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Kenny Rogers Review?


Schwa.

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my folks were there jeff...

he opened with a rousing bucket into a help-slip-frank...closed the first set off withe a standard don't ease me in.

second set started with scarlet>fire...ended the set with nfa>st stphen>nfa!!!

encore was a shitty i fought the law [Frown]

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Hey Keri, Sorry we woke you up so early on Friday but wellzy thought you were up for sure. Thanks for letting me use the can though. I'm eating some pizza tonite wings for lunch as I type, damn are these good wings. Everybody I talked to in town was into checking out Tala if you set it up.

peace.jamesd.

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You asked for it:

Kenny Rogers

wsg Billy Dean

05/10/03

Memorial Arena - Chatham, ON

So I gets all decked out in my cowboy hat and boots and head ‘er on over to the Memorial Arena for the big show. I almost gets into an accident driving with my sister in her Miata… yikes! We gets into the arena after waiting outside in the line for about twenty minutes, and finds our seats at the back of the floor. I sits down between my sis and a very elderly lady who had a walker. I brings a pocket full of dough in hopes of throwing back some beers. Nope though, no beers being sold. Had to settle for my second favourite drink, water. I looks around and in the capacity crowd of 2,500 people I noticed something… no one wears cowboy hats to country shows… I certainly looked out of place. Might also have had something to do with the average age being fifty-five years old. The place, hot and smelling of humans, fills up quite quickly and the lights dim for the opening act – Billy Dean.

Billy Dean is a hot young country star from the 90’s. I guess he’s removed himself from the spotlight the last five years or so to raise his kids. He told the crowd that his band got turned around at the border so he would be playing solo acoustic. I reckoned he was just touring solo acoustic to earn more money but it did make for a good story anyways. He played his US dates solo too I think. The sound was rather good. I was pleased that he was just playing solo. Billy’s voice is great and was surprised to recognize a few of his songs. Very well written, emotional songs that you knew came from the heart. “Billy the Kid” and “We Just Disagree” were crowd favourites. He told of how much he loves Canadians and how much it meant to him that our country has supported US through everything… the crowd didn’t know how to take that. He also told a story about, while shooting a movie with Dolly Parton, taking a tour of her house and commenting on how small her shoes were, to which Dolly replied something to the effect “Well, honey, they’ve been in the shade my whole life.” That got a big laugh from the crowd. Thirty minutes later, after six songs and a handful of stories, Billy was done.

Billy Dean

05/10/03 Memorial Arena – Chatham, ON

(Opening for Kenny Rogers)

Only Here for a Little While

Billy the Kid

(Dolly story)

(old g/f story)

We Just Disagree

It’s What I Do

Somewhere In My Broken Heart

Let Him Be

After about fifteen minutes, the lights dim and Kenny’s band starts into some rocking new sounding song; moments later Kenny takes the stage in a purple satin shirt! He starts belting it out and doesn’t let up until they’ve gone through two of these new country style songs. Not what I expected. He commented on how shocked the crowd looked and that everyone could close their mouths because there would be no more of that heavy stuff. There is something strange about concerts in Chatham; everyone remains seated until the very last song. A number of times throughout the concert Kenny would prompt the crowd to take over the vocals… a gentle murmur would come over the crowd, to which Kenny would shake his head in disappointment. In a jokingly way, but you knew he wasn’t impressed with us.

A few songs in, Kenny pointed out how easy it was to spot the people who didn’t want to be there. (In particular, the men.) He said sitting with crossed arms across the chest was a give away. 95% of the men in the place looked at themselves and were embarrassed to notice that they were sitting exactly like he mentioned. Kenny told a guy in the front row that for every song he knew, he would give him ten US dollars. He didn’t have to even do anything, Kenny would decide whether he knew the song or not. Funny stuff.

He played “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” and I stood up to see if my Mom was losing her shit. Her name is Ruby. Nope, no one standing; hmph. He next did a song, “Waylon Was the Outlaw of out Time”, which he recorded as a duet with Tim McGraw. Tim’s voice recording was dubbed in and there was a full sized cardboard cut-out of him that someone standing behind was moving during Tim’s singing parts. Cute. I’ll speed things along a bit – he played more songs and tossed out more ten dollar bills to ‘Rick’ in the front row. He played “Coward of the Country”, which, in the past few weeks, has become one of my favourite songs. As with everything else he played over the night, it seemed uninspired and rushed. During “Testify”, he motioned to the crowd during the ‘Stand up! Testify’ part to stand up. I do believe that everyone knew what they were being asked to do but, wouldn’t you know it, no one stood up. He stopped the song; explained that this was the only time ever that people didn’t stand up. He started the song back up, went through the chorus, everyone standing up this time. The song finished a few seconds later and everyone cozied back into their seats.

