Howdy, Downey: Clint Black brings down the house

DOWNEY – Cowboy hats, yee haw’s and great music from country star Clint Black, adorned the Downey Theatre Sunday night, Oct. 3.

The show was only the second event at the 51-year-old-theatre since the pandemic closed down public venues last year.

Black, who had numerous number one hits in the 80’s and 90’s, brought down the nearly full house with 19 songs in the nearly two-hour show.

“Howdy Downey,” said Black, as he took the stage, playing his brightly colored, flag-designed guitar.

Black, wearing his signature black cowboy hat, opened with his 1998 No. 1 hit, “The Shoes You’re Wearing” from his “Nothing but the Taillights” (1997) album.

With his five-member backing band, Black went right into another mega-hit, “Summer’s Coming”, with lead singer and long-time friend Hayden Nicholas out front with a solo.

His third song brought the house down, with everyone singing along to his debut single (1989), “A Better Man.” Written by Nicholas and Black, it’s a true love story in a song.

It was his first single off of his chart-topping debut album, “Killin’ Time” (1989).

“Thank you very much,” said Black, after the ovation died down. “It’s great to play in little theaters and nice to get close to you.”

Black, who has won a Grammy and has a new show on Circles Network called, “Talking in Circles.”, then introduced his friend of 30 years, Nicholas, wearing his usual white cowboy hat.

“(Hayden) and I have been writing songs for more than 30 years together,” said Black, explaining how they wrote the next song while they were stranded in Colorado.

Nicholas, who collaborated with Black on multiple songs, and violinist Jason Mowery took turns with brief solo’s during the song, “When My Ship Comes In” that was written in the mountains of Colorado.

The first line of the song reflect the time they spent in the high country, while writing the 1992 release, which was the third and final single from the album, “The Hard Way”.

The first line was, “No sun on the Rockies, not even the light of day, I feel that old cabin fever coming on.”

With his many talents, Black then paid tribute to icon Merle Haggard with his next two songs, the first of which he co-wrote with Haggard, “Untanglin’ My Mind” (1994). He finished the brief two-song set with a song as Black said, “This is one of Merle’s songs he wrote without me.” It was “Mama Tried” (1968).

Black, who is currently on a nearly three month Western U.S. tour, broke out his all-too-familiar harmonica for “State of Mind” (1993) from his fourth studio album, “No Time To Kill” (1993) and “One More Payment” (1990).

Mowery and piano player, Dwaine Rowe, were also featured.

As Black finished “One More Time”, the audience starting yelling and Black interrupted, saying, “Settle down, this is Downey.”

Black then went into a song (America – Still in Love with You) from his 2020 album, “Out of Sane”, and received a standing ovation after its conclusion.

The song, collaborated with Steve Wariner, is an ode to the red, white and blue and had amazing graphics and video on the large screen that played throughout the concert.

His next two songs brought down the house again – “Killin’ Time” (1989), the title cut from his debut album by the same name, and “No Time to Kill” (1999).

The song started out with a beautiful piano solo by Rowe.

Two more major hits by Black followed, “Like the Rain” (1996) and “A Good Run of Bad Luck” (1994).

As the show was winding down, Black decided to open up with more harmonica playing and got the audience involved with his 2000 song, “Been There” from his “D’lectrified” album.

Black, who has started a company called “Clint Black Cowboy Coffee”, had everyone standing an imitating they were playing the harmonica.

After three minutes of the audience trying to sound like harmonica’s, Black said, “give yourself a hand on your silliness.”

His last song, “Nothing but the Taillights” (1998) had the audience on its feet again. The song was also used as part of a promo for young Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as he was making his debut on the NASCAR senior circuit.

Black’s encore song, “Put Yourself in My Shoes” (1990) had everyone standing and he went into his harmonica solo to start the song.

And finally, in an appropriate last song from his 1993 “No Time to Kill” album (Fourth studio album), Black and his band “killed it” with his song, “Tuckered Out”.

As Nichols, Mowery and Black were all at the front of the stage, Black simply said, “We’re all tuckered out Downey. You guys have been fantastic and thank you so much for coming out everybody. We appreciate it, and help us count it on home.”