Ardenland

When it comes to musical talent, you have it or you don’t. It’s not something you can easily fake without falling into the ostracized category of lip-syncers.

Arden Barnett has tried his hand at it throughout the years from toddler days of banging pots and pans to the tunes of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass to playing saxophone in the school band. Once he was old enough to realize he just didn’t “have it,” he decided to go with the next best thing to being a rock star: being a music promoter.

Born in Forest, Miss., as a Navy brat and son of a busy entrepreneur, Arden spent time with his family in Clinton, Baton Rouge, Atlanta and West Palm Beach before settling in Boise, Idaho, during his high school years.

He made a little money helping run lights and sound for touring bands passing through town. His first “real” gig was working backstage during a 1979 show by Hoyt Axton, a folk singer and songwriter known for the Three Dog Night hits “Joy to the World” and “Never Been To Spain.”

“That was my first backstage exposure. That’s when I knew how into the whole music scene I really was,” said Arden, now 53.

The Barnett family moved to Birmingham in 1982, and it was there that Arden’s true talent in the music promotion industry began to flourish. He started his freshman year at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and dove right in, chairing the university concert committee, Center Stage Productions.

“We did close to 150 shows while I was there, including a lecture series with Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Ruth. My last year there we did 56 shows — club shows — like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cyndi Lauper, Sting and Billy Idol,” he said.

Arden made a pivotal move back to the Jackson area in 1986, the same year Madonna and Bon Jovi graced the top of the music charts with singles like “Papa Don’t Preach” and “You Give Love a Bad Name.”

He was riding high on the band promotion wave, and Jackson needed some help.

“The music scene here in the ’80s wasn’t exactly thriving,” he said. “(Old Tavern on) George Street, the Subway and Poets were all getting some local and regional music, but Hal and Mal’s was the only venue booking anything national at all.”

Arden asked Malcolm White, who was then just a few years into organizing the now legendary Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade, if he could start helping him book shows at Hal and Mal’s.

“He said, ‘No’ but said I could wait tables,” said Arden.

So, that he did.

It wasn’t long before he convinced White to give him a chance, allowing Arden to help with a show for renowned bluesman Taj Mahal.

“That truly started my long-lasting love for promoting,” he said.

The show was a success, and Arden spent the next eight years, from 1986 to 1994, booking events for White, including noteworthy Jackson street festival Jubilee Jam.

“When I first started promoting in Jackson, I just reached out to some of my music friends, and people would start calling me — and still do — and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got so-and-so coming through town.’ I really think we started a movement of getting more club acts to Jackson. Nobody else was doing that,” he said.

He had such a knack for it that he branched out and started his own promotion business in 1996: Arden Creative Talent Solutions and Fresh Produce Productions, bringing such acts as Widespread Panic and Lynyrd Skynyrd to downtown Jackson.

But by the mid-2000s, Arden hit a wall. The music industry was changing, as was his personal life, and he just wanted something different. He got out of the promotion business and into the golf business, mowing fairways at Reunion Golf Club in Madison, then working for Sky Golf, a course-mapping firm.

In his six years out of the music industry, not a day went by that it wasn’t still on his mind.

“I saw a niche that wasn’t being filled. There were just no good shows,” he said. “I guess it’s like that for musicians. If you’re a true musician, it’s hard to ever leave the biz.”

Fate came calling just a few days after the start of 2011. Arden was laid off from his job with Sky Golf when his department was shut down.

“I went to sleep that evening, and in the middle of the night I woke up my wife, Heidi, and told her I wanted to give music another shot,” he said.

With the midnight blessing of his wife, Arden opened Ardenland on the morning of January 4, 2011.

His first show to book was the Love to be Loved series at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Jackson’s Fondren neighborhood, featuring an acoustic concert by Carrie Rodriguez, Erin McKeown, Pierre Bensusan and Cary Hudson.

He started booking shows again for Hal and Mal’s and at the newly refurbished Duling Hall, a dream venue for Arden. He took over the lease of Duling Hall two years later, finally giving Ardenland a home base for its productions.

“This is just a great space,” said Arden, who runs his office out of the Fondren Corner building. “It finally has the right combo of retail and restaurant space to make it work.”

From weddings and private parties to intimate shows by the Black Crowes, Flaming Lips and Willie Nelson, Ardenland has helped establish Duling Hall as a premiere event space in Jackson. It’s also been the key to putting Jackson on the national music map.

“For me, the one event that really changed things was Wilco at Thalia Mara in May 2012,” he said.

The Chicago-based alternative rock group with Mississippi ties played a sold-out show with two encore sets that night.

“The energy in that room was electrifying,” he said. “I had never felt that in Jackson before. We knew then that we were even more determined to keep our mission of bringing great music to Jackson.”

With as many ties to famous musicians as Arden has cultivated through the years, you’d think he’d have a brag wall full of photos.

“There have been times when I look back and think that it’d be cool to have my pic with some of these guys, but that’s not why I’m in the business. It’s not about me,” he said.

He does, however, have a signed promo poster from every band he’s booked. Some hang in his home in Belhaven, a historic neighborhood in central Jackson, and some in the renovated “groom room” and bar adjacent to the auditorium space at Duling Hall. The posters include personal messages to Arden from the likes of REM, Rickie Lee Jones, Ray Charles, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

The future of music in Mississippi is a little brighter because of Arden. Ardenland books shows throughout the state — from backroom venues to coliseums, and it’s only growing.

Chances are, if you’ve seen a good show lately, it’s because of this guy. He wants to share his passion for music with the world, and he’s proud to start with Jackson.

STORY Elizabeth Grey
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis