Kevin Skinner won! Now what?

This season of America’s Got Talent on NBC was off the hook. There was more actual talent on the stage than in any previous year, so much that on some nights Piers scarcely touched his beloved buzzer button. Out of this plethora of rising stardom emerged a man unlike most of the others. He was a simple man, a man of the country, a man laconic of speech but enormous in talent. He had to leave his job as a chicken catcher behind because his boss wouldn’t hold it for him. (Your loss, Mr, Legree! You should have sponsored the man and gotten all that publicity. You’ve been hanging out with your chickens too long.)

Kevin Skinner sings simple songs in a simple way. His approach to singing is honest, earthy, elemental, his delivery like a soft, warm, summer rain that refreshes without chilling. He is so lacking in the crafty artfulness so many singers now impose on the songs they sing that his modulation is scarcely detectable. Kevin came to the contest a diamond in the rough with a backwards baseball cap and an old cloth coat, looking like David coming to find his brothers. He took out his guitar and sang and everybody quit wondering why he was there. He went on to win the whole thing despite overwhelming odds.

Now comes the reward! Kevin is to be given his own show in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am reminded of a story I once read about a Scottish nobleman who had come to America and became part of the fur trade during the time of the mountain men. He had met and become friends with Jim Bridger. At one Rendezvous, he gave Bridger a suit of armor he had shipped over from England as a present. Bridger had no use for the armor and cached it before going back into the mountains to hunt and trap for the winter. The reward Kevin Skinner received seems to be as inappropriate as that suit of armor.

Las Vegas is a noisy, profane excuse for a town, trying desperately to live down its history. It is mostly glitter, with very little, if any substance. The closer one gets to the Strip, the truer this becomes. Enter Kevin Skinner! Not only do I believe Kevin will be uncomfortable with Vegas, I doubt Vegas will have much of an idea what to do with Kevin Skinner. I envision something along the lines of The Electric Horseman. Only on the movie screen does glitz and glamor have any dealings with honesty and simplicity.

Hollyweird has been assuming again! They believe that the lifelong dream of every performer is to have packed houses to play to every day and make bundles of money while they’re still a hot property. They have missed, once again, the enduring attractiveness of truth, the value of simplicity. Look at George Strait and Reba McEntire! They sing simple songs as honestly as they can and their careers have lasted decades.

Don’t get me wrong! I hope Las Vegas and Kevin Skinner find a way to thrive together. Kevin won a tremendous victory and is incredibly deserving of a fitting reward. The problem is that Las Vegas just doesn’t seem a fitting place or a fitting culture for a simple man, singing simple songs from his heart. Nashville or Branson, perhaps, but not Las Vegas!