David Allan Coe brought his outlaw country music to The Hunt Club on last Thursday night with Laney Strickland opening for the country crooner. While the man of the hour did not take the stage until 10 pm, he ended the show in the wee hours of the morning.
Hunt Club owner Bill Norris said he has tries to bring in as much big talent as possible to Starkville. Usually, getting big names to play in Starkville requires a lot of hard work and patience. Fortunately for Norris, he didn’t have to lift a finger to book David Allan Coe. The Hunt Club packed a full house for the performance.
“They called me,” Norris said. “I always wanted them to come play here, but I never thought they would come. It turned out that he liked Starkville a lot. They wanted to come, and I welcomed them.”
Coe’s career has spanned nearly 40 years. Although Coe has suffered some musical setbacks, he continued to persevere. Most of his musical peers saw his genius. Coe has played with Neil Young and Kid Rock, as well as with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, with whom he also maintains close friendship.
“We had a packed house of 1800 strong Thursday night. Coe proved himself to be a true songwriter,” Hunt Club employee Corey Pool said. “Just the fact alone that he was supposed to stop playing at 11:30 pm, but went on until 12:45 am is awesome.”
On top of being a musician, Coe has acted and performed as a ventriloquist. Coe starred in “Take This Job and Shove It” in the early ’80s.
With all of his gifts, Coe maintains a busy schedule. After releasing a live album, Live From the Iron Horse Saloon, in September of last year, Coe put out a new studio album, Whoopsy Daisy, two weeks ago.
“This was Coe’s first time playing at Remington’s Hunt Club,” Pool said. “The crowd gave him such a great response. It was a sight to see a country legend get down into the crowd after the performance, has security move the barricades in order to shake hands of people in the audience. That was amazing.”
Coe’s performance last Thursday night was the center attraction of “The Crawfish Jamboree” at the Hunt Club.