By Billy Davis

On the Batesville Square Saturday night, the customer line for St. Mary’s funnel cakes ought to be longer than a semi-trailer by the time country musician Lee Brice takes the stage sometime after 9 p.m.

There’s some consolation for those waiting in line, which is hearing Brice serenade Batesville with “A Woman Like You,” the hit single off his second album, Hard 2 Love.  

You don’t have to like country music to like the song.

Really, you don’t.

It’s not an over-the-top country song. There’s no singing about drinking beer while riding a tractor down Main Street with your buddies on a wild Saturday night. But “A Woman Like You” doesn’t belong on the FM 100 rotation either:

Last night outta the blue,
Driftin’ off to the evening news,
She said, “Honey, what would you do
If you’d never met me?”
I just laughed, said “I don’t know,
But I could take a couple guesses though…”
It just gets better from there.

If Batesville gets to hear the song, a few things may happen. Wives will look at their husbands all misty-eyed, and husbands will be wise to put down the barbecue sandwich and pull your wife a little closer just as soon as you figure out what’s going on. By the time the song ends you’ll both be looking down at your wedding bands and all the husbands, especially, will thank the Lord they’re not a single man.

Or maybe that’s just me. But there’s no doubt Lee Brice has had good success with “A Woman Like You,” which is holding down the No. 10 spot this week on the Billboard Country chart.

After peaking at No. 1 just last month, “A Woman Like You” may be sliding down the Billboard scale, since it has dropped to No. 10 from No. 7 last week. But the single has remained on the charts for 31 weeks, longer than any current song in the Top 10.

On the Internet, the official video for “A Woman Like You” has accumulated 3.4 million views on Youtube.

Brice’s sophomore album, Hard 2 Love, is also doing well on Billboard Country, where it’s sitting in the No. 2 spot this week.

Brice, a South Carolina native, is known in the music industry for his songwriting skills. Most famously he co-wrote “More Than a Memory,” a hit for veteran country crooner Garth Brooks. The song debuted No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, the first single to ever do so.

“Love Like Crazy,” a 2009 single from Brice’s first album, is another song to hope to hear Saturday night.

“Love Like Crazy” stayed on the Billboard charts for a record-breaking 56 consecutive weeks, most of that a slow rise to peak on Hot Country Songs at No. 3.   

Other notable music acts during SpringFest:

•    This year’s SpringFest music includes two local bands that managed to get spots in the Saturday lineup.

Honky Tonk Heroes, headed by longtime lead singer Jason Adams, is set to play at 2 p.m. Still Road, led by Kelsey Russell, is set to play at 4 p.m.

•    Memphis-based band “G3,” lead by guitarist Garry Goin, is the headliner Friday night. The energetic party band plays everything from Motown to Madonna. It will be a slow three-hour gig for G3 tonight if Panolians decide to stay in their lawn chairs during “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”    

•    The sun should be setting when Dew Holcomb and The Neighbors are playing on the SpringFest stage Saturday.

Singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb, a Memphis native, prefers the description “Americana” for the lyrics and music he writers with wife Ellen.

“We’re gimmick-free. We get on stage and make music,” he told The Panolian for a May 11 story in Panola People.

If Batesville is very lucky, Holcomb and his band mates will play “Live Forever,” a hauntingly simple song that could pass for an altar call in church.

If Brice’s “A Woman Like You” makes you want to hug your spouse Saturday night, listening to “Live Forever” will make you want to hold your young children close and never ever let them go.  

Holcomb said he wrote “Live Forever” for his nephew and nieces, and he considers it his favorite ever written.

If you’re a fan of Hugh Laurie and “House,” you may have heard a portion of “Live Forever” in the promo for the series-ending show on May 21.

Another song penned by Holcomb, “Fire and Dynamite,” could really make it fun to be at SpringFest, especially if a couple thousand people can be ready to sing it back to him by sunset tomorrow.
For more SpringFest information see pages A8 and A9, and page A14 in today’s Panolian.