25^th Annual Depot Days

All Types of Southern Music at Its Best

September 16^th in Downtown Newport, Arkansas

For Immediate Release

August 18, 2023

Newport, Arkansas

(870) 523-3618

The 25^th Annual Depot Days on September 16^th features its most diverse range of southern heritage music yet! The festival will open with Crutchfield, a contemporary Christian music band from Malvern, Arkansas. Crutchfield has opened for well-know Christian groups like Crowder and Skillet and will bring their blend of a little rock, a little country, a little pop and a whole lot of faith to the Terry Scoggins Memorial Stage in the Front Street Park in downtown Newport.

Following Crutchfield, the ShotGunBillys will have the stage rocking with their high energy blend of southern rock and Memphis blues. Fresh from entertaining 15,000 people at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, ShotGunBillys is coming to rock northeast Arkansas. You won’t be disappointed if you like rock and roll! Over the last 20, years the ShotGunBillys have played across the nation delivering the same doubled-barrel thrills to a sleepy Arkansas Roadhouse, the Daytona Bike Week or in Sturgis.

Next up, two gifted musicians Cameron Kimbrough and Damion “Yella P” Pearson, better known as the Memphissippi Sounds bring their custom blend of urban Memphis hip-hop and north Mississippi hill country blues to the stage. The blues will reach right into you as you hear Yella P on the harmonica or listen to the two riff on their guitars. It will be clear why their debut album received a Blues Award nomination for Best Emerging Artist Album. You’ll see for yourself why they are a King Biscuit Blues Festival favorite.

Kish and Pamela will bring their rocking contemporary country sound to the stage and be sure to entertain you. Kish Moody and Pamela Hopkins, who returns from tour the week before Depot Days, will play many of your favorites and some original music currently on country radio! Get ready for a fun show full of energy and sing along with your favorites.

At this point in the evening, you’ll want to trade your lawn chair for a set of dancing shoes as the Big Dam Horns play your favorite party and dance tunes from the 1960’s through today. Taking their name from Little Rock’s iconic bridge, the 12-member group brings its horn infused one-two punch of jazz, blues, soul and R&B with a little rock and roll thrown in for good measure. They will have you stomping your feet, clapping your hands and dancing the night away.

Headlining the festival will be Chapel Hart, a trio of Mississippi women who sing pure country music the way it was meant to be sung. The group was a huge hit when they competed on America’s Got Talent and their talent propelled them to a spot on the 2023 CMA Television Awards show with their original hit, “You Can Have Him, Jolene.” Danica and Devynn Hart and their cousin Trea Swindale combine their Mississippi roots with Louisiana spunk to put on a high energy show that will show you why they were inducted into CMT’s Next Women of Country in 2021.

Not sure you’ve heard songs by all of these acts? Each of the groups has a Facebook page and website with music online, but be careful, if you listen to them, you might just be hooked! Come to Depot Days and enjoy the best that southern music has to offer from Christian to blues to rock to country to soul to R&B there is music that will delight everyone.

Depot Days will have its 25^th Annual festival in downtown Newport, Arkansas on September 16^th. Vendors and Food Trucks open at 1 pm and great music will play until 9 pm. Come out and enjoy it all! For more information, contact the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce at (870) 523-3618 or visit Depot Days on Facebook.