Can’t Miss with Chip Chandler, July 28

Texas country star Kyle Park makes his long-awaited solo return to Amarillo with a 9 p.m. Saturday show at Hoot’s Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road.

Park and I caught up recently about his 20-year anniversary in the music business, his new side project and why, even though it’s been a while, he still loves coming to Amarillo. (This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Chip Chandler: It’s been a while since you and I’ve talked, and it’s been a while since you’ve been in Amarillo doing a solo show, right? 

Kyle Park: Yeah, the last time I was there was a show at the Golden Light. It was a quick show a couple of years ago. I think I booked it four or five days before I played it on the way up to a midwest run or a Western US run. 

CC: In general, is Amarillo a pretty good stop for you? 

KP: Absolutely. I love it. I’ve got friends there, longtime friends. I just love how most everybody who comes to the show seems to be real country music fans and enjoy the two-stepping and beer drinking. My kind of people, you know? 

CC: You’ve always been the traditionalist pretty much, right? 

KP: I mean, I like to rock and roll some, but my roots are deep with traditional country music. 

CC: I noticed that you’ve been playing a lot with a new group, the Texas Trio. Tell me about them. 

KP: In 2019 or so, me and my friends, John Michael Whitby and Jason Roberts, were asked to play at a friend’s birthday party. And we had such a great time. We ended up booking more gigs off that, putting together a few parties, then putting a record out, giving ourselves a name. We didn’t mean for it to happen. It just kind of organically happened because of our friendship and the songs that we do together without even rehearsing. Our first album came out in 2024, and we play about 15 shows a year. Man, I love it. It’s so much fun to just take a back seat from being the lead singer and the lead frontman and just kind of being a part of the band and having a good time. It’s such a fun trip. 

CC: You’ve been on the road for, what, 20 years now, so a change up is nice, right? 

KP: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was just telling someone that. For 20 years, being your own boss, then all of a sudden you got three bosses. Man, it’s a whole new dynamic. I mean, sometimes you have the butting of the heads, but you also sometimes get to just take a back seat and not worry about things that you usually have to worry about. You can just share the load.

CC: Let’s touch back on that 20 years for you solo on the road. What’s that milestone mean to you? 

KP: That’s pretty wild. It’s over half my life now to be doing this. I began touring when I was 19, and I just turned 41 a couple days ago. I’ve got my 10th album in the works right now. To be around still doing this for two decades is definitely an honor, and I don’t take it for granted. I love playing music, man. 

CC: What do you think is No. 1 thing you’ve learned in those 20 years? 

KP: I mean, hey, I don’t have advice for anybody. I know that I’m a lifer. I mean, I know that. It’s not like I’m some super-duper star with a major label making millions of dollars, but I also know I’m fortunate to be a musician full time. This is all I know to do, and I’m so fortunate.

CC: Did you think at 19 that this was it for life, that this is what you were? 

KP: Honestly, maybe not at 19, but I think at 21, 22 I really did. I recall turning 21 on stage. I drove from San Marcus, where I went to school, to Lubbock. That night I made enough money to buy every guy their own hotel room that night. Well, their own bed at least. We weren’t sharing beds. That’s how broke we were. And I gave the guys 100 bucks extra, and I made 100 bucks extra, and we sold some T-shirts, and I was, like, man, this made me more happy than all of my miserable friends and their miserable jobs. This is making money in the most fun way, and making people happy. If I could do this, this is what I’d want to do for the rest of my life.

CC: What are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen in the last 20 years? 

KP: The difference now is that you can be overnight famous on TikTok and like really not even perform live and not even get your hands dirty, and you can sell out arenas at your first show. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m just saying it’s theoretically possible when it wasn’t possible when I was 20 years old. But you can’t perform live, like the way you know how it feels to be heckled or booed, or how it feels to know your microphone cuts out or your guitar quits working or you break a string, or the van messes up—all those little things that you had to know how to roll with and stay professional. I don’t know if that’s the case anymore. 

CC: It is a totally different environment these days. 

KP: It’s just different. You know, I’m not going to say it’s better. I’m not going to say it’s worse. It’s just different. I’ve found myself playing a lot more acoustic shows lately and getting back to what got me loving music. I’m just playing for sometimes 20 people, sometimes 50 people, sometimes a hundred people. Having those listening rooms and a captive audience, I would truly rather have 20 people listening with all their attention than 2,000 who are just there to have a good time. That’s why I’m a lifer.

Cover is $15.

Ama-Con, the Amarillo Public Library’s celebration of pop culture, returns Saturday and Sunday in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex, 401 S. Buchanan St.

This year’s guest lineup includes cosplayers Bella Bradshaw and Billy Bolt, authors Cindy Pham and Mark Crilley, actress Sara Tomko, and voice actor Tiffany Grant, among others.

Attendees also can enjoy an escape room, cosplay competitions, a scavenger hunt, vendors and more.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The annual Geek Prom begins at 7:15 p.m. Saturday.

Passes are $8 for one day and $10 for both.

Visit libraryamacon.org for information.

This week’s other can’t-miss options: