Concert- Mark Wills

Des Moines has a special relationship with Inside (Arena) Football. Famously, Kurt Warner went from stocking grocery store shelves to Arena Football to being a NFL star. There was recently a movie about it, you might have even heard about. The Arena Football League stands as the most successful Spring football league ever. At various points, Des Moines was in and out of this league. The AFL was often on national tv. I think most sports fans knew Jon Bon Jovi co-owned a team called the Philadelphia Soul. Few others may remember in the peak that Vince Neil and the rock band Kiss (separately) bought into franchises. I was a bit bummed when the Barnstormers jumped to the Indoor Football League in 2015, but in retrospect, the Arena league had seen a high watermark and folded in 2019. The last few years have seen a lot of alternative leagues like the USFL, the XFL and the AAF. It doesn’t leave a ton of talent for the indoor leagues. Noticeably, the Barnstormers don’t draw like they used to, yet I know quite a few diehard fans. For the most part, the IFL is a spot for otherwise under the radar players getting a chance to show themselves. The Barnstormers most dynamic star is from a small university (Carson-Newman) running back/wide receiver Antonio Wimbush. The Quarterback too (U of Idaho) is undersized 5’11” but talented and fast- Darius James Peterson. Before the game, there was a free concert by Mark Wills. I suspect the name might not ring bells, but he was a very successful country artist for a time. He is not my normal cup of tea- one of the many 90s Sonic descendants of George Strait, but hugely popular and my wife is a fan. He charted 16 songs in the Country Top 40 from 1996-2003 - eight went Top 10 with two reaching #1 and three more that reached #2. He took five songs to the Hot 100. Wills biggest song was 2002’s nostalgic “19 Something” which was one of the biggest hits of Y2K era country. I suspect many would know “I Do (Cherish You) which though Wills did it first, was probably even bigger when performed by 98 degrees. Another big hit was his cover of Brian McKnight’s “Back to One”. Although he performed all his big hits, he did not perform “What Hurts the Most” which he recorded originally- three years prior to Rascal Flatts having a huge crossover hit with it. An interesting bit of the Setlist was three songs from the group Alabama, which I thought was interesting. Alabama kind of dominated country in the pre-Garth days and crossed over to the pop charts quite a bit in the 80s. Although we didn’t hear much about Alabama, they seem to be popping up again. There is certainly a line from the rock-influenced country of Alabama to modern country music like Luke Bryan (and a music detective would no doubt find that string through the aforementioned artists like Wills and Rascal Flatts but also a lot of the Y2k era contemporaries like Lonestar and Montgomery Gentry. That Eagles/Poco/Charlie Daniels/Marshall Tucker derived rock sound now dominating the “cowboy hat” market that Wills arrived initially in.