Concert News

Smokey Robinson is surprise act at Fort Worth Stock Show 2024 concert series

Motown legend Smokey Robinson.

Smokey Robinson

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo returns for 2024 with a slate of live music acts that include a major name in R&B and a smattering of country singers.

The surprise is Motown legend Smokey Robinson, plus five country acts: Sammy Kershaw, Old Crow Medicine Show, Trace Adkins, and Pam Tillis and Little Texas.

The concerts will take place at Will Rogers Auditorium during the Stock Show’s 128th edition, running January 12-February 3, as follows:

January 12: Country singer Sammy Kershaw will be the first performer in the series. Kershaw had his heyday in the mid-1990s thanks to a series of top 10 albums and hits like "She Don't Know She's Beautiful," "I Can't Reach Her Anymore," and "National Working Women's Holiday." He's released 17 albums in his career, most recently 2016's The Blues Got Me.

January 18: Folk band Old Crow Medicine Show marked its 25th anniversary in 2023 with the release of their latest album, Jubilee, which was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The band, which was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2013, is known for hits like the CMA Award-winning “Wagon Wheel."

January 19: Since his debut in 1996, country singer Trace Adkins has sold over 11 million albums and charted 20 songs on Billboard’s all genre Hot 100, with 15 of his singles making it into the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

January 20: Smokey Robinson is long synonymous with Motown Records as he was one of the founding fathers of the company and its first artist with The Miracles. His hits include classics like "I Second That Emotion," "You Really Got a Hold on Me," "Tears of a Clown," and "The Tracks of My Tears."

February 1: Country favorites Pam Tillis and Little Texas will share the stage on February 1. Tillis is three-time CMA Award winner, winning the Female Vocalist of The Year Award in 1994, and has been nominated for six Grammys, winning two of them. Little Texas has had 12 Top 20 singles, including three consecutive No. 1 hits: "What Might Have Been," "God Blessed Texas," and "My Love."

Tickets for the first five concerts will go on sale on Friday, December 1 at 10 am at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets for each concert will provide admission to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo grounds.

The Stock Show first introduced the concert component, called the Auditorium Entertainment Series, in 2021. President Brad Barnes says in a statement that more acts for 2024 are still to be announced.

“The Auditorium Entertainment Series has established itself as one of Fort Worth’s best entertainment destinations and 2024 will raise the bar even higher,” Barnes says. “This is just the start of what will be a number of incredible artists appearing in the historical Will Rogers Auditorium throughout the Show.”

concerts music

share the road

Texas is one of the most unfriendly states for riding a bicycle

Photo by Coen van de Broek on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Fort Worth, you already know how true this is.

Fort Worth has a vibrant bicycling community, but the state of Texas is not so bicycle-friendly. A new report called the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S." puts Texas at nearly at the bottom of the list.

Texas comes in at No. 47, with only three other states that are worse: Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, which is the least cycle-friendly state of all.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

texas reports rankings