Hot Summer Nights is about to make its return for the summer of 2022.
This year’s lineup will include eight different free performances, all spread out throughout the months of June and July, taking place every Friday night with the exception of July 1. This will be the 27th year of Hot Summer Nights.
“Every year, it grows and every year, we get in different adds,” Odessa Arts Director Randy Ham said. “The public always seems to respond very positively to it. It’s a great partnership that we have with Downtown Odessa. This year, we got the added twists of having some of the performances at the Ector Theatre and the Noel Heritage Plaza. This year will be a little bit different. For the first half of Hot Summer Nights, all the performances for the month of June will take place at the Ector Theatre. The other half, which includes all of July’s concerts, will be at Noel Heritage Plaza. “If you want to be outside, come to the outside concerts,” Ham said. “If you want to be inside, come to the inside concerts. I think our lineup is strong enough that you’re going to want to come to both.”
Last summer, all the concerts took place at the Ector Theatre. “There were several reasons for that,” Ham said. “One, we wanted to showcase the theatre to the public for free so that anybody that wanted to get a look inside the theatre could without worrying about ticket prices. A lot of people were really happy to be inside the Ector Theatre with the air conditioning. The musicians were thrilled to be on that stage with the state of the art sound system and everything. But there were people who missed bringing their dogs and missed being outside and wanted to go back out in the park. Of course, we don’t want to alienate anyone so we talked about it and what we came up with was this great little compromise that I think is the best of both worlds and that’s have half of the shows at the Ector Theatre and the other at the park.”
All performances for Hot Summer Nights will be at 7 p.m. The first concert this year will be the West Texas Jazz Society on June 3 at Ector Theatre. That performance will be a part of the West Texas Jazz Party. “That has been one of my favorite things,” Ham said of the West Texas Jazz Party. “Odessa is home to the Longest Running Jazz Party in the world and lots of people don’t know that. By working with the jazz society to provide one concert, free to the public, it’s a great way to showcase jazz. It’s a great way to highlight a home-grown operation that’s been going on for 56 years and give them some more patrons. I always say, if you don’t like jazz, it’s because you haven’t heard the right jazz and I think the West Texas Jazz Party can change your mind. We have world class performers from the Permian Basin and I think everyone should take advantage of that.”
Montopolis will follow on June 10. After that will be White Ghost Shivers on June 17. This summer will be the first time White Ghost Shivers will be back at Hot Summer Nights in over five years. “White Ghost Shivers, the last time they performed was 2016,” Ham said. “There were a couple of reasons why they haven’t been back until this year. The pandemic hit and we couldn’t bring them back. but it’s nice to finally get all of the moving pieces together and bring them back to welcome them back. They put on a great, post-modern juke box-esque show that is well-suited for the Ector Theatre. We’re happy to have them. Montopolis will showcase the landscape of West Texas with its touring orchestra that puts music together with a film showing Big Bend. “I think that speaks to our area of Texas and it’s a great new experience that we’ve never been able to provide before,” Ham said. Stephanie Urbina Jones and The Honky Tonk Mariachi will perform on June 24. “For the record, all of these dates are my favorite,” Ham said. “But the one I’m looking forward to the most is Stephanie Urbina Jones. She does Mariachi covers of country music hits. I can’t wait to hear her on stage. The recorded version is amazing and I can’t wait to hear the live version.”
This year’s lineup will also bring back some performers from last year including Donovan Keith, who will perform on July 8 and The Selfless Lovers, who will perform on July 22. “Last year, we had two performances that were very well-received and that was The Selfless Lovers and Donovan Keith,” Ham said. “Both of those were really good, first-time performers and we loved them so much that we wanted to bring them back. We’re bringing them back to help close out the season.” The Vinyl Stripes will perform on July 15. Closing out the summer on July 29 will be the winner from The Battle of the Bands competition. The Battle of the Bands will take place on July 2 at Ector Theatre. Voting for that is already open and can be done online at odessaarts.org/contests. The voting will determine the top four bands that will compete on July 2 for a chance to perform on July 29. “We’re doing Battle of the Bands and the winner of Battle of the Bands during Firecracker Fandango will close out the Hot Summer Nights season,” Ham said. “That will be one of their prizes.”
Hot Summer Nights is put on by both the Odessa Arts and Downtown Odessa. “I’ve really enjoyed working with Downtown Odessa on this,” Ham said. “It’s a great partnership between the two organizations and I love to see the way it’s grown. I can’t wait to see next year what it’s like when we have more development downtown so that we can capitalize on this. Downtown Odessa Director Casey Hallmark has also spoken highly about the partnership with Odessa Arts to put on Hot Summer Nights. “We work with Odessa Arts on a couple of different projects,” Hallmark said. “We’re very lucky to have such a great organization to work with us and to partner with on this event. We’ve worked with them in the past and continue to do so. Downtown Odessa handles all the infrastructure and Odessa Arts handles all the booking of the artists. It has worked out well. It benefits the public and it’s a free event.”
2022 LINEUP
- June 3: West Texas Jazz Society
- June 10: Montopolis
- June 17: White Ghost Shivers
- June 24: Stephanie Urbina Jones and The Honky Tonk Mariachi
- July 8: Donovan Keith
- July 15: The Vinyl Stripes
- July 22: The Selfless Lovers
- July 29: Battle of the Bands winner
If you go
- What: Hot Summer Nights.
- When: 7 p.m. Every Friday from June 3-July 29 (Except July 2).
- Where: Fridays in June at Ector Theatre and Fridays in July at Noel Heritage Plaza.
