ENMU concert features Randy Rogers Band

Eastern New Mexico University events organizers say they’re going to end the school year with some “Texas Country” music Thursday.

The ENMU Associated Students Activities Board is putting together a concert that will feature the Randy Rogers Band in the ballroom of the Campus Union Building.

“He’s (Randy Rogers) got a reputation of putting on a good live show,” Shem Peachey, an ASAB member and concert organizer, said.

The doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert begins at 7 p.m. The local Portales group “The Kene Terry Band” will warm up the crowd with its brand of country music. Admission to the concert is free.

Jeff Blake, ASAB program coordinator, said ENMU organizers are trying to create a tradition of putting together successful, entertaining concerts at the end of the spring semester. Blake said in May of 2005 organizers held the Willie Nelson concert that sold 1,250 tickets.

“It (concert) gives them (students) a chance to have a good time,” Peachey said. “It’s a way of sending them out on a good note.”

Blake said the concert will be mostly standing room with limited seating in the back of the CUB Ballroom.

On a grueling tour schedule, The Randy Rogers Band performed at College Station, Texas, Tuesday night and will perform in Abilene, Texas, tonight. After a Thursday performance in Portales, the members will entertain in an Odessa, Texas, concert Friday and in Shiner, Texas, Saturday.

“He’s popular among country fans,” Blake said of Rogers. “He has a new CD coming out. This concert is timed perfectly. He’s becoming a national artist with his debut on a major label coming out.”

Rogers met other band members while attending Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, according to the Randy Rogers Band Web site. The band members were born in cities and towns in west Texas including Lubbock, Plainview and Abilene, the Web site said.