The Wichita Linemen: “A Tribute to Glen Campbell featuring Carl Acuff Jr." at the Ohnward Fine Arts Center -- June 20.
Saturday, June 20, 7 p.m.
Ohnward Fine Arts Center, 1215 East Platt Street, Maquoketa IA
With the June 20 show boasting a repertoire of beloved classics including "Gentle on My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Galveston," "Southern Nights," and the iconic "Rhinestone Cowboy," the touring talents of the Wichita Linemen come to Maquoketa's Ohnward Fine Arts Center with their lauded stage show A Tribute to Glen Campbell featuring Carl Acuff Jr.
Campbell was an American country musician and actor best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. A revered session guitarist before breaking through as a solo performer, Campbell released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.
Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew". After he became a solo artist, 80 of his songs made it onto the Billboard Country Chart, the Billboard Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary Chart; 29 of those made the top ten, and nine of them reached number one, on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier" (his first hit from 1965), "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975), and "Southern Nights" (1977).
In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Campbell announced he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011 and retired in 2013 after recording his final song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You."
After Campbell's death in August of 2017, fellow musician and entertainer in his own right Carl Acuff Jr., along with a notable group of musicians, decided to put together a tribute show to this entertainment legend featuring his wonderful catalog of music. Therefore, The Wichita Lineman show was born. After searching around on how to approach this project, Acuff hand-picked musicians to bring this show to life with full instrumentation, great vocals, and musical ability. The touring artists are devoted to re-creating all those great hits that made Glen Campbell so popular for all those years, treating fans to song favorites the way they were meant to be performed.
The Wichita Linemen's A Tribute to Glen Campbell featuring Carl Acuff Jr. comes to Maquoketa on June 20, admission to the 7 p.m. performance is $15-28, and more information and tickets are available by calling 563-652-9815 and visiting OhnwardFineArtsCenter.com.
