The Music of Route 66: Honeygirl & The Sundusters Ride Into the Orpheum
Flagstaff has a complicated, affectionate relationship with the Mother Road. Route 66 runs straight through the middle of town — it's why the Museum Club exists, why the neon still buzzes, why the freight trains and the tourists both show up. So there's something fitting about Honeygirl & The Sundusters playing the Orpheum Theater on Saturday, August 8, as part of the venue's Music of Route 66 Concert Series (orpheumflagstaff.com; downtownflagstaff.org).
Honeygirl is Arizona country done with a rock edge — fronted by singer-songwriter Kira Brown, whose origin story runs from watching her dad's garage-band jams to a stint as a locally famous "Kiraoke" host to a full-blown country act (honeygirlmusic.com). The band's not-so-secret weapon is the company Brown keeps onstage: the Sundusters lineup has included Scotty Johnson of the Gin Blossoms, which tells you the caliber of players she's pulling from the state's deep bench. This is bar-tested, high-energy country built for a crowd that wants to two-step and sing along, dressed up for a proper theater night.
The Route 66 framing is the smart part. Rather than book a generic country night, the Orpheum is threading its programming through the town's own mythology — the highway, the neon, the honky-tonk history that the Museum Club has been keeping alive out on the east side since 1931. It's a series that gives touring-adjacent Arizona acts a reason to route through Flagstaff and gives locals a night that feels specifically like here rather than anywhere with a stage and a bar.
Why it matters: this is the connective programming that keeps a mid-size theater busy between the big national dates. The Orpheum can't survive on metalcore Fridays and amphitheater-overflow alone; it needs the Route 66 nights, the local headliners, the series bookings that fill the calendar with acts a Flagstaff or Phoenix crowd will actually turn out for on a Saturday. A healthy venue is a busy venue, and busy is built one themed night at a time.
Practical notes: it's a downtown Saturday, so expect Aspen Avenue to be lively — walk, don't circle for parking. This is a boots-friendly show; the Orpheum's floor has room to move. And check the specifics before you commit your evening.
Come for the twang, stay for the Gin Blossoms pedigree, and tip your hat to the highway on the way out.
Sources: Honeygirl & The Sundusters: The Music of Route 66 — Downtown Flagstaff; Honeygirl — official site; Orpheum Theater upcoming events