BLMH’s Summer Youth Concert Series opens with Reece Burks, Celie Duffie and Davis White
Backline Music Hall, Tupelo, Mississippi, June 18, 2026
A new room for young voices
Backline Music Hall has been doing something pretty special in Tupelo lately. Not just booking shows, not just giving folks a place to spend a night out. They have been building a room where artists can actually grow in public, where young musicians can step up to a real stage, hear their name called, feel the lights hit their face and learn what it means to hold a crowd.
June 18, Backline opened the first show in its Summer Youth Concert Series with Reece Burks, Celie Duffie and Davis White. The venue had it listed as a youth-centered night with music starting at 7 p.m. and an all-ages spirit built right into the idea of the event. For a room that has already been carving out its place in Tupelo’s live music scene, this series feels like another smart step. Backline is becoming one of those places where the local and regional scene can actually breathe, not just pass through.
There is a difference between giving young performers a stage and giving them the right stage. Backline has the atmosphere for it. It is intimate enough that nerves cannot hide in the rafters, but professional enough that every performer has to rise to the moment. That is not always easy. For young artists, a night like this can feel bigger than the room. Every missed breath feels loud. Every smile from the crowd feels like a rescue rope. Every song becomes a small test of courage.
And tonight, all three passed.
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Reece Burks keeps moving forward
The night opened with Reece Burks, a young talent I first met a few years back when he was part of a band in its early days. Seeing him again now was one of those little time-jump moments that sneak up on you. He has grown as a musician and as a young man, enough that I almost did not recognize him at first.
That is always one of the pleasures of watching local talent early. You get to see the rough edges become shape. You get to see confidence arrive in stages. Reece is still young, only in the ninth grade, but he is already keeping a schedule that would make plenty of grown musicians check their calendar twice. Along with music, he has also been active in modeling and acting, which makes sense when you watch him settle into a stage. He carries himself like someone learning how to be comfortable with people watching.
Reece comes out of Amory, Mississippi and that part of the state keeps proving it has more talent tucked away than people outside the area realize. His set leaned into country and Southern-rooted material, with covers that gave him room to show where his voice sits right now and where it could keep going. He moved through songs like “Call Me the Breeze,” “Wagon Wheel,” “Neon Moon,” “Black” and “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” choices that say a lot about what he is drawn to. These are songs with road dust, heartbreak, barroom glow and enough melody to make a young singer work for the feeling instead of just the notes.
One of the stronger parts of his set came from hearing him place his own material beside songs the crowd already knew. “Paper Dolls” gave the night a little glimpse into who Reece is becoming as a songwriter, not only as a performer. He also included “Mona Wait,” a song from his upcoming EP planned for later this year. That is the kind of detail that makes nights like this feel less like a showcase and more like a starting line. Covers can tell you where an artist has been listening. Originals tell you where they might be headed.
There were nerves, sure. This was a youth concert series, not a room full of road veterans pretending stage fright never existed. But Reece handled himself well. You could hear the growth from the last time I saw him perform. His voice has gained strength, his comfort has improved and his stage presence is beginning to catch up with the ambition behind it.
Celie Duffie makes a second show feel like a beginning
Celie Duffie may have been the newest performer on the bill, but she did not feel like an afterthought. She came into the night as a young artist from Saltillo, Mississippi who has only been performing for about a year. More impressive than that, this was only her second show singing.
Second show. Fourteen years old. Standing in front of a room and working through a set that pulled from classic country, rock, soul and modern country storytelling.
That takes more backbone than people realize.
Celie has a voice with control already starting to show, especially for someone so new to performing live. She appears to understand her range instead of just throwing herself at songs and hoping they land. That is not a small thing. Plenty of singers spend years learning where their voice lives. Celie seems to already be listening to herself in real time, adjusting, feeling her way through the material and finding where she can lean in.
Her setlist said a lot about the kind of music she loves. “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” gave her a playful entrance point. “Angel from Montgomery” brought a different emotional weight. “Delta Dawn,” “Proud Mary,” “Any Man of Mine,” “What Are You Listening To,” “You’re Not Woman Enough” and “Traveller” stretched across generations, giving her a wide field to move through. That choice of older material fits what her mom shared about Celie’s taste. She loves classic country and rock, and you could hear that pull in the songs she chose.
There is also a lot of music already in her life. She sings, plays piano and classical violin, and is now learning fiddle and guitar. That is a lot for anyone, much less a fourteen-year-old still at the front edge of figuring out who she is as a performer. Her goal, according to her mom, is to use her talents to bring glory and honor to the Lord. That kind of grounding can be powerful for a young artist. It gives the music a direction beyond applause.
