Inside Reba’s Place on April 9, the country music icon with blazing red locks stood an arm’s length from fans in the front row.
“We have some new music we want to spring on y’all,” Reba McEntire said.
The excited crowd hooted and hollered. Some had driven all night for the chance to sit in the crowd of roughly 200 people. Some who lived in the same small town as the bar, Atoka, Oklahoma, dropped in to enter a lottery for a ticket to see the hometown queen. Other overflow guests received texts just moments before doors opened. The spontaneous additions grabbed standing-room-only spots on the second floor. Even more fans gathered outside on the nearby green space, listening through a simulcast. McEntire’s wait staff lined the bar to watch…