Other author’s careful research
Theobromine. Chocolate. Theobroma cacao. Cacao, cocao. Coffee.
Music, music and more
Considering how late I went to bed, almost – but not quite – in time for the sunrise, the very fact that I was able to move by noon on Sunday was good. So my big plans for the holiday weekend? There was a show at the park, and I wanted to see the opening act, __Asleep at the Wheel__, a personal favorite.
In fact, the Derailer’s opened and did a short set. Love their stuff. Then came \\The Wheel\\, and finally, the headlining act, one I was going to take a miss on, Travis Tritt.
Really glad I hung around for that last act. As my Virgo friend suggested, “Travis, he’s a redneck. He’s just a badass.”
Travis Tritt played a lot of his hits, and then some other music, as well. I dug around on the web, and all I came up with was his official web site.” Which was kind of bogus, after the show I saw. He’s an entertainer of rare qualities, working the crowd like a circus ringmaster, and paying homage to Southern Rock, Redneck Rock, and Country Music. Equally. It was also a rock show. Except it had country elements. Covering “Copperhead Road” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” and at one point, it was just Travis on stage with an acoustic guitar. Better yet, he was trying out a new song, just done in the studio – and it worked with the crowd.
It was hot, sunny until some clouds blew in at dusk and cooled everything off. I was wearing a straw hat with a wide brim to ward off the sun’s rays, the hat creeping lower and lower as the dusk approached. And I had on the Kevin Fowler shirt I like so much, on the back, it big letters, it says, well, never mind that now. It’s crude. Wandering around the show’s grounds, a couple of guys came up and asked where to get a shirt just like that. I pointed to the front, “Kevin Fowler merch. You usually have to ask for it – they can’t display it.” Yee-[something>-haw.
Since I paid for lunch and the tickets into the show, I was trying to have fun, so we headed over to the “festival food,” and I got to use pejorative expression, “[Woman>, get me a turkey leg.” My friend was amused, and played along, at least for little while. Looking at the crowd with jaundiced eyes, she kept making remarks about how certain characters were “genetically challenged,” as their appearance or behavior would lead one to make such a conclusion. Apparently, her Virgo self had never been to a real country show.
Me? I thought it was pretty cool. I liked it. A little outlaw, a little fun, and the performer knew how to work a Texas crowd, liberally sprinkling local references into his show banter. That, plus his actual stage show was pretty close to a classic rock sound. Classic, Southern rock. We were **almost** expecting “Freebird” as a closing song.
It’s just such an odd combination, running into friends at the show, a Pisces, her Scorpio husband, the aroma of Nag Champa incense heavy in the air next to a booth advertising “Henna Body Art.” At a C&W show?
