ANDERSON – For Matt Hobbs, stage manager for Confederate Railroad, this weekend’s concerts are especially meaningful.

“When they made the offer to do this just before Christmas,” said Dan Shirley, the group’s front man, “I thought, ‘Well, Matt’s gonna love this.’”

Hobbs, 38, is a native of Elwood, the son of Kerry and Eloise Hobbs. While in Madison County, he worked with local acts including Sweet Polly and Vinyl Groove.

In 2004, he relocated.

“I worked for a sound production company out of Connersville, and just did a few shows with (Confederate Railroad) here and there,” said Hobbs, a 1989 graduate of Elwood Community High School. “Eventually, they had a slot open up, and they gave me a call.”

That was three years ago, and Hobbs now lives and works in Chattanooga, Tenn., and is engaged to a woman from Philadelphia.

Though Railroad has played many gigs in Indiana since Hobbs jumped aboard, this will be the first to his home county.

Did he ever think, when he lived in Elwood, that one day he would work with a nationally known band that would play a casino in Anderson?

“No, I never would’ve thought that in a million years,” Hobbs said. “And I never actually thought I’d be doing this for a living in million years. It’s very rare that you get to do something that you love.”

-- Rodney Richey