Cool Country Acts

Feeling the heat? The city of Palmdale has two cool events to get through summer and into fall: the Starlight Summer Concert Series, which kicked off at Marie Kerr Park last week, and the 13th Annual Fall Festival in October.

The summer series opened with Paul Revere and the Raiders last week and Saturday’s headliner is Rhett Akins. The strapping Georgian burst out of the country hat-pack in 1995 with a string of self-penned hits, including “She Said Yes,” “I Brake for Brunettes,” and his explosively popular signature song, “That Ain’t My Truck.”

“That was the real deal,” drawled Akins, 28, speaking by phone from Wichita Falls, where he’d just played a pep rally at the Dallas Cowboys training camp. “I’d driven by this girl’s house back home and I saw another guy’s truck, and I just said it, real plain, ‘Shoot, that ain’t my truck!’ ”

The song, from his gold-selling debut album, “A Thousand Memories,” earned him a personal invitation from David Letterman to appear on “The Late Show.”

“Letterman was driving to work from Connecticut listening to the country station and he heard it and loved it,” Akins said. “He insisted I play it on the show, even though I was already on my second album.”

Akins, who drives a truck in his current video, “Drivin’ My Life Away,” is on his third album, “What Livin’s About.” He said, “This time I didn’t write any of the songs. We’ve been touring nonstop for three years.”

Growing up in Valdosta, Ga., a mid-size farming community, Akins never dreamed he’d be a singer. “Football was the dream I knew was a possibility. My grandaddy played football, my daddy played. You started when you were 6, and I played all the way till I was 19 at the University of Georgia.”

Eventually he burned out, moved home to drive a truck for his dad’s oil distributorship, and began to get serious about an old love: music.

“I played guitar since I was 14, and listened to the Stones, the Allman Brothers, Hank Jr.--but when Garth and Clint and the younger guys started to come out, that really sparked it for me.”

In 1992, with the full support of his hometown, he moved to Nashville, giving himself two years to make it. “I was draggin’ a wife and kid with me, so I did everything I could to make it happen. I was determined.” That year, Akins appeared as a guest star for Roy Acuff on the “Grand Ole Opry.” By 1995, with a hit album, he was a best new artist finalist at the American Music Awards, and appeared singing in the Julia Roberts movie, “Everybody’s Talking.”

In April, he was nominated by Nashville’s prestigious Academy of Country Music for best new male vocalist. Despite a grueling schedule, he still finds time to honor his old alumnus: the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, for whom he is national spokesperson.

“If there’s a club where I’m playing, I’ll drop by, shoot a few hoops and sing ‘em some songs,” said Akins. “I’m sure they’d rather have Puff Daddy, so they’re always surprised when I know rap as well as country. But I listen to everything, always have.”

In fact for his next album, Akins promises a major change.

“I don’t know what it’ll be, but it’ll be different. You can’t play it safe. What would have happened if Elvis had just stood there and sang like everybody else? Sometimes, you have to move out of the pack.”

The Starlight Summer Concert Series concludes Aug. 8 with jazz pianist David Benoit, who has scored such films as “Nashville.”

The Fall Festival, which offers two country shows on the same weekend, moves into its 13th season Oct. 10, with John Berry, the soulful country singer, headlining. Berry is a 1996 Grammy nominee for “Standing on the Edge of Goodbye.” His album, “Better Than a Biscuit,” is due in September.

On Oct. 11, acclaimed country-pop-rock trio Blackhawk, takes the stage to promote its fourth album, “The Sky’s the Limit,” to be released Oct. 29.

In addition to music, the popular festival, which draws 40,000, according to special events manager Steve Buffalo, will feature an aerospace expo, an “Imagination Expo,” a Pioneer Living Experience, 200 arts and crafts vendors, and a children’s area. Everyone is invited to bring blankets, chairs and picnic baskets.

BE THERE

Starlight Summer Concert Series: Rhett Akins, Saturday, 8 p.m.; David Benoit, Aug. 8, 8 p.m. Admission, free. Marie Kerr Park, 39700 30th St. West, Palmdale.

Fall Festival concerts: John Berry, Oct. 10, 5 p.m.; Blackhawk, Oct. 11, 4:30 p.m. Shows free with gate admission: adults, $4; senior citizens and children, ages 6-12, $2; 5 and under, free. McAdam Park, 38115 30th St. East, Palmdale. Information: (805) 267-5611.