This week’s headliner for the Mountain Home Friday Night Block Party is The Legendary Pacers.Music, and activities will begin at 7 Friday night on the courthouse square in downtown Mountain Home. The event is free to the public and all are welcome.Custom Cars of Northwest Arkansas will be displaying classic cars around the square during the block party.The Legendary Pacers started with Sonny Burgess on vocals and guitar, Kern K. Kennedy on piano, Johnny Ray Hubbard on slap bass, Russ Smith on drums, Joe Lewis on guitar and Jack Nance on trumpet. In early 1957 Lewis and Smith left the band; Smith going to work with Jerry Lee Lewis and Lewis to further his own career. In August 1957, Nance joined Lewis working with Conway Twitty, and Bobby Crafford joined the Pacers as drummer.
The band formed in 1955 at Newport. They had five singles on SUN Records: “Red Headed Woman,” “We Wanna Boogie,” “Thunderbird,” “Ain’t Got a Thing,” “Buckets Got a Hole In It,” and “Sadies Back In Town.” They also had a hit in 1965 on Razorback Records with “The Short Squashed Texan.” They were among the pioneers of rock and roll and traveled with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Patsy Cline, Charlie Rich, Narvel Felts and others.
Current members of the band, the instrument they play and the year they joined are Bobby Crafford, drums, 1957; Fred Douglas, bass, 1961; Jim Aldridge, sax, 1961; Tony Kennedy, piano, who replaced his dad Kern who passed away in 2018; and Earl Cole, guitar, 2019. Crafford, Douglas, Aldridge and Kennedy provide the vocals.
In 2016 The Pacers won the Governor’s Award for Folklore with the Arkansas Arts Council. In 2016, the Pacers marked 61 years in the music business.
Sonny burgess died in 2017, and the group performs a tribute to him on every show.
This week’s block party sponsor is Integrity First Bank.
A number of food vendors will be on hand selling their specialties, including barbecue, tacos, homemade cream soda, cupcakes, funnel cakes, kettle corn and lemonade, and the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society will be selling ice cream sundaes.
All attendees will have a chance to win door prizes during the band’s intermission.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs when they come out to enjoy what has become a summer tradition.
In case of the threat of rain, stay tuned to KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot or check the block party’s Facebook page facebook.com/mountainhome.square Mountain Home square for details.
For information about becoming a volunteer, sponsor or vendor booth, call Ron Shire at 870-404-6347. For more information regarding the Friday Night Block Party, visit the event’s Facebook page at facebook.com/mountainhome.square.
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