Kentucky Headhunters play away town's sorrow

Richard Young: "I think it's human nature that we all tend to do much better in groups than we do alone."

By Shanon Cook
CNN

BARDSTOWN, Kentucky (CNN) -- Three days after terrorists staged attacks on the United States' World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Kentucky Headhunters agonized over whether they should climb on stage. The band, like the nation, was reeling.

The quintet chose to ignore suggestions to cancel a gig at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Kentucky. Instead, they opted to do what they've done best for over 30 years -- bring folks together and share the warmth and energy of their enduring country-rock music.

Hundreds of people -- most of them diehard fans, all of them grateful for a distraction from the chilling images on their televisions at home -- gathered on Friday night, September 14, at the town 40 miles southeast of Louisville. They formed a cluster in the center of Bardstown, population 10,300, the self-proclaimed "bourbon capital of the world."

The Headhunters launched straight into their act with boots tapping and hands clapping as they belted out their 1990 hit, "Rag Top."

"Despite all that has happened, we're glad to be here tonight." said vocalist Doug Phelps as the opening number wound down. "We're glad you're here. Together. United."

'Right thing to do'

Phelps' words signaled a roar of support from the crowd that set an upbeat atmosphere for the rest of their act.

Throughout the Headhunter's repertoire, Richard Young thrashed his long, frizzy blond locks around as he put the works on his electric guitar. His brother Fred Young banged his drums with the same fervor he brought to the band when he joined it as a teenager in the late sixties.

Fans, their arms waving in the air, jostled for positions close to the stage. Others, taking a more quiet and contemplative approach, stood farther back where they cradled loved ones in their arms and swayed to the music.

The response told the Headhunters they'd made the right choice to go on with the show, even when performers across the country had canceled acts.

"I think putting the concert on was exactly the right thing to do," Richard Young said a few days after the show. "I think it's human nature that we all tend to do much better in groups than we do alone."

Tricia Cornish of Bardstown agreed, though she initially was opposed to the show and came only because her husband wanted to attend. But then she heard the music.

Standing in the crowd, her foot tapping to the Headhunters' infectious rhythm, Cornish, 46, smiled. "Now I'm really glad I came," she said.

The event was a welcome distraction for Bardstown resident Robert Green, 30, who has been following the Headhunters for several years.

"I feel sorry for the people in New York and for all that has happened," he said. "May God bless them all. But you've still got to get on with your life."

Decades on the road

The Kentucky Headhunters' roots were planted in 1968, when the Young brothers, along with their cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney, formed Itchy Brother, a band that for years toured the American South and Midwest extensively. In 1986, Doug Phelps joined the band, and it became The Kentucky Headhunters.

Two years later, the group's debut disc, "Pickin' on Nashville," won a Grammy Award for best country album of the year. The band also was named the Academy of Country Music's top new vocal group that same year.

Last year the Headhunters released a seventh album, "Songs from the Grass String Ranch." Among its songs is "Louisiana Coco," which also is the group's latest video. Among its images: band members hanging out at the base of the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center. It was shot in May, long before the suicide attacks that reduced the buildings to rubble.

"Where all that stuff's piled now, we were all in amongst that," said Richard Young. "It's hard to believe."

The band is no stranger to performing in times of uncertainty. Richard Young recalled the Headhunters riding a wave of success that paralleled the Gulf War in 1991. The quintet performed on NBC's "Tonight Show" as U.S. troops were heading back home, he said.

"(That performance) was more of a celebration," he said. "It was a very electric night. People just sort of came out of their shells."

The folks of Bardstown did the same thing recently, too. They have the Headhunters to thank for that.