BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — In a corner of Eastern Kentucky where hills meet hardship, country music sensation Oliver Anthony is bringing his Rural Revival tour to Inez on May 17 to uplift a community hit hard by flooding and chronic economic struggle.
Tickets are $30 and go on sale Friday at 5 p.m. at ruralrevivalproject.org. Children 12 and under are free but must register online. Capacity is 3,000 due to space limitations.
The concert will take place behind the Martin County Business Center on Main Street and is expected to draw a large crowd. The lineup will include Anthony and several guest artists, as well as food vendors and Appalachian artisans offering handmade goods.
Jamie Summerlin, a promoter with Guidon of Morgantown, said the Inez stop is about more than music.
“The goal is to give a hand up and help people remember that there are small communities that need help—especially with all the flooding and everything that’s been going on,” he said.
Anthony, who rose from factory work to national fame with his 2023 breakout hit “Rich Men North of Richmond,” has made it his mission to speak for working-class and rural Americans often left out of the national conversation. His Rural Revival Project avoids big labels and corporate venues in favor of small towns that don’t usually see live tours.
A recent show in Spruce Pine, North Carolina—another town scarred by flooding—sold 3,500 tickets. It provided a significant boost to local businesses. Vendors sold out. Restaurants were packed. The town buzzed with energy.
“We’re excited to do the same here,” said Summerlin. “And again, just bring people to the community and help vendors sell out, help the restaurants, and just help the local community benefit.”
Organizers hope the event will deliver more than a temporary bump. In a county still rebuilding from a string of natural disasters, the concert also brings attention to long-term needs—aging infrastructure, limited resources and an economy stretched thin.
Part of Anthony’s weekend-long Rural Revival includes educational “talks” inside the Martin County Courthouse. The talks focus on self-sufficiency, local agriculture, and how residents can support one another.
“We did that in Spruce Pine and it was a soldout piece of the event as well,” Summerlin said. “We’ll have very limited tickets for that, but Anthony gave a speech during one of those talks. It’s an opportunity for people to connect and learn more about how to help themselves and the community.”
Attendance for the courthouse talks will be limited and require separate tickets, which will also be available online.
A side-by-side veterans’ ride from West Virginia will kick off the weekend festivities on Friday, May 16. Lara Mitchell Pack with First Frontier Appalachian Trails is organizing that effort.
On Sunday morning, a community worship service will take place on the concert stage.
The event is a partnership between Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty’s office and the Martin County Tourism Commission. Tourism chair Nita Collier said she’s hopeful the concert will bring more than foot traffic.
“It’s a full weekend, and we’re pretty excited,” she said.
Deputy Judge/Executive Carolea Mills said shuttle buses will run from Martin County High School beginning at noon on the day of the concert to accommodate overflow parking.
Inez City Commissioner Jennifer Wells is coordinating local vendor participation. Interested vendors can contact her via Facebook or by calling the judge’s office at (606) 298-2800 or Inez City Hall at (606) 298-4602.
Full event details, including parking, vendor info and courthouse programming, will be available at ruralrevivalproject.org.
This story was updated Thursday.