Bishop Hill Heritage Association has planned a series of FREE, family-friendly concerts over the course of the summer. The concerts will be held at the Village Park, rain or shine, unless dangerous conditions arise. Guests are asked to bring lawn chairs. In addition to food and drink options offered by Bishop Hill establishments, area organizations and vendors will be set up to provide additional food and drink options during these events. For more information about this concert series, contact the Bishop Hill Heritage Association at 309 927-3899 or bhha@mymctc.net. American Rescue Plan Funds from Henry County, approved by the Henry County Board, were used to help finance this concert series.
The Saturday August 5 concerts starts off at 1 p.m. with Morgan Myles performing. Then Aledo’s very own Suzy Bogguss will finish off the day with her performance. Suzy Bogguss’ concert should end at 4 p.m.
Believing it’s her mission to help people through the power of music, Myles is a full-time touring musician having opened for artists like Luke Bryan, Rick Springfield, Hank Williams Jr., Old Dominion, Jake Owen, and Kane Brown. She also recently sang back up on Cody Johnson’s radio single “Nothing on You.” In 2020, Myles won Artist and Record of the year for the Nashville Industry Music Awards for her debut album “Therapy,” receiving praise from Rolling Stone, Billboard, and American Songwriter. R Myles recently competed on season 22 of ‘The Voice’ on NBC, where she received a four chair turn in four seconds singing her rendition of “Hallelujah.” Her views add to over 30 Million for her performances on the show. Myles finished in the Top 3 of the competition.
Suzy Bogguss didn’t set out to craft a Merle Haggard tribute record. Some might call that serendipity; she just calls it Lucky.  “Merle Haggard is a hell of a storyteller,” says Suzy. “When I hear his songs, I feel like I’m listening in on someone’s life.” On her new album, Lucky, a collection of songs all written by Haggard, Suzy does more than just listen—the CMA, ACM and Grammy Award-winning singer makes the country rebel’s compositions her own, reinterpreting classics like “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Silver Wings” and “Today I Started Loving You Again” from a female point of view.
“Merle is one of the most masculine songwriters I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been watching boys cover his music for years. I just thought, ‘Why couldn’t a girl do this?’” Suzy Bogguss says. Turns out, a woman can—especially if that woman is Suzy Bogguss, one of country music’s most pristine and evocative vocalists. With the release of the Illinois native’s 1989 major label debut, Somewhere Between, Suzy quickly became one of the key artists that defined those golden days of ’90s country. She scored a string of Top 10 singles with country radio staples like “Outbound Plane,” “Drive South,” “Hey Cinderella,” “Letting Go” and “Aces,” and her 1991 album of that name was certified platinum. In addition, she scored a trio of gold albums and notched more than 3 million sales. With Lucky, released on Suzy’s own label Loyal Dutchess, the singer comes full circle, returning yet again to her early inspiration, Merle Haggard