Arlo McKinley comes back to West Edge on Friday, November 20

The Cincinnati songwriter returns to the old factory on Vernon Street, a room Huntington has already filled for him more than once.

Some songwriters play Huntington. Arlo McKinley keeps coming back to it, and he keeps coming back to the same building.

Arlo McKinley plays West Edge on Friday, November 20, 2026, with music at 7pm. The date was announced October 23, which gives this one less than a month of lead time, so don't sleep on it.

West Edge is familiar ground for him. The old factory at 1040 Vernon Street hosted McKinley for a holiday show in December 2024, a bill with Darrin Hacquard, Conrad Moore and Josh Pantry Christian, according to the Huntington Area CVB listing. A November headline date brings him back to the same room.

If you haven't caught him yet, McKinley writes the kind of country songs that come out of the river towns between Cincinnati and here: hard-luck, plainspoken, and sung like he means every line. He is on John Prine's Oh Boy Records, which released This Mess We're In in 2022, as Shore Fire's release announcement laid out, and NPR Music called that record full of "power and beauty." More recently he put out a live album, Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound – Live at The Burl, recorded in Lexington, on his Bandcamp. There may be more new music around the show, too: an Apple Music pre-release listing shows an untitled Oh Boy release dated November 20, the same day as the Huntington date, though we have not seen an official announcement.

His usual headline rooms run about 400, and West Edge suits that scale: big enough for a Friday crowd, small enough that the quiet songs land.

On tickets: we don't have price details yet, so check West Edge's site for how to buy. Past shows here have sold in presale and day-of tiers, and with a Friday night and a short runway, it makes sense to buy ahead.

So, the Friday before Thanksgiving week: Vernon Street, 7pm, and a songwriter who seems to like this town about as much as it likes him.

Sources: Huntington Area CVB: Arlo McKinley and More at WestEdge (Dec 2024) (visithuntingtonwv.org); West Edge Factory: Arlo McKinley, Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle, The Settlement & more (westedgefactory.com); West Edge Factory venue page (westedgefactory.com); Shore Fire: Arlo McKinley announces This Mess We're In (shorefire.com); Grateful Web: Arlo McKinley releases new album full of 'power & beauty' (NPR Music) (gratefulweb.com); Bandcamp: Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound – Live at The Burl (arlomckinley.bandcamp.com); Apple Music: Untitled – Arlo McKinley (pre-release) (music.apple.com); Oh Boy Records - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)