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PRODUCTION PROFILE
How Do You
Like ‘Em Now?
Seth Jackson (left), and Eddie “Bones” Connell.
By DaveMcGinnis
Photos by JessicaHird
Over the last couple
decades, country music
has inched its way out
of the realm of the folk Americana
sound and into the arena
of, well…arena. Where country
stars once played enclosed theatres and
large clubs, they have now taken over the
stadiums that once played host exclusively
to rock. High on the mountain of arena country
stands Toby Keith, and, just like the arena
rockers before him, his current “Hookin’ Up
and Hangin’ Out” tour encompasses largescale
lighting, a big sound, pyro and video.
The stage even supports half of a Ford pickup
— used for an opening video sequence. The
show consists of at least 21 songs per night,
with four more on reserve should Keith see
fit to perform them. Such a show can put immense
demands on the shoulders of its techs,
but lighting director Eddie “Bones” Connell
and lighting designer Seth Jackson have
stuck with Keith for years (four for Jackson
and a decade for Bones), and seem to be right
at home, even though they come from polar
opposites in the entertainment industry.
Bones’ list of
past clients includes the now-closed
Cowboys bar in Dallas, Texas; the Cowboys in
Atlanta, Ga.; an ‘80s glam band called Lillian
Axe; and Pantera. “I started in clubs, using
just PAR cans like pretty much everyone else
did,” Bones remembers. Bones got offered
the gig with Keith while working lighting in
a bar where tour personnel, Keith included,
happened to visit on the same day that they
“He was nice and theatre, and I was flash
and trash.” —Eddie “Bones” Connell
had lost their previous designer.
Jackson, by stark contrast, rose through
the ranks of theatre. After studying theatre
at Webster University, Jackson went to work
for Vari-Lite in 1994, which soon led to his
first country tour, Lorrie Morgan. Jackson’s
appearance on the Toby Keith tour also
seems to have been brought about by a certain
degree of providence for all involved. In
the midst of the addition of the Ford truck
to the tour, and after Ford had hired another
designer to light that portion of the show,
26 PLSN FEBRUARY 2007
www.PLSN.com
the Toby Keith tour
found itself searching for a lighting designer
to tackle the entire project.
“It was completely last-minute,” Seth
confesses. “They were taking a big step with
the size of their show, and the Ford sponsorship
was starting out, and there was an
actual, full-size, real, working, with-an-engine
truck onstage. Ford had hired Jim Lenahan
to design their truck portion of the
show, and Toby’s people approached him
about just doing the whole thing, but he
was swamped and busy, and he and I had
worked together for years, so he said, ‘Why
don’t you call this guy?’ So, that’s kinda how
it all happened. I got the call three and a
half weeks before we went into rehearsals
or something. It was fast.”
Bones characterizes his meeting with his
partner thus: “He was nice and theatre, and I
was flash and trash.”
Given the different backgrounds of the
two key figures in this lighting rig, one would
expect some clashes, but both Jackson and
Bones say that, so far, everything has been
fine. While each admits to some hesitation
in the early days, they quickly realized that
they may well have been the perfect pairing
to create a solid light show. With Bones’
history of functioning as a human MIDI, and
with Jackson’s background in theatre, interpreting
pre-existing material to illuminate a
cohesive whole (like, say, music), the formula
for a driven show drew itself.
“First year was a little ‘how are we going
to do this?’” Jackson told PLSN. “But then
we kinda clicked.”
Bones is quick to respond with, “We can
read each other’s minds.”
The preparation for the “Hookin’ Up”
tour commenced in February of last year.
Bones, Jackson, production manager Sean
Sergeant and production coordinator Mark
Sissle opened discussions regarding what
the show would look like and how it would
move. “You come up with two or three ideas,
and they’d go to Toby,” Jackson reports, “And
he kinda speaks to what he wants and what
he likes — and then that’s done.”
Jackson did the modeling in 3D StudioViz,
and then went right into programming
in a Bandit Lites warehouse. Of course,
the trim, about 18 feet, was about half of
what it should have been. The actual touring
rig trimmed out to a minimum of 35 feet
under ideal conditions, though it can — and
has — been trimmed down to accommodate
certain venues. With such constraints, much
of the result had to be imagined, as many elements
had to be excluded from the rig until
hang time, but it ended up taking only a few
days in what Bones called “scorching” heat.
Bones sat down ahead of time to draft out
everything from cue sheets to focus charts.
The abbreviated preparation necessitated
quick decision making.
“We kept going back and forth on three
or four different rows as to what it was all going
to be and what was going to be a part
of it and would video be in?” Seth told PLSN.
“So when we got it locked in as ‘This is what
Different paths have lead
Seth Jackson and Eddie “Bones” Connell
to lighting one of the biggest tours in country music.