The Sofa Kings rock The Arts Park for the Henry County Concert Series
By: Kevin Vickery
On Friday, July 17th, The Henry County Concert Series welcomed long-time New Castle favorite, The Sofa Kings along with special guests, Dave Ellison and J.B. to the Arts Park in downtown New Castle for the second installment of the 2026 season.
Warm temperatures prevailed, and raindrops were kept to a bare minimum for a night of music at the beautiful venue located at 218 South 15th Street, right between the Art Association of Henry County and the New Castle Henry County Public Library.
The show opened with New Castle natives and veterans of the Concert Series, singer/guitarist Dave Ellison backed by percussionist Justin (JB) Browning on the Djembe drum for a tasteful acoustic cover set that the crowd enjoyed as they were getting ready for The Sofa Kings.
On his song selections, Dave said, “I like to keep it pretty eclectic. I don’t stick with just one genre all together and I like to be a little versatile so, who knows where I’m going to bounce around to.”
Dave was born in Long Beach, CA where his Father was stationed at a naval base. Once his Dad got out of the Navy, they moved to New Castle when Dave was 10 years old. On that part of his life, Dave recalled, “At that time, this Arts Park used to be Jennings Lumber. I used to come here with my Dad to buy Lumber and things to help him. To come back here 40-50 years later and see and perform in this beautiful facility – that’s very inspiring. I couldn’t be happier.”
The audience was primed and ready for local favorites, The Sofa Kings when they took the stage and delivered their classic rock mega-hit cover set to one the largest crowds I’ve seen at any of these Henry County Concert events. I was personally impressed with the range of styles in the songs they play, opening with the Styx classic, “Blue Collar Man” and eventually making their way through dance hits from throughout the years like Bruno Mars’, “Uptown Funk” and Bobby Brown’s, “My Prerogative”.
The Sofa Kings hold a special place in the heart of their fans not only because of their talent but also because of their founding member, Monte Jackson who passed away in June of 2025, just prior to the beginning of the concert series.
Monte was a fixture in the local music scene, a talented musician and a longtime Henry Country Concert Series board member. Feeling his absence throughout last year’s events lead to the creation of Montepalooza which was held at the end of the concert season in September as a musical celebration of life for Monte.
This event featured a “who’s who” of local musicians who had known and loved Monte paying tribute to him from stage. The Sofa Kings reunited for the first time in over a decade to be part of that show and decided to keep the band going again.
I was able to speak with Daryl Utt, another founder of The Sofa Kings who describes Montes as his, “first-cousin, best friend and confidant” and got his “then and now” take on the Sofa Kings experience.
Daryl told me that sometime in the late 90s or early 2000’s he was contacted by Craig Bailey, who was putting a band together with Monte and drummer, Rick Duncan for one gig at a local wedding reception. That spawned into a 13-year run that had the band working nearly every weekend.
After that, the group disbanded for a decade or so giving members the chance to pursue other solo and joint projects while others took a breaking from playing music all together.
That was the band’s status at the time of Monte’s death last year when they then regrouped for the Montepalooza tribute show at The Arts Park Pavilion. With Daryl telling the band, “We gotta do something for Monte,” the Sofa Kings have done just that by continuing to perform since then not only at this recent show for the Henry County Concert Series but elsewhere around the local area. There are also plans in the works of making the Monteoalooza show an annual event and of naming the dressing room at The Arts Park Pavilion the “Monte Jackson Green Room”.
In addition to Daryl carrying the load of singer/guitarist/keyboardist /saxophone player, the current Sofa Kings lineup consists of James Conley on keyboards, guitarist Chic Brown, bassist Mike Grose and Rick Duncan on drums.
I asked Daryl what he thought had given the band their popularity and success over time and he said, “We play lots of rock and roll, even heavy stuff but I think the main reason people want to come see us or book us has always been because we also play dance music and everybody loves to dance.” His answer was easily proven by watching their show that night as many of those in attendance were on their feet, dancing the night away in downtown New Castle while The Sofa Kings delivered all the classic rock, pop and dance tunes the crowd craved.
The Henry County Concert Series continues featuring The Why Store with John Thompson on August 21st, and Henry Lee Summer with Ritchie Dickerson on September 18th. All shows are at the Arts Park Pavilion with a 6:30 PM show time.
It takes a great deal of work and planning to bring a series of events like this to fruition and part of what makes that possible are the corporate sponsors. The Henry County Concert Series thanks Modern Fold, Henry County Community Foundation, Edward Jones, Elks Lodge #484, New Castle – Henry County Chamber of Commerce, The Art Association of Henry County and Bev & Duane Matthews for their support.
You can find more information about the Sofa Kings, as well as Dave Ellison on their facebook pages.
To find out about events at The Henry County Arts Park Pavilion visit the Art Association of Henry County’s website at henrycountyarts.org
Make Some Noise 