The wife and son of Covie The Band's lead singer Covenant Olatunde take in the performance of the ensemble at Klipsch Auditorium as the second act in the last concert of Klipsch Heritage Museum Association's Big Sounds Downton this past Thursday.

Thursday night in the Klipsch Auditorium in Hope’s City Hall, two musical acts, the Dusty Rose Band and Covie played and Klipsch Heritage Museum Association Executive Director Beckie Moore was saluted as she retires from that position.

Between the performances of the bands, members of the KHMA board, Mayor Don Still and City Director Mark Ross presented Moore with flowers and a specially decorated cake, pieces of which were shared among the audience during the intermission. “Though she’s moving on, it’s bittersweet. We hate to see her go. She’s been a great leader for us,” Mayor Still said, adding that she had kept her promise to bring live music to Hope.

The secretary of the board, Denise Cooper said, “She has been a joy to have,” and presented Moore with a vase of flowers with a note that said, “Thank you for growing us, because we needed your help in growing.”

City Director Mark Ross said, “We want to thank you for the huge growth and turning this organization around.”

The concert began at 7:00 p.m. with the Dusty Rose Band, a hard rock band that has made the Ark-La-Tex its own with its blitzes of fiery country/rock/blues. It performed at the last Big Sounds Downtown last year in The Hub. This year, because of the heat wave, Big Sounds Downtown was moved indoors and because of rain on their scheduled date July 6th, their performance in Hope was postponed until Thursday night, so they shared the bill with Covie.

With such songs as John Anderson’s “Swingin’,” David Lee Murphy’s “Party Crowd” and Garth Brooks “Last Dance,” the DRB went in a more country direction than they did a year ago, which allowed lead singer Jason Springer to show off his emotive baritone. The songs were shorter than in last year’s appearance, in which the band had more time, but lead guitarist Lee Brooks still made his solos count.

The second act, and headliner of the show, was Covie the Band, fronted by Covenant Olatunde, the son of missionaries, an astonishingly smooth-voiced, versatile vocalist and guitarist. The band’s website calls Covie the Band a music collective and this was fitting, the three members that arrived from their home in Tyler, Texas playing as an interacting ensemble through songs that call on togetherness to do good, like Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Jack Johnson’s “Better Together,” and a spectacular arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” For their first show in Arkansas, Covie showed such a wisdom in reaching the Hope audience with their meld of R&B, acoustic folk, modern gospel and gentle electronica. Olatunde explained afterward that his voice likes warm weather, and it was lovely to hear it Thursday night.

Olatunde’s wife Addison and son joined the audience in the front row about four songs in and the toddler boy showed his appreciation for his father’s singing with smiling laughter, dancing and high-speed crawls. “Just smile and cheer for him,” Olatunde told the audience. It was easy to do.

Frequent attendees of shows in the Klipsch Auditorium noticed a difference in the sound, size and look of the speakers on either side of the stage and down below it.  Jim Hunter, Klipsch Museum of Audio History curator, said these were Klipsch theater speakers and their service during the concert was but a fraction of their capacity.  “They’re idling,” he said. They lent an extra thrust to the proceedings even if they were not set on full-throttle.  “We don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Hunter explained.