I miss the gal who used to play Minnie Pearl. Also Pat the driver who
used to regale her passengers as she drove us up in her massive bus.
Jose describes himself as a fat man, drives a smaller less luxurious
bus, did not introduce himself, and made no announcements. But he got
us there and had our tickets.
For the first time I had a direct view of the stage but far enough
back that I was thankful I'd brought my binoculars. Everything came
off with the same precision as always. The tall rail-thin cameraman
in black Levis that hung limp from the belt at his hips, black shirt
and cap worked the left side of the stage. Edward Stubbs made the
announcements towering behind his stand.
The curtain went up at 7:00 to a full house filled with rather loud,
raucous, enthusiastic high school teens. The sponsors were Boot Barn,
Cracker Barrel, Dollar General and, of course, Humana. Once more we
were shown views of biblical flood flowed across the hallowed stage
and the clean-up that followed and the effort that made the show go
on.
Many tributes to Merle Haggard everyone paying obligatory homage with
stories of meeting, performing on stage with, or seeing him in
performance. The first provided by half-hour hostess Jeannie Seely a
well coiffured blonde who took the stage regally but insisted on
hugging the two males she introduced. Jackie Lee wore skin tight
jeans torn at the knees. Gary Morris in black suit with full head of
white hair and well-trimmed full white beard provided traditional
country ballads accompanied solely by his own guitar.
Mike Snider played hillbilly blue grass with his group reading his
notes from a piece of crumpled paper appearing old as the hills
himself. He sat on stage between his host gigs. Mandy Barnett clad in
black leather sang in that traditional drawn out ballad style.
Diamond Rio were a more new country rockability group whose sonic
assault battered my ears.
Learned my seat-mate to the left was a Newfoundlander laid off from
the oil patch starting a new job in Saskatoon here on a conference
for work. He walked in and out over my feet at least six times in 2
hours.
Bill Anderson was another elder statesman of Country who introduced
Jessie McReynolds accompanied by his younger brother and up and comer
Will Hoge who was doing an in-store appearance one of two artists to
use his own solo guitar accompaniment.
Riders in the Sky appeared in aged cowpoke style one clad in plush
velour chaps. They sang traditional cowboy ballads ending the night
with Happy Trails. Debut artist Alicia Witt clad in brilliant red
creation sat the grand piano and performed on camera from that
position. Kristian Bush talked of his children and performed new
country.
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