Saturday, May 18, 2024
@
7:00 pm
–
9:00 pm
MDT
Come see Earl Hughes and the “Idaho Opry Stars” at The Bee Hive! Earl has been the appointed “Ambassador of Country Music” by Alaska Governors Sean Parnell, Frank Murkowski and Sarah Palin. He has also received the same recognition by Hawaii’s governor George Ariyoshi.
Earl has opened for or appeared on stage with Johnny Cash, Alabama, Ricky Skaggs, Mark Wills and many others. He has many original songs and has played his music at big events like the Pro Bowl and Hula Bowl.
Long before he was Alaska’s official ‘Ambassador of Country Music’, Earl Hughes was Hawaii’s ‘Ambassador of Country Music’. Playing, not so much on cruise ships, but entertaining cruise ship travelers while they ported, Hughes played for years with big names, including Mac Davis, Charley Pride and the Beach Boys.
“They told me, Earl, go play Hawaiian country music,” Hughes recalled. “I was Don Ho’s steel guitar player, so we were doing ‘Tiny Bubbles’, ‘Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places’ because ‘Urban Cowboy’ was big then. Then Alaska (cruise lines) hired me because nobody could play at the level I was at on steel guitar.”
A triple-threat, armed with expertise on the banjo, the fiddle and the pedal steel, skills he picked up as a young child as part of his father Bernie Hughes’ band, which performed on the 1950s TV show ‘Saturday Night Jamboree”, Hughes transitioned easily to summer tourism seasons in Alaska.
In Alaska, he’s played with the likes of Alabama, Ricky Skaggs and Johnny Cash during his stay here in the 1980s.
Idaho Opry Stars
Don Henderson
My music career started I high school where I started out as a drummer who could sing. I played in many bands from rock to Jazz to country. I went out on the road as a lead singer with a group called the Mojave River Band and played all over the US for 6 years. We played at clubs, casinos and was fortunate enough to open for artists like Terry Clark, Chris Ledeux, Brooks and Dunn, and Mark Wills. Recently moved to Boise and have been working with a Legendary musician, Earl Hughes. I played here locally for about 1 year. And been welcomed by many. I’m looking forward to continuing to entertain the Boise community for year to come. Come check me out. Thanks!
Nathan Board
Although Nathan Board has been an avid music fan for many years, he was a late bloomer in performance music playing his first live shows of roots country music at age 48 (motto: Never too old to start!).
Since 2017, Nathan has sang and played with several bands throughout the Treasure Valley and is a regular fixture at all the venues in Boise, Nampa and Caldwell. Nathan has partnered exclusively with Earl Hughes since March of 2021 and can be regularly seen supporting the Idaho Opry Stars.
George Nourse
George’s band, Treasure Canyon, gets a lot of his time and attention.
The four-member country band has been together for many years.
Nourse has played the guitar and sang since high school, and has extended his talent to writing and composing some of the band’s original songs.
“I don’t golf or bowl or do a lot of other things, but that’s been what I’ve enjoyed doing,” Nourse said.