The Sunday Morning “Nobody-Asked-Me-To, But-Here-I-Go-Anyway” Concert Review – Randy Travis
(or, Why I Will Never Be A Professional Concert Reviewer…)
Somehow, seeing Randy Travis live has eluded us in three different provinces. We always seemed to be moving just when they would announce concert dates.
That drought ended last night, when we were able to catch Mr. Travis in a small venue he added in, after an appearance at one of the big country music festivals here in Alberta. What a treat!!
I know that I don’t tend to focus on what a performer did or didn’t sing in these reviews, but I figure if you’re a fan, you know they’re going to be playing all their big hits, and if you’re not a fan, you wouldn’t know those songs anyway. Just assume the band played “Hey Jude” all night long, and go back to waxing your rifle…
Well, Mr. Travis has a gi-normous (extremely large – the kids use that word a lot nowadays) songbook, and he certainly did his level best to present a majority of it. Along the way, he filled in between songs with some very clean jokes, which were well received. You know, it kinda brought back memories of watching “Hee Haw” with my Dad…
About a third of the way through the show, the sound system failed. That’s when we got an unexpected bonus – the fiddle player started to do an impromptu bluegrass jam, and Randy and his band joined in – which only worked because of the intimate venue.
And, unlike singers like Eric Clapton and BB King, whose onstage guitar work seems more like a prop device, Travis really can play his guitar!! After the bluegrass jam, his lead guitarist started a slow blues jam, then Randy did an incredible gospel tune, accompanied acapella by his backup band. Sweet…
While they roadies were fixing the problem, he tried to play album tracks he could barely remember, to see how far along he could take them. We got two or three of those before the speakers came back to life. Then, it was right back to the exact point where the show had come to a stop. Tremendously cool…
One highlight of the night was Randy onstage alone with his guitar and his pedal steel guitar player, playing his version of “Nowhere Man”, which he performed in Liverpool at a tribute to John Lennon he was invited to perform at. Chills, man…chills…
As he gets older, he’s starting to look a bit like a cross between Chris Isaak, and Lyle Lovett. Just thought I’d share that…
The only bad part was that this venue was “rush seating”. You wait in line, the doors open, and then you plunk down a reserved sign, so that you can then leave and spend your money elsewhere in the building. We chose aisle seats over centre seats, so that we would be guaranteed unobstructed views. Which we had, until 5 minutes before the show started. That’s when Pillar sat down. Pillar was (on a conservative estimation) about 500 pounds, mostly horizontal. His head alone blocked out a full quarter of the stage. I am not kidding when I say this gentleman had a head the size of a medicine ball on steroids.
With a bit of bobbing and weaving, we managed to glimpse the stage occasionally, but man, that guy could’ve cast a shadow over the Parthenon…
We’ve been Randy Travis fans for a long time. I managed to survive my post-wisdom tooth surgery by leaving “Old 8 x 10” on repeat in my cd player. I even wrote a column about that.
It was a hoot to finally see him live…
Chow for now!
(or, Why I Will Never Be A Professional Concert Reviewer…)
Somehow, seeing Randy Travis live has eluded us in three different provinces. We always seemed to be moving just when they would announce concert dates.
That drought ended last night, when we were able to catch Mr. Travis in a small venue he added in, after an appearance at one of the big country music festivals here in Alberta. What a treat!!
I know that I don’t tend to focus on what a performer did or didn’t sing in these reviews, but I figure if you’re a fan, you know they’re going to be playing all their big hits, and if you’re not a fan, you wouldn’t know those songs anyway. Just assume the band played “Hey Jude” all night long, and go back to waxing your rifle…
Well, Mr. Travis has a gi-normous (extremely large – the kids use that word a lot nowadays) songbook, and he certainly did his level best to present a majority of it. Along the way, he filled in between songs with some very clean jokes, which were well received. You know, it kinda brought back memories of watching “Hee Haw” with my Dad…
About a third of the way through the show, the sound system failed. That’s when we got an unexpected bonus – the fiddle player started to do an impromptu bluegrass jam, and Randy and his band joined in – which only worked because of the intimate venue.
And, unlike singers like Eric Clapton and BB King, whose onstage guitar work seems more like a prop device, Travis really can play his guitar!! After the bluegrass jam, his lead guitarist started a slow blues jam, then Randy did an incredible gospel tune, accompanied acapella by his backup band. Sweet…
While they roadies were fixing the problem, he tried to play album tracks he could barely remember, to see how far along he could take them. We got two or three of those before the speakers came back to life. Then, it was right back to the exact point where the show had come to a stop. Tremendously cool…
One highlight of the night was Randy onstage alone with his guitar and his pedal steel guitar player, playing his version of “Nowhere Man”, which he performed in Liverpool at a tribute to John Lennon he was invited to perform at. Chills, man…chills…
As he gets older, he’s starting to look a bit like a cross between Chris Isaak, and Lyle Lovett. Just thought I’d share that…
The only bad part was that this venue was “rush seating”. You wait in line, the doors open, and then you plunk down a reserved sign, so that you can then leave and spend your money elsewhere in the building. We chose aisle seats over centre seats, so that we would be guaranteed unobstructed views. Which we had, until 5 minutes before the show started. That’s when Pillar sat down. Pillar was (on a conservative estimation) about 500 pounds, mostly horizontal. His head alone blocked out a full quarter of the stage. I am not kidding when I say this gentleman had a head the size of a medicine ball on steroids.
With a bit of bobbing and weaving, we managed to glimpse the stage occasionally, but man, that guy could’ve cast a shadow over the Parthenon…
We’ve been Randy Travis fans for a long time. I managed to survive my post-wisdom tooth surgery by leaving “Old 8 x 10” on repeat in my cd player. I even wrote a column about that.
It was a hoot to finally see him live…
Chow for now!
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