Neal McCoy to headline

Country star will appear at 4th at the 4-Way
 
Bri Brasher
NLJ Reporter
 
Grab your lawn chairs; sport your red, white, and blue; and celebrate this year’s Fourth of July in Newcastle with country music legend Neal McCoy. Pinnacle Bank’s 4th at the 4-Way event is back for another Independence Day celebration, and it’s bigger. 
“We’re excited about having somebody here that’s been really popular in country music and has a long list of recognizable songs that everybody will be able to sing along with,” said Justin Tystad, president of the bank’s Newcastle branch. 
The Williams Brothers Band will return to open the concert, along with local talent Nate Smith and the Caddywhompus Band. Tystad told the News Letter Journal that last year’s concert success with headliner RaeLynn and over 1,000 people in attendance prompted the bank to continue with the 4th at the 4-Way festivities.  
The event will include the same professional sound and stage with all the fun from last year and  “the possibility of a few additional surprises,” according to Tystad. Fun On The Go’s inflatable carnival will be back for the kids, and there will be different types of food and beverages for all. 
James Williams, production manager and talent buyer for Rhema Music, said he and his crew, including his own band, The Williams Brothers, are excited to see the event back this year. Rhema Music of Fruita, Colorado, is responsible for several festivals and high-profile events, and the company takes care of entertainment, booking, and equipment such performances. 
Both Williams  and Tystad agree that McCoy is a well-known presence in the western community. McCoy is just what the 4th at the 4-Way event needs — an entertainer with a reputation for being a great guy, an energetic performer, and an artist with a repertoire of well-known songs, according to planners. 
“Neal McCoy has released fifteen studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. In 1993, Neal McCoy broke through with the back-to-back number 1 singles ‘No Doubt About It’ and ‘Wink’ from his platinum-certified album ‘No Doubt About It,’ according to a McCoy biography provided by Tystad. “His commercial success continued into the late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more Top Ten hits. A seventh Top Ten hit, the number 10 ‘Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On,’ came in 2005 from his self-released ‘That’s Life.’”
Tystad said that several other performers were in the running for this year’s concert, including Mark Chesnutt and Joe Diffie, but McCoy’s energy sent him to the top of the list. Williams said that when he learned McCoy was a possibility, he promoted McCoy vigorously and worked hard to get him scheduled. 
After the event’s success in 2018 and the concert’s atmosphere, Williams said, he is, “more than happy to introduce Neil McCoy to the people of Newcastle” because the community “rolled out the red carpet to the performers” last year. Williams said that in order to convince big talent to come to a little town in Wyoming, he had to guarantee that McCoy will have a lot of fun, a recommendation that he said he stands behind confidently. 
“A big part of it is that we want to make sure that when we have a legendary artist — we want to be sure he’s coming to a place where he would be welcomed, and more importantly appreciated.
We are more than pleasantly surprised with Newcastle, with Justin (Tystad) and his team, the way the whole town came out and supported and were really appreciative to have such a great event there (in Newcastle),” Williams said. 
When asked if McCoy was excited to be in Newcastle for the 4th of July holiday, Williams said that while he can’t speak for the artist and his team, the booking of the concert itself is telling.
“If they weren’t excited, they wouldn’t be coming. It’s not like there’s a lack of options for Neal McCoy to go perform, so him accepting our invite is quite an honor,” Williams said. 
In addition to McCoy, The Williams Brothers Band will return for the festivities, and the group plans to keep a promise made at last year’s show. According to Williams, the band was really taken by the story of Diamond L. Slim. They read Slim’s story in a copy of the Western Heritage newspaper at their hotel. 
“We were just jamming in the (hotel) room, and drummer started singing the story to that and we were like wow we should really write a story about that. That’s really cool!” Williams said.
While the song that came out of jam night was not ready for performance last year, the band promised the crowd that they would share the tune the following year. The Williams Brothers Band hope to do just that by debuting the song at this year’s 4th at the 4-Way. They are also working on a new album, and the band recently released a single from the album titled “Outlaw Country.”
Along with McCoy and the Williams Brothers Band, Nate Smith and the Caddywhompus Band will take the stage. Williams said highlighting local talent is always a focus.
“It’s not every day that you get bigger bands coming to your town. You have to give back and let the local guys get up there and do their thing,” said Williams. “It’s good to meet them and have some fun. We’re definitely looking forward to spending some time with them.”
With the roster of talent set to play at Pinnacle Bank’s Independence Day event, Newcastle is in for a night of western, patriotic entertainment. McCoy, especially, is known for his patriotism, having “been on 15 USO Tours around the world and continues to say it’s one of the achievements he’s most proud of,” McCoy’s biography says. “He is also the recipient of multiple Humanitarian awards from The Academy of Country Music, The Country Radio Broadcasters and The Masonic Grand Lodge.” 
McCoy has also posted, and continues to post, over a thousand Facebook Live videos reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He often captions the posts with “Say it, Mean it, Like and Share it.”
“It’s going to be real neat to have such a patriotic guy here on the Fourth of July,” Tystad said.