What stood out most was not perfection. Perfection would be the wrong thing to look for here anyway. What stood out was promise. Celie has the kind of early talent that makes you want to check back in a year, then two years, then five. She is still finding the full shape of her voice, but the foundation is there. The control is there. The courage is there. And with the right support around her, she could grow into something strong.
Davis White brings the old country bones
Davis White closed out the young lineup with the kind of presence that already feels familiar around Northeast Mississippi. He has been a steady young performer in the area and can often be found playing with Caroline Vanasselberg, where the two have built a strong duo sound together.
Currently a tenth grader at Pontotoc, Davis started his musical life early on piano before switching to guitar by age seven. That early start shows. He is not just holding a guitar because it gives him something to do with his hands. He can pick. He knows his way around the instrument and he gave the crowd a little proof of that when he worked a Billy Strings song into the set.
Davis has a voice that fits the music he loves. There is a low-country steadiness to it, a sound that brings to mind a young Randy Travis crossed with Josh Turner. That is not to say he is copying anyone. It is more that his voice seems naturally built for country songs with some age on them, songs that need gravity, plainspoken ache and a little gravel under the boots.
His set reached into the older country bloodstream with “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Long Haired Country Boy,” “Natural High,” “Would You Lay with Me,” “Ring of Fire,” “Old Habits,” “Mama Tried” and “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” He also included “Wish You Were Here,” “Life of Sin” and “Tell Lorrie I Love Her,” giving the set a mix of outlaw country, traditional storytelling and picker-friendly material.
Davis seems comfortable with songs that require a singer to sound lived-in before life has actually had time to weather him much. That is a tricky thing for a young artist. If you oversell those songs, they turn into costume. If you undersell them, they fall flat. Davis found a good middle ground. He let the songs carry their own weight and trusted his voice to meet them.
There is something refreshing about hearing a young performer take older country seriously. Not ironically. Not as a novelty. Not as something to decorate a TikTok clip. Davis played it like music he actually cares about. That care came through.
The sound of a region still producing
All three artists had a great showing tonight. You could see nerves here and there, but nerves are not a flaw at a show like this. They are part of the story. The important thing is what happens after they show up. Do you freeze, or do you keep playing? Do you shrink, or do you let the room help you through it?
Reece, Celie and Davis all kept going.
The support in the room helped too. It was good to see people come out for young local performers, because that support is how scenes stay alive. Talent does not grow in isolation. It needs rooms, soundboards, patient audiences, families willing to drive, friends willing to cheer and venues willing to take chances before someone has a polished press kit and a perfect bio.
That is where Backline Music Hall deserves credit. A youth concert series might not sound flashy on paper, but it is one of the most meaningful things a venue can do for its region. It says the next generation of artists does not have to wait until they are fully formed to be taken seriously. It says they can start here, in front of their own people, and learn the craft one show at a time.
Mississippi has an incredible musical history. Everybody knows that part, or at least they should. Blues, country, gospel, rock and soul all run through this state like roots under old ground. But history can become a museum piece if nobody makes space for what comes next. Nights like this keep the story moving. They remind you that the future of music is not hiding somewhere far away. Sometimes it is in a ninth grader singing an original song from an upcoming EP. Sometimes it is in a fourteen-year-old stepping into her second show with a classic country setlist. Sometimes it is in a tenth grader from Pontotoc picking through a Billy Strings tune like he has been carrying a guitar half his life.
The talent in this part of the state is still only a piece of the iceberg. The deeper you look, the more there is.
Afterglow
The ride home after a show like this feels different. It is not the ringing-ear kind of drive where you are replaying a massive chorus or trying to come down from a wall of amps. It is quieter than that. Better, maybe, in its own way.
It was the feeling of leaving a room where something small and important had been tended. A local venue opened its stage. Three young artists stepped onto it. Families, friends and music lovers showed up. Songs old and new moved through the room. Some nerves appeared. Some confidence did too.
And somewhere between Reece Burks looking toward an EP, Celie Duffie finding her voice in real time and Davis White carrying old country bones into a young performer’s hands, Backline’s Summer Youth Concert Series did exactly what it needed to do.
It gave the future a microphone.
The next night would bring another road, another event and the Pinetop Perkins Foundation in Clarksdale waiting up ahead. But for this night, the drive home carried its own kind of satisfaction. Northeast Mississippi still has songs coming. You just have to keep showing up early enough to hear them start.
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