Atlanta,GA

Chastain Park Ampitheater

07/16/03

This show was probably one of the oddest I've been to in awhile. I arrived in Georgia early the day before the show, and was staying at my friend Anita's house. We decided to check out Dallas, and see where Emory grew up. I must say, it was pretty cool to see where he went to high school and all that good stuff! Anita had to work the next morning, so her son and I went out to get a bite to eat - and my car chose not to start back up. We had to call Anita to come pick us up....So we took her to work, and I took her car to the house, and was just going to go pick her back up. When it came time to do that- her car wouldn't start either! But she just had a dead battery, luckily. A friend brought her home, and we began to rush so we would arrive at the concert on time. Not long after, it began to storm...Lightning, Thunder, Rain...you name it! While dropping off her youngest son at her mother in law's, her mother in law said "Well gang I hope you get to see her- at Chastain, only the stage is covered!". We really had no clue that the seats were not covered. We just hoped the rain let up before we got to the concert!

We had no such luck. The rain was still coming down by the time we arrived at the theater, so I chose not to take my camera in....Which is very unusual for me!! I just didn't want to have to replace that thing if something happened to it in the rain. We went down to our seats and then we went to find the merchandise booth. Patty's new merchandise guy, Chris, is a great guy, and we like to go up and talk to him for a bit. Jimmy Wayne was her opening act, so I stayed up talking to Chris while Jimmy was on. I couldn't help but overhear Jimmy Wayne, however, when he began to talk about how great he thinks Patty is and that she came up to him before the show and told him she had just bought his cd,and he was blown away she bought it. After his show, it was time for Patty! The rain had not let up much at all....but it wasn't pouring. We just had our umbrellas up and used those. Patty came out to start "Nothing Like the Lonely", which she absolutely nailed!!! Patty proclaimed that everyone there must "really be music lovers to sit out in the rain!!!" She then said, "If I wasnt so worried about messin' up my hair before the show, I'd be right out there with you to have watched Jimmy Wayne" . I then decided that Patty might not realize the weather conditions while she is on the road, LOL. She was wearing the same jeans from Owensboro- and she wore another long sleeved shirt (it was blue sheer with butterflied on it, and very cute)- I can only imagine, that even with the rain, she had to be burning up! She had basically the same set list and sounded perfect! They did have bad sound at points. Patty had to keep telling them to bring her vocals up, then down, then bring certain instruments up, then down. At one point during the show, a few people began to yell, "We Can't Hear You!!" (which WE could, so we didn't understand why they couldn't!), which Patty replied and tossed her hands up and said "Tell the guys behind you, not me!" and when they continued to tell her, the girls in the front told Patty they could hear her fine...so Patty looked out and said, "These ladies down front said they can hear me fine- so clean your ears out darlin!". This time, the Mountain Soul set was simply fabulous. The last time I had seen her, "Harlan" had been slowed down a bit, but this time they put it right back to normal and simply nailed it. The audience obviously did not have Mountain Soul, since they clapped at all the parts where the song does NOT end!

The band consisted of the same members, and they were fabulous, as usual. Always the ham, when Travis was introduced he ran to the end of the stage, throwing his arm out to make everyone scream for him. The Crowd was not a fun crowd= they did not seem to appreciate anything she did or seem to really care about anything she did until the end of the show, when she began 'Blame it On Your Heart'. At the end of the show, a few people began to leave, so Anita and I ran down to the stage and sat in front during "Im That Kind of Girl", which was her only encore. She said that's all the time they had to do, they had to leave. I got the set list and "Nothin But the Wheel" was also listed for an encore, so that was the one they chose to take out.

Despite all the rain, Patty put on a perfect show..It left us, as usual, sad to see her go. We jammed to Patty on the way home and proclaimed, "She's so awesome" about six million times. It was a great show, and we're already looking forward to seeing her again next Friday in Prestonsburg!