Raccoon Creek

Dallas, GA

June 23, 2007

Review By: Cole


I'm no stranger to Dallas, GA. My best friend Anita lives a few towns over, so a few years ago I made my first trip to Dallas just so I could see where Emory was from. When I lived in GA in 2003, I drove through Dallas daily to go to work. It's a cute little town-- full of a lot of talent. Not long ago, I took on a new webdesign client, Mountain Rhythm, a bluegrass band based out of that area. Every once in awhile, I hit some of their shows down in Georgia-- it's a great chance to do photography for their site, and I get to hang with my best friend for the weekend.

The boys were invited to come out to a benefit show on the 23rd, as they were trying to raise money to help out a young lady who is currently battling cancer. We decided we'd go to the show, and made all our plans. A few days beforehand, we got word that the rumor was going around again that Patty might show up. She's shown up at some of their festivals before, but you just never know. So we went for the festival, and kept our fingers crossed that she might show up!

Chris and I left for Georgia as soon as I got off work on Friday the 22nd, and got in a little after midnight. Exhausted we were--but the next day would certainly prove to be worth it all! Chris, Anita, her 2 boys and I all piled in the car in the afternoon to meet some of the band for dinner and then head to the show. We were some of the first to arrive, so we nabbed a few seats and a table and took a walk around while the boys did some practicing off to the side of the stage. Not long after, they found out that the show was really full-- and Mountain Rhythm wasn't going to get the chance to perform. We were disappointed, but the guys continued to play, so I sat back to take some photos. As we stood off to the side, we noticed Deanie and Emory walking backstage. It turned out that both of them were going to be in the band for the entire show! We were pretty stoked at that point. Anita & I both just adore Emory, and no one plays fiddle like Deanie!

The show started around 8, with Deanie, Emory and some of the local pickers in the area. They played, they sang, they told jokes--- it was certainly entertaining! Halfway into the show, we turned around and Patty was behind us, walking to the backstage area. I grinnned and said "You cut your hair!!" and she smiled and said "Yeah!!" and kept walking. At that point--- we were thrilled. We stayed and watched the show for a little bit longer, and then Chris, Rhett and I went to the little backstage area for a little bit. To our delight, there sat our Patty! She had Deanie's fiddle on her lap (Deanie was playing guitar onstage), and just sat there, talking to one of the guys, who then went back on stage. So, at that point it was just us and Patty. I sat down and we talked to her for a little while.

She looked fantastic---though I'm still shocked she cut her hair. Hair must be the first thing I notice about people- that was the first thing I said at Ridgetop in October was "Anita, she cut her hair!!!!" It looks great, and reminds me a lot of when she had her hair cut short in 1999. She didn't have a ton of makeup on this night, but Patty doesn't NEED it, she's just naturally really pretty. She was in a great mood, and talked with us about touring (she's not touring this year, maybe next year. Everyone cross your fingers for at least a few shows next year, LOL!), and after a little random chatter, I asked her how many songs she was going to do. She looked at her sheet and said "Well, I think they talked me into doing about eight". I was NOT expecting her to say 8, so I incredulously replied with "REALLY?????". 2 Days worth of Opry tickets is about $150 for the decent seats, and that's about 6 songs. This was eight songs, the most we'd heard all year. One of the guys that was in the band, Jim Isler (and I hope I get his name correct...I swear she told me his name was Mike, but she said Jim during the show. I was horrible at taking notes this show!!) came in and said Hello to her, and Patty introduced him to me. She said that he's been coming over to their house and singing with her, and he was going to sing with her tonight as well. We'd been hearing him all night, and he had a good voice. I was also hoping that her saying he'd been coming over and singing meant she'd been working on some new material!

We took some time out to introduce her to Charlie (if you haven't visited his site, do so!), and told her about his goal and travels. She got a kick out of it, and we gave her his website so she'd be sure to check it out. When Deanie came in and took her fiddle from Patty, Patty got up and grinned and said "Well, should we get our picture with the froggy!?", so we handed her Charlie and she posed for the photo with him, saying she hopes it's a good one to go on his site! We all got our photos with her and then went back out to the seats since we assumed she'd be coming out to sing soon.

Sure enough, we no sooner sat back down and they introduced Patty. Now, the coolest thing about the show was the fact that Emory was singing as well. He sang the entire show, which was neat, but-- come on, when's the last time we saw Emory singing harmony with Patty!?? It was pretty cool to watch. Her set list consisted of:
Pain of Loving You
Never Grow Tired of You
Daniel Prayed
Someone I Used to Know
Here I Am
Grandpa
Pretty Polly
Pretty Little Miss

And I'm pretty sure that it's not in exact order, but it's close. We were ecstatic the entire show, but I've fallen in love with her version of "Pain of Loving You", and Anita's favorite is "I'll Never Grow Tired of You", so once she did those two--- we were in heaven!! The entire band played with her the whole set (except for "Here I Am", which was just Patty, Deanie and Emory....naturally featuring Deanie on her FANTASTIC intro)-- they are all GREAT musicians. I wish I had jotted down their names. Jim & Emory did most of the vocals with her, and Jim filled in for Jon Randall & Ralph Stanley on "Someone I Used to Know" & "Pretty Polly". She even got Deanie to sing just a tad in "Pretty Little Miss"! She seemed like she was having a great time onstage. At one point, she giggled and told Jim to stop flirting with her because her husband was there, and he laughed and said he knew that-- he was just trying not to remember that! They both laughed and Patty said it was okay, because she flirts even if her husband is there or not.

She sounded amaaaazing....even though she did flub the words in "Here I Am"-- see, she needs to do a show!!! ;) Really-- the whole show was just beyond fantastic. She held her note perfectly in "Pretty Polly", "Here I Am" sounded AMAZING, and you could hear Emory with her sooo well in most of the songs (especially "I'll Never Grow Tired of You"). Seriously, she could throw together a couple of these shows a year and we would be BEYOND ECSTATIC! We have people fly in from all over the place for just Opry shows, only to hear 2 songs, we would have the place packed for 8 + songs these days! I told Patty that I have so much vacation time built up it's not even funny....with no clue what I'm doing with it. Lucky for me, my time rolls over--- I guess my boss is in for it when Patty does do some shows!

She started to leave the stage before "Pretty Little Miss", but they got her back out and they all sang it. And before we knew it, she was gone! After the show, Chris and Anita went backstage for a little bit so Anita would be able to get her photo and talk to her. She mentioned to her about how she's been having to go see Joe Nichols this year since Patty hasn't toured and Patty laughed and told her that Joe was probably better to look at, LOL. But... no voice in the WORLD can compare to hers, so no concerts are the same these days. I've hit a few shows and thought they were great concerts, but I can always end my thoughts on it with "but it wasn't Patty". We both made sure to tell her how much we all miss her.

Overall, it was one of the most amazing nights, and I hope the benefit was incredibly successful & that they were able to raise a ton of money for Becky Rakestraw. This past Christmas, Anita, Chris and I were able to catch Patty at the Opry, and then met she & Emory after the show. We had such a great time, and it felt so great to see her, that Anita and I never even refer to it as the "Christmas Opry", we just refer to it as "Best Night Ever". As we left Raccoon Creek, Anita looked at me and said "So....Best Night Ever?". I think we've determined it was "Best Night Ever...Part 2".