Josh Kingsley
Misty and I spent our St. Patrick’s day at the Fiserv Forum in lovely downtown Milwaukee. Fiserv is home of the Bucks, but we were not there for a basketball game. This time was a Reba McEntire concert. Reba has been on my list for some time, but Misty actually made the move for this one. Our typical dynamic and protocol is me picking a concert, and she joins and realizes how familiar she is with the artist during the show. Her eagerness to see Reba was a welcome surprise. I need to give a shout to the Fiserv Forum as well. The place knocks it out of the park for concerts and NBA games. It is acoustically solid for an area, and that allows the sounds system to provide sound without destroying eardrums. That is my mark of proper sound engineering and how I approach my DJ events.
Reba was the headliner of three acts. Her opener was Terri Clark, a solid 90s, early 00s artist. More about the opener in a bit. Reba killed it. She and her band sounded great and the energy remained high the entire set. The best number came early in the show when she sang “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Vickie Lawrence recorded and released it in 1972, Tanya Tucker covered in 1981, but this is a Reba McEntire song. It was by far the loudest and highest energy number of her entire set. I’ve always dug the song, and was certainly not alone. Her encore song was “Fancy,” which made sense. That’s easily her biggest, most recognizable, genre bending song, and ended the show perfectly.
The song that defines Reba for me is “Is There Life Out There.” Reba is a great storyteller and uses her music videos equally effectively.
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This song and video tells the story of a stay at home mom in a rut and looking for more meaning in life. The video in particular follows her finishing schooling to celebration of her husband and kids. It’s an iconic feminist song for sure, but also carries a solid message about working hard to pursue dreams. Solid song.
The above were great moments, but my favorite segment was when Reba brought Terri Clark out to sing Linda Ronstadt songs. I love Linda Ronstadt as much as they do, so it was perfect geeking out music. It was an awesome night of excellent music.
I love it when music surprises me and make it a point to be in position for it. What does that mean? For the most part making sure to catch the openers at shows, wandering festival grounds, and going places like Nashville or Austin. We hit our seats in the middle of The Isaacs, who kicked off the night. Musical acts that tour with artists like Reba are always talented and always put on a good show. However, sometimes they do much more and thoroughly impress. This band flat out blew me away… like the features Lily Isaacs, her two daughters, Sonya and Becky, and her son, Ben. Their music is primarily country bluegrass, but have solid gospel, country and pop elements as well. Sonya is the middle child and lead singer, and she has a cannon for a voice. Solid harmonies among the four family singers drove the show.
An early number was an au cappella cover of Chicago’s “You’re the Inspiration.” That was great, but their best number, and one of the 3-5 best of the night, started with a story by mom, Lily. She started with a shout to her love for living in America, pretty standard country concert stuff. She went on to mention a limited history for her family in the country. Her parents were Polish, Jewish concentration camp prisoners during World War II. The US military liberated the camp and freed her parents, who then moved to the US. So… wow. The band followed that story with a song called “American Face,” which celebrates the diverse melting pot we call home. I cannot recommend this band more emphatically.
The Reba concert was not my only live event last week. I also saw a live comedy show by David Koechner. He is famous for roles on Anchorman and The Office among other things. However, he is also a well-known celebrity CHIEFS fan. David grew up in Tipton, MO, which sits around 120 miles from Arrowhead. He’s a seriously funny dude. Most of his material centered around being bald and raising his kids.
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The best part of his show was when he walked through the front couple rows of tables to interact with the audience. He made it over to my table’s side and noticed my CHIEFS hat, which I wore with complete intention. The situation got a bit surreal as he gave me a high five, asked if I was cool talking CHIEFS for a bit, and totally derailed his own show.
We talked back and forth for a solid 60 seconds about the CHIEFS, Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and football. All with an entire theater of eyes on my table. It was super awkward for everyone else, and a nice memory for me. A nice little Thursday. Look for one more Koechner note at the end of the column.
The CHIEFS are currently losing more free agents than they are signing, but that is the nature of this deployment. Brett Veach has made a few things clear:
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Point one above is important as it is the key to avoiding salary cap hell. The obvious half of this statement is not paying too much. Veach appears to have a set valuation method and complete refusal to pay above a max amount his method produces. Spending discipline. The secondary half of the overpay exercise is the trade aspect. This means not constantly taking big swings with all the draft capital kicking the can on the future roster strain. The Rams have the latest version of this, and the Broncos are a season or two from joining them. What about the Frank Clark and Orlando Brown trades? I ask back: well, what about them?
Both guys were expensive trades, but all mostly up front draft capital. It’s hard to not focus on the 1st in front of the round listings, but I think they were great trades. Veach traded a pair of first rounds picks for a Lombardi trophy, and then did it again. He also added solid starting and rotational talent with 2nd round and beyond picks. Plus, he is picking another 10+ rookies in about a month. Veach rocks –> . point one.
The upside piece speaks to acquisitions of players like Toney and Justyn Ross. First guy helped win a Super Bowl and the second may end up an All Pro. The final piece is the willingness to replace greatness. We watched Veach ship Tyreek when the point one ratio quit working. None of the FA departures should surprise us.
I start with the one I dislike most. Hardman was always a step away from greatness. Glass half empty: he never got there. Half full: he was on the doorstep. Mecole accounted for roughly 1,000 all purpose yards a season in his four with KC. That is a real amount of production. His biggest “crime” is not replacing Tyreek in kind. I think it is obvious that Tyreek is a 1 of 1 of maybe a few. Like Billy Beane says in Moneyball: you cannot replace the guy but you can recreate his production. Mecole was part of that.
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It appears he wants a fresh start and chance for more as he signs with the Jets for a year and $6.5M. I get it, but wish it wasn’t so.
This one was inevitable. He was never staying beyond a franchise tag. It was obvious he took offense to the contract negotiations. Does it suck he went to our current biggest rival in the Bengals? Sure, but it doesn’t $25M a year suck, which was probably the number to keep him.
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The Bengals think they upgraded, Brown got terms that make him happy and Veach didn’t overpaid vs his metric. Wins around.
I thought he’d be back, and expected a contract in the realm of what he got from the Patriots.
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My suspicion is Veach was thinking less than the $11M per year the Patriots offered. Best of luck and congrats on the payday.
I did expect him to leave, but pretty much repeat the JuJu commentary.
Again, this is not surprising, and probably over a per year difference in Veach’s valuation.
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Congrats on the new money and good luck in the Big Easy.
This one sucks because Wylie was just getting going with us. That said the $24M over three years is more than we were paying.
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Congrats to Wylie securing a starting gig, staying linked to EB and getting his money.
Big gulps, huh? Welp, see ya later.
In seriousness, I wish these guys the best too. Burton reunites with Sean Payton in Denver in what looks to be them moving a run heavy approach on offense. Because Wilson cannot throw anymore. Jones gets a chance to start early and often as Tony Pollard recovers from injury. Good moves for both guys.
I was working on stuff over the weekend and the recommended on-demand popped up with “Thank You for Smoking.” David Koechner is in that movie (see, I did reference him again).
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This movie is perfect satire and an accurate portrayal of the world of spin PR. My favorite subplot is the character arc between main character, Nick Naylor, and his son. We all want to be a hero to our kids and it was fun to watch it happen real time. The end scene where he switches to the cell phone world is gold and gets me every time.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom
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