Spotlight On Country Thunder in Florence,
Arizona Photos by Glenda S. Paradee and
Rob Ree Productions
Country Thunder was held April 12-15,
2012 on the 290 acres of Canyon Moon Ranch in Florence, Arizona.
This years line up was fantastic. Besides all the great music,
this years festival also included a game-centered "Frat House,"
hosted by Williams & Ree. They also had DJ acts, more than 40
cornhole tables were set up for the beanbag-toss game, a mechanical
bull, dueling pianos, and hypnotists. The after-hours party with
bands continued until 2 a.m. nightly at Moonshine Willy's which has
been developed into a year-round venue open Fridays and Saturdays. A
bull-riding arena operated midnight to 2 a.m. adjacent to the
saloon. A zip line and hot-air balloon rides were also new this
year. Also, this year the 2-mile road into the festival
was paved.
Music was the main attraction at Country Thunder.
Day 1: Included Wade Bowen, Eli Young Band, Craig
Morgan, and Dierks Bentley.
 Williams & Ree: The sheer longevity of this
dynamic duo has allowed them to attain legendary status and
point up the fact that they are truly America's favorite
comedy team!
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 Wade Bowen: Bowen says, "I like for everything
to not be taken for granted. But I'm also not always serious,
and when I play live, I want the audience to have a good a
time as I do making music for them."
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 Eli Young Band: "Were always writing about what
we're going through, and the type of song that appeals to us
changes with our lives. We've been growing up together and
going through the same phases really since college, and you
can see some of that in this record. You can see that we're a
little bit older."
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 Craig Morgan: "Something in my genes and my
blood requires that I work - right or wrong, it makes me feel
like a man," Morgan says with a laugh, "People ask me how I
stay grounded... man, I go home and I still mow my own grass.
I clean my own pool. I have kids that I get onto and play with
and love the same as everybody else. I will always be that
same guy. Just like the people who buy our records and listen
to our music." |
 Dierks Bentley: "They invited me over to their
houses for moonshine and picking parties and pot lucks," he
says. "And they knew more about country music and Nashville
and acoustic music than anyone on Music Row. Without that
whole bluegrass community taking me in and helping me find my
foundation, I would have had no place to start
from." |
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Day 1
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- Hometown hero Dierks Bentley, Craig Morgan, Eli Young Band and
Wade Bowen performed for a record first-day crowd of 17,575
- 4,300 campsites SOLD OUT
- New paved roads leading to Country Thunder ease travel for
festival attendees
- New Electric Thunder nightly shows featuring KMLE DJ mixers P
Craze and DJ Iceman from Phoenix and DJ Du Cassell from
Tucson--boots & glow sticks required
- For the first time ever, Midnight Madness kicked-off with Live
Bull Riding at Moonshine Willy's
- Speaking of Moonshine Willy's - you don't have to be a V.I.P.
to get in after 10:30 p.m.!
FUN FACTS:
800 Port-A-Johns 4,692 rolls of toilet paper 5,275 lbs.
of ice 8.5 tons of garbage 6,093 bottles of water consumed
in day 1 1,097 employees 6,294 hamburgers 3,412 hot
dogs
Day 2: Included Sara Jean Kelley, Steve Holy, Sawyer
Brown, Kellie Pickler, Jake Owen, Big & Rich
Big & Rich: John Rich says, "I
watched my Dad take guys in off the street, He didn't have
anything to help anybody with, but he'd do whatever he could
do to help people out." |
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Big Kenny says, "My father's one of the
most incredible people I've ever met." |
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Steve Holy: "When my friends wee listening
to current music in the 80's and 90's, I was listening to the
50's and 60's, and more traditional stuff. "You know what, I'm
so current I might've moved into the 70's by
now." |
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 Sara Jean Kelley |
Jake Owen : "If you want to get better at
your craft, you have to push yourself, take risks and try
something different," he reflects. "In order to grow and not
be complacent, you have to open your mind, expand your
horizons and be grateful. |
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Kellie Pickler, "I realize the key to
writing is just being true and writing what is real. It's why
country music has such an impact. It's music people relate to
because it's about telling true stories." |
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Sawyer Brown, "We came out of the
notion we were there to entertain people, to make sure
everybody had a good time."
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Day 2
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- Big & Rich, Jake Owen, Kellie Pickler, Sawyer Brown, Steve
Holy and Sara Jean Kelley thrilled 18,323 festival attendees
- 75 Degrees, Sunny Skies beautiful weather
- Over 9 hours of top-notch entertainment from the main stage
- GAC Tour Bus on site provided sneak previews of upcoming
never-before-seen shows
FUN FACTS:
372 Cowboy Hats Sold 1,563 Funnel Cakes Eaten 531
Slingshot Rides Taken 9,258 Bags of Ice Used 5,230 Estimated
Games of Corn Hole Played
Day 3: Included The Roys, THE FARM, Neal McCoy, Joe
Nichols, Thompson Square, Blake Shelton
Blake Shelton: "This has been an amazing
year for me. "If you would have told me when I started out
that I would have four major awards, top 10 songs, a sold-out
show at the Ryman Auditorium and induction into the Grand Ole
Opry - I would have thought your were pulling my
leg." |
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Thompson Square: About performing "Are
You Gonna Kiss Me or Not" at the Grand Ole Opry. "That was
bucket-list stuff, says Shawna. "That's something you dream
about all your life." |
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Joe Nichols: "It's simple, really - put
out good music, make fun video, do great live shows, keep the
visibility up and pay attention to the business
end. |
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Neal McCoy: "We do work hard, and I'm
going to work until I have entertained you," he says. "You may
be the guy in coveralls sitting in the third row who's there
because his wife wanted to come and who doesn't give a damn,
but by the time my show is over we think you will be clapping,
if nothing else, at least for the effort I put forth."
