominated for an American Music Award for “Best New Heavy Metal Band.” Their follow-up album, In The Heart of the Young, was released in 1990 and just like their first album, reached platinum. Hits off this album include “Can’t Get Enuff,” “Miles Away” and “Easy Come Easy Go.” To support this album, Winger toured the world for 13 months, playing over 230 dates with KISS, Scorpions, ZZ Top, Extreme and Slaughter. As with many other bands of this time, grunge took over and Winger went their separate ways in 1994. They reunited again in 2001 and completed several very successful tours. In 2006, they recorded their first studio album in over 13 years, IV. In 2009, Winger released their 5th studio album Karma. This album was hailed as their best studio album released. The band toured the US, Europe and South America to support the album. Winger took a break in 2011 while guitarist Reb Beach toured with Whitesnake, however, Kip Winger continued touring as a performing solo acoustic performer. He also stays busy writing and scoring music for many different movie and Broadway projects and appeared on Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp. Now in 2013, Winger is back and will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Winger album, by recording a brand new CD with a future tour to follow.
Event details can be found online at https://www.hardrockcasinosiouxcity.com/events-list/.