Country music veteran John Conlee is set to take the stage at Haute Spot in Cedar Park, bringing a catalog of working-class anthems and Grand Ole Opry pedigree to the fast-growing Williamson County suburb. Tickets for the show start around $29.15, according to event listing information.
The concert, first detailed by CultureMap Austin, is scheduled to take place at Haute Spot, located at 1501 E New Hope Drive in Cedar Park. Conlee has released 11 albums over the course of his career, and between 1978 and 2004 he charted 32 singles on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, according to Wikipedia, including seven No. 1 hits such as “Lady Lay Down,” “Backside of Thirty,” “Common Man,” and “Got My Heart Set on You.” His most recent studio release, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” came out in 2004.
Conlee's signature breakthrough came earlier, in April 1978, when “Rose Colored Glasses” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Co-written by Conlee and George Baber, the track was the most commercially successful single for ABC Records that year, per Wikipedia, and it inspired the trademark souvenir sunglasses Conlee has handed out at concerts ever since.
A Working Man's Voice From the Grand Ole Opry
Conlee was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1981, becoming the Opry's first newly inducted member in over five years at the time, according to a Facebook post detailing his career. He has performed regularly on the Opry stage for more than four decades since.
Before he ever set foot in a Nashville recording studio, Conlee worked as a licensed mortician at Duell-Clark Funeral Chapel in Kentucky and as a radio disc jockey at WLAC in Nashville and WQXE in Elizabethtown, the Effingham Herald reports. That radio career, the outlet notes, helped sharpen his ear for picking chart-topping material once he moved into performing full time in 1971.
Dollar Bills, Farm Aid, and a Charitable Tradition
One of the more colorful traditions tied to Conlee's live shows involves his 1982 top-10 hit “Busted.” During performances of the song, audiences traditionally throw dollar bills onto the stage, a gesture Conlee has turned into a charitable effort that has raised more than $250,000 for organizations including Feed the Children and the Wounded Warrior Project, according to The Boot. The donation drive reportedly began spontaneously at a California fair when fans first threw dollar bills onstage as a joke.
Raised on a tobacco and hog farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Conlee became an early advocate for family farmers. He joined Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp to perform in nine Farm Aid concerts starting in 1985 and helped organize the Family Farm Defense Fund, according to the Los Angeles Times. Those early Farm Aid concerts raised more than $13 million for agricultural assistance.
Cedar Park's Growing Live Music Scene
Haute Spot itself opened in April 2019 at the former site of BC's Backyard Bar & Grill, offering a 30,000-square-foot venue with 25,000 square feet of outdoor event space and capacity for up to 2,000 guests, according to Community Impact. The venue features outdoor turf lawns, with concert production handled by Love & Lightstream.
The show also arrives amid a broader push by Cedar Park to build out its entertainment footprint. In April 2025, the city was officially designated a Music Friendly Texas Certified Community by the Texas Governor's Office, a milestone Cedar Park earns music certification covered when it happened. By August, Cedar Park had secured all four state “Friendly Texas” designations, becoming one of only three Texas cities to hold the complete set.
That momentum coincides with rapid growth across Williamson County, which ranked No. 9 nationally for total population growth between July 2024 and July 2025 after adding 23,814 residents to reach 752,827, per CultureMap Dallas. The county recorded a 3.2 percent annual growth rate over that span. Cedar Park is also in the midst of major civic and commercial expansion, including the 54-acre Bell District redevelopment and the 118-acre, $500 million CedarView development near the nearby H-E-B Center, according to Austin Real Estate Experts.
As with any live event, organizers note that the show is subject to change due to weather or other concerns, and attendees should check with the venue to confirm the event is taking place as scheduled. Ticket information for the Haute Spot performance is available through the event's online listing.
