New Castle, Indiana

 

July 17, 2022

 

New Castle, Indiana

A week after flying up to Cincinnati for the weekend for a wedding, I was back in the air, this time on my way to Indianapolis to attend a twofer of Counting Crows concerts as part of the Rock the Ruins concert series at Holiday Park. I flew up on Friday morning and had the day on Friday to do whatever I wanted as those concerts were not until Saturday and Sunday.

As I usually do, I try to look at what else is happening in the vicinity of where I am traveling to and discover if there is anything else that looks of interest that I may want to do. Perusing facebook, I learned that Henry Lee Summer was going to be performing a free concert on Friday evening in New Castle, Indiana as part of the Henry County summer concert series.

Henry Lee Summer is a Hoosier rock singer who enjoyed tremendous success and popularity in the late 70s and early 80s, especially in the Midwest. I used to go see him often at places like the Vogue and even saw him share a double bill at the Indiana State fairgrounds with John Mellencamp that had over 40,000 fans in attendance. So it was with a bit of nostalgia that I decided I wanted to go check him out in New Castle.

I had not been to New Castle since I was in high school when my school competed in the Hall of Fame classic against Steve Alford and the New Castle Trojans. Since that time they have built a first class Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame just next to the high school and I wanted to check that out prior to heading over to the park where the concert was to be held. 

The Basketball Hall of Fame honors all the men and women who have played high school, college and even professional basketball in the state, but it is highlighted and does an amazing job focusing on the storied history of high school basketball.  It is an absolutely terrific place with incredible displays that trace the heritage of the sport and features a plethora of great displays and memorabilia.

I was able to find a couple of friends who have been inducted and even the game ball from that long ago (1982) game between Cathedral and New Castle. My friend and classmate Kenny Barlow,, is enshrined and I was able to see his plaque as well as one for the late William Smith, legendary coach of Broad Ripple High School who captured the 1980 state championship.

After the visit, I headed to downtown New Castle where I was an early arrival at the Arts Park where the concert was to be held, so I had time to explore the park and even walk around downtown New Castle a bit before returning to catch the concert. There was a good sized crowd on hand and they all seemed to enjoy the show.

I really enjoyed it as well as Henry Lee sounded great and played all his best known hits from the late 80s. My biggest surprise was that his backing vocalists were none other than the Fabulous Starlettes, another band that I followed and saw often back in the day. I was a casual acquaintance of the band, which featured the Mitchell sisters, Mary, Zanna and Julie, none of whom I had seen in 30 plus years.

It was so cool to see them and that they are all back performing together and it just made the choice to go see Henry Lee seem all the better.  It was really a fun and entertaining night and great to relive my youth by seeing performers who I was such a fan of so long ago. 

https://hoopshall.com/

https://henryleesummer.com/