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David Ball to take the Bushwhacker stage tonight
Nevada, Mo. -- Singer, songwriter and Grammy Award winning performer David Ball and his band The Pioneer Playboys will take the stage on the Nevada Square at 8:45 tonight as the main act for the final day of musical entertainment at the 47th Annual Bushwhacker Days Celebration.
Best known for his hit songs "Thinkin' Problem" and "Riding With Private Malone", Ball has been a professional musician for more than 40 years and has toured with some of the biggest names in country music including Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Brooks and Dunn and others. And even though he has taken the stage with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Ball said he is looking forward to coming to Nevada.
"I love playing out-of-the-way places," Ball said. "I did the big thing, but these out-of-the- way places are a lot of fun," he said. Ball feels like "a very small, intimate setting" puts him in closer contact with the audience and he is free to just "play music" and not put on a show. "I'll take playing music over performing any time," Ball said.
Ball and his band will bring what he calls his "modern day retro" kind of music to the stage by playing past tunes and a new song "What'll I Do If I don't Have You" which he thinks is probably his best song ever. Ball said his music is based on "great melodies, I'm a melody guy," he stated during a telephone interview.
Ball writes all of his own music and lyrics and has had a lot of different musical influences, ranging from Bob Wills to Elvis. "What I really like is new music" he said, "but my roots are in older music." He said he likes to write and play music that is similar to 1950s country, "the golden era of country music," he said.
Ball and the band only travel to about 110 gigs a year; "we just kind of go out on the weekends," he said. They work out of Nashville, Tenn., and have recently been playing a lot of music in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and even in Wisconsin. Those folks in those areas are great country music fans, Ball said, and he enjoys playing for them.
Ball began playing music with a ukulele and was playing a guitar by the time he was about 12. When he was 17 and attending high school in his home town of Spartanburg, N.C., he joined up with a couple of friends and was playing a bass fiddle in Uncle Walt's Band. The group left North Carolina to play in Texas where Ball said there was a "lot of exciting music being made" in those days. Ball said playing that bass fiddle "opened my ears to a lot of music."
Ball moved to Nashville and has been there ever since. He lives about 20 miles out of the country music capitol with his wife of 33 years, Jan. They have one daughter named Audrey who is 27.
Ball spends much of his time on music. Between writing lyrics and composing melodies and playing music, he doesn't get a lot of free time. But when he does, he likes to take his bass boat out and try to catch some fish. "I love to get out on the water," he said, and he likes to golf, "but what I'm best at is barroom shuffleboard," he said.
Ball also thinks its important to devote some of himself to philanthropy.
With the release of the single "What'll I Do If I Don't Have You" David will honor the military by teaming up with the charitable organization, Operation Troop Aid. The nonprofit organization sends care packages to deployed U.S. troops. A portion of sales from the new release will benefit OTA. Ball said the care packages are simple and contain everyday items that most people take for granted. "It lets those people in the service know that America thinks about them," he said.