Finally it was “The Gambler” time! Accompanied by a screening of various snippets from the gambler movies, Kenny and his band did a solid but standard version of the song. It did get the folks clapping and singing along and a handful of people gave him a standing ovation. He explained to the audience that a new Gambler movie was in the works and he would show a bit from “The Gambler VII”. Shown on the screen were outtakes from Coolio’s video for “The Rebel”, his take on “The Gambler”. Kenny proceeded to make his way through another helping of “The Gambler”, complete with Coolio’s vocal parts from his “The Rebel” dubbed in. It was quite comical indeed! This must have got the crowd pumped because they really seemed to come alive for “Lucille”. You could tell people were starting to feel more at ease and into the show. Kenny really appreciated the crowd’s new found enthusiasm.

He explained to the crowd that he was at the part in the show that he would normally head of the stage, stand there for a few minutes and come back on for the encore. He was too old to make the extra trip up and down those stairs. He proceeded to throw out frisbees into the crowd with amazing accuracy! Kenny asked the lucky guy in the front how much money he had made. I think it was about one hundred dollars by the end of the show. Paid for his ticket anyways; not too bad! The lights dimmed for the ‘encore’. A dark purple hue flooded the stage, perfectly complimenting Kenny’s sissy shirt. [Wink] He sat on a stool and made his way through a hauntingly beautiful “Lady”. The crowd, thinking this would be the end, got up to give Kenny a standing ovation. They busted right into a rockin’ fun “Islands in the Stream”. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time finally. He should have pretended he was done five songs in maybe. And yeah, Schwa., I was singin' along! [smile] An hour and fifteen minutes after Kenny had taken the stage, everyone was filing out of the arena and into the night.

Kenny Rogers

05/10/03 Memorial Arena – Chatham, ON

(some song titles I guessed at)

Something Got a Hold On Me

When Love Comes a Knockin’ You Better Let it In

If You Wanna Find Love

Through the Years

Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town

Waylon wa the Outlaw of Time (w/ Tim McGraw dubbed in)

The Greatest

Back to the Well

(Short instrumental feat. Amanda Randall (?) on fiddle)

Coward of the County

Daytime Friends and Nighttime Lovers

I’ll be Your Rose

Testify

To Me

Have a Little Faith in Me

The Gambler

The Gambler (w Collio dubbed in)

Lucille

(frisbee toss)

Lady

Islands in the Stream

Seeing this show makes me so much appreciate the shows I have come to make such a part of my life in the past few years. Kenny seemed to be going through the motions. Just doing his job. Telling the same jokes he has for the past twenty years. Racing through his songs and even removing some verses here and there I think. Some songs, which were probably three or four minutes on album, were no more than two minutes long. It really is a special thing to have a band just give’r like no tomorrow for three hours over a night. And to pay five or six dollars for this is just icing on the cake. This is something that none of us should ever take for granted.

I cannot complain though… it was a treat spending time with my sister, who is one of the kindest, most loving people I know, and just getting out in the community. I ran into some buddies at the show and did see some great music. Kenny was a good entertainer and made a pretty fun night out of it. Billy Dean opening made for more of a full night. I must admit, my tickets were free and I was very pleased I had not shelled out the sixty-nine dollars they were worth.

Yee Haw!

KK

-

Sarah Fraleigh photo, Chatham Daily News

Kenny Rogers' Homepage

Billy Dean's Homepage

MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.com

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quote:

Originally posted by Booche:

Say, can you bring your sister along this weekend Keri?

Watch it buddy!!!!

-

quote:

Originally posted by CatPhish:

Funny shit that Billy dean opened up, I think I may have had alittle crush on him when I was 12

Aye! Understandable, CatPhish. [Razz]

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quote:

He played “Coward of the Country”, which, in the past few weeks, has become one of my favourite songs.

quote:

Shown on the screen were outtakes from Coolio’s video for “The Rebel”, his take on “The Gambler”

Bwahahahahahah! Too funny. [big Grin]

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That was a great review. I saw Kenny here in Saint John last year and it was great. You could tell the jokes were canned, and he did the money thing here too as well as the videos, but he did put on one heck of a show. It was great to see him perform his original tunes and we all had a great time. I took my folks to the show and they loved it. As far as aging cheesy rock stars go, the Kenny show was only topped by Neil Diamond who I saw last Fall!

If you get a chance, go and see Kenny. If you g more than once you'll probably be disappointed though, but the first show you will enjoy.

Colin

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Great review KK. It really took me there. I can't stand audiences like that. I mean for the love of cheese, those people must like Kenny to dish out money for tickets. What's so wrong with letting loose and enjoying ones self and showing a bit of support for the ol' bastard.

I can hardly wait to read your Hookahville review!!! [big Grin][big Grin][big Grin] I wish I could make it that weekend. [Frown]

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