Bryan White brings his '90s hits home to Cushing's Dunkin Theatre on Dec. 5

The Oklahoma-raised singer behind "Someone Else's Star" plays The Dunkin Theatre on Saturday, December 5. Tickets run $35 to $50.

Picture the first chorus of "Someone Else's Star" filling a historic small-town theater a month before Christmas, sung by the Oklahoma kid who took it to No. 1. That's the night on offer in Cushing this December, and it's worth the short drive from Stillwater.

Bryan White plays The Dunkin Theatre in Cushing on Saturday, December 5, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $50 through Prekindle. The show was announced on October 19, so this is a date to grab while seat choice is still wide open.

For anyone who came of age with country radio in the mid-'90s, White needs little introduction. Born in Lawton and raised in Oklahoma City, according to his Wikipedia biography, he was one of the youngest stars of that era's Nashville boom. His debut-album single "Someone Else's Star," written by Skip Ewing and Jim Weatherly, climbed to No. 1 in the spring of 1995, as Country Universe recounts in its run through every chart-topper of the decade. More followed quickly: "Rebecca Lynn," "So Much for Pretending," "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore" and "Sittin' on Go" all belong to the same run of hits.

The industry noticed. In 1996 he won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, the trophy the CMA hands to the breakout act of the year. The state has noticed too: White is one of the artists featured on the Oklahoma Music Trail, the state tourism project that marks the places and people behind Oklahoma's music history.

A homegrown No. 1 hitmaker in a small-town theater, a few weeks before Christmas.

He hasn't stopped working. White has kept touring steadily, and his own site has chronicled holiday-season runs through Oklahoma in years past, so a December date in his home state fits a familiar pattern. He has kept releasing music as well, with a new track appearing on his Apple Music page this past February.

What makes this particular booking appealing is the room. A theater like The Dunkin is built for the kind of show White does well: big, clear vocals and songs that most of the crowd already knows by heart. There's no arena distance, no fighting for a view on a festival lawn. It's the kind of setting where a ballad like "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore" can land the way it did on the radio thirty years ago, only now with the singer a few rows away.

For Stillwater readers, Cushing is an easy evening trip, and a Saturday night start at 8 leaves time for dinner beforehand. It's also a reminder that some of the best shows in this part of the state don't happen in the bigger cities. They happen in the old theaters of towns like Cushing, when an artist with deep Oklahoma roots decides to come home for the holidays.

Bring someone who still knows all the words to "Rebecca Lynn." You'll both be singing by the second verse.

Sources: Bryan White – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Every #1 Single of the Nineties: Bryan White, "Someone Else's Star" (Country Universe) (countryuniverse.net); Someone Else's Star – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Oklahoma Music Trail – Bryan White (TravelOK) (travelok.com); Bryan White – holiday season Oklahoma Christmas tour (bryanwhite.com) (bryanwhite.com); Bryan White on Apple Music (music.apple.com); Bryan White at The Dunkin Theatre – Prekindle (prekindle.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)