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The Farm: "We didn't set out to be a
group and be something specific. It was "Let's just make
music." As long as it's cool and resonates with us, we've
discovered it will resonate with other people." |
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The Roys: "Traditional county music and
bluegrass is what we grew up on. That's all we listened to,"
says Elaine. "My grandma played the fiddle. She would play
Acadian tunes and my aunts and uncles would sing and play
multiple instruments as well. |

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Day 3
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- Country superstars and recent ACM winners Blake Shelton and
Thompson Square took the stage tonight for 20,101 festival
attendees along with Joe Nichols, Neal McCoy, THE FARM and The
Roys
- Full Rodeo with professional riders cranked it up for Midnight
Madness PLUS HARRY LUGE and his band Dually Stoned played
Moonshine Willy's into the wee hours of the night
- Festival attendees played cornhole tournaments and enjoyed
dueling pianos and world-famous hypnotist Sailesh at The Frat
House
- Beautiful weather broke through the clouds and continued on
through the night
FUN FACTS:
856,000 Kernels of Popcorn popped for Kettle Korn 3,579
Country Thunder t-shirts sold 1,345 lemonades sold 3,967
hand-dipped corn dogs eaten 5,874 pictures taken at the GAC
(Great American Country) Television bus 4,357 people danced to
DJ Du under the Electric Thunder tent April walked 8.3 miles
around the grounds today
Day 4: Included Casey James, JT Hodges, Brett
Eldredge, Phil Vassar, The Band Perry, Alan
Jackson
Alan Jackson: "I wouldn't want to compare
myself to anybody," Jackson says. "But if I was going to say
somebody I wanted to be like, of course, the two
singer-songwriters in country music that stick out to me are
Hank Williams Sr. and Merle Haggard. I don't know that there
are two any better. I just don't put myself in that category."
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The Band Perry: "Reid, Neil and I share
genes and a musical pedigree," Kimberly explains. "We read the
same classics and cook from the same recipes. With all of our
likenesses though, I believe it's our distinctions that stir
up the magic when we create. When the three of us sit down to
write songs together, we pull from all of our individual
perspectives and happenstances to create the most interesting
song concoctions." |
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Phil Vassar: "Those who best understand
Phil Vassar - good time, piano playing, boundless energy on
stage, hardest-working-man-in-the-business - also understand
the ongoing evolution of his original music. |
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JT Hodges: "Country is the first thing I remember
hearing," Hodges says. "My grandmother loved Conway
Twitty and we used to listen to him all the damn time.
If we were over at the house or in the care with her,
literally all she ever listened to was Conway, and we
would be like, "Turn it off!' - because it was eight
hours a day!" "I've definitely come back to my roots,
because more than anything, country music is character,"
Hodges says. "I was a very fortunate kid in that my
mother and father raised me right, with traditional
Southern values, Christian values, that yes ma'am, no
ma'am philosophy." |
Brett
Eldredge: "I opened for Blake Shelton at The Ryman and
it was the coolest experience," Brett says. "I flew back
from this house gig and all of a sudden I'm thrown into
playing the Mother Church of Country Music, something I
always dreamed of
doing." | |
Casey James:
"I feel really blessed to be able to do what I do". "Thank you
to all the fans." 
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Day 4
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
- Headliner Alan Jackson rocked the stage for 20,396 attendees
as the final act of this year's Country Thunder
- Also hitting the stage was GRAMMY award-winning sibling group,
The Band Perry, Singer/Songwriter Extraordinaire Phil Vassar,
Brett Eldredge, JT Hodges, and American Idol's Casey James
- Record attendance for Country Thunder 2012 - 76,395 Attended
over four days of festival
- Be among the first to get your 2013 Country Thunder tickets by
visiting www.countrythunder.com
- Country Thunder's charity of choice the Arizona 100 Club has
raised over $15,000 for families of fallen first
responders
COUNTRY THUNDER WEEKEND FUN FACTS:
3.5 Million Kernels of Popcorn popped for Kettle Korn 15,324
Country Thunder t-shirts sold 6,380 lemonades sold 16,868
hand-dipped corn dogs eaten 23.496 pictures taken at the GAC
(Great American Country) Television bus 17,428 people danced to
DJ Du under the Electric Thunder tent 1,488 Cowboy Hats
Sold 6,252 Funnel Cakes Eaten 2,124 Slingshot Rides
Taken 35,036 Bags of Ice Used 21,940 Estimated Games of Corn
Hole Played 18,752 rolls of toilet paper 43 tons of
garbage 26,378 bottles of water consumed in day 1 21,594
hamburgers 14,763 hot dogs and April walked over 50 miles
during four festival days of Country Thunder
See you back out at Country Thunder in Florence, Arizona
next year on April 11-14, 2013 Check out their website: http://arizona.countrythunder.com/
Thanks For The Music! |