Pigeon Forge, TN
Country Tonite Theater
May 23rd, 2004
Review By: Cole
After seeing Patty in Renfro Valley, Chris, Anita, Rhett and I headed to Pigeon Forge for the night to prepare for our Sunday Night Show. We awoke hoping to see the bus in the hotel parking lot, but unfortunately, we didn’t. I headed out to Walmart to pick up some poster supplies, and to my surprise, as I passed a street, I saw the bus on the side of the road at their hotel. I was thrilled to death to see it, and what a way to start off the day! Anita and I spent our day lounging around and making signs for the band and Patty. We were bound and determined to make Pigeon Forge a memorable show. Little did we know it would be Patty who would make it memorable for us instead.
We had third row center for this show, which I had been bummed out originally, but once inside the venue, I realized it wasn’t too bad. I was sad that our friends Tammie and Shanna were not sitting right behind us this time, as we knew it wouldn’t be
as much fun without them, but lucky for us, they were just a few rows behind. I’m sure we drove the people around us crazy with our constant Patty talk, and chitchat about the shows the previous night. We quickly discussed what songs we knew for sure would be “Standing Ovation” worthy, and then headed to our seats for the show.
Patty had an opening act, who was a local guy in Pigeon Forge. Instantly, Anita and I realized we were once again going to have our gigglefests because as the guy tried (I stress try) to sing Dierks Bentley’s song, “What Was I Thinkin”, he messed up the lines and sang, “Bo sliding like slow duke”, and we just cracked up until he was off the stage. Anita, Chris and I just kept looking at eachother and laughing.
Patty came out in a blue shirt that looked to me like the sheer blue shirt she wore on the “Wayne Brady” show, and these cute blue pants. I for one was absolutely thrilled that she wore different clothing to these shows- it’s usually the shows that I attend that she’ll wear something I’ve got millions of photos of her in. Anyhow, she looked fantastic!
She came out opening once again with, “Tear Stained Letter”, and I tell you- the more I hear it, the more it gets stuck in my head and I can’t get it out. I have missed hearing this song live and am thrilled she has it back in the set list! She was in a fantastic mood from the get go, and saw my “We Heart You Muchly” sign instantly and had a huge smile on her face, which of course thrilled us to no end! By the end of this tune, we knew we were in for a rowdy crowd- the lady in front of us stood up screaming her head off for Patty. My first reaction was, “Finally, someone who has taste!”, and we were thrilled to see someone enjoying the show so much. But as the night rolled on, it became a different story!
The set list was much like the Renfro Valley set list, with a few exceptions. To our surprise, the third song this night was , “Nothin But the Wheel”, with Marcia doing a big intro to the song, which I was very impressed with! As always, Patty nailed the song. Actually, I can’t say there wasn’t a song she didn’t nail, because she sounded superb on everything she sang! I was also thrilled with our seats by this point because these third row seats seemed much closer, in my opinion. Patty saw us perfectly and spent much time smiling and looking at us, making perfect photo ops!
Around this time, Patty stopped to talk to some friends of hers that had come to the show, and thanked them for coming. She hen walked to our section and stopped in front of our section, and said she also wanted to say hello and thank some other folks for coming to the show…and proceeded to explain that these folks had been coming to see her for, “many many years”, and that they were “all sitting together in this area here” as she pointed to us. We sat in disbelief, because NONE of us had expected her to do that. She then laughed and said, “I hear y’all are going to Denny’s tonight after the show.”. We hadn’t planned on Denny’s for this night, but at that instant Anita, Chris and I looked at eachother and proclaimed “WE’RE GOING TO DENNY’S!”. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say that put me on cloud nine for the rest of the night (well really for the rest of the week, I still feel like I’m on cloud nine!).
She then kicked into “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me” and “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”, the latter seemed so much stronger on this night than it had the night before. She’s been busting her butt working on these songs, you can tell. After “You Don’t Even Know”, the lady in front of us watched me cheering for Patty and put her hand back to give me a High Five for about the third time- which tipped me off to she was either A) Drunk or B) A few french fries short of a happy meal. At that point, she was beginning to annoy me.
Guthrie once again had an intro to “Halfway Down”, and I listened with optimistic thoughts, but I still did not care for it. That’s nothing against his talent, because the man is clearly pure talent. I’m looking forward to seeing him as the year progresses because I have the feeling that we’ll be seeing Guthrie become much tighter sounding with the band throughout the year.
At this point in the show, the “ever so enthusiastic” woman had become more like a “pain in the butt” woman. She began to stand after every single song, and was screaming like crazy when Patty would try to speak. Being the ever so gracious lady that Patty is, she thanked the lady and spoke of her for a few moments and moved on with the show (well she tried to anyhow). After “Nothin Like The Lonely”, she walked to the front of the stage for the second time, and security came over and told her that she would have to stay in her seat
On this night, the acoustic set consisted of:
“That Ain’t the Grandpa That I Know”
“The Boys are Back in Town”
“I’ll Never Grow Tired of you”
“Daniel Prayed”
“Harlan”
“Pretty Little Miss”
My usual favorite is “Harlan”, or “I’ll Never Grow Tired”, ,but on this particular night, Anita and I were enjoying being silly and singing along that “Pretty Little Miss” became my favorite during this acoustic set. I thought Marcia was doing a great job on the vocals for the acoustic set, she is definitely starting to fit in!
During the acoustic set, we decided it was the band’s time to shine. I held my “Travis Toy Fan Club” sign to which Patty replied, “Travis I knew your fan club was here” as Anita and I screamed our heads off for him. Anita held up her “Go Guthrie” and “Garry Murray Fan Club” signs- all of which were acknowledged and appreciated. Our little Deanie fan, Rhett, made his own sign that said, ,”Deanie is Dynamite”, which he was quite proud of , and Deanie simply loved!
She ended the show once again with “On Your Way Home” and “Lovin All Night”- and then “Blame it On Your Heart”, which was, as usual, a blast to sing along and dance with. Patty came down the first couple steps of the stage, which surprised me since we had the Nutty Bar in front of us, but she didn’t step completely off the steps, which I was so glad for. She chose an older man in the front row to the left of the stage to pick on- and sang the song to him. I think he just enjoyed Patty holding his hand- he had a large smile on his face the rest of the show! The audience had wonderful audience participation on that tune- you saw everyone singing the lyrics!
This night there was an encore which consitisted of “Don’t Toss Us Away”, which was one of the most popular tunes of the night! Everyone began cheering the instant Guthrie started the song out. She closed the show completely with “Timber, I’m Falling in Love”, which I thought was super cool because I had never seen her close a show with Timber.
After the show we first spent our quality time with the band as always- and then we headed to the bus, where everyone’s favorite nut was camped out with a chair, waiting for Patty. We were informed that she wasn’t going to come out until everyone left the area. Knowing full well that the lady was the reason for that, we steered her out of the area. Patty did indeed come out to sign autographs later on while we were at dinner, but as long as we got the ever enthusiastic lady out of there, we were fine!
It was wonderful again to meet up with some great Loveless Lunatics- Frosty, it was great to finally meet you after reading your posts for so long! Todd & Melinda, it was so nice to see you again after a few years!!! Richard and Patti, it’s always fantastic to see you guys and I was so glad we got to talk for awhile this weekend (and I’ll be sure to see you all BEFORE September!).
Special thank you to the crew, the band and David for continuously working so hard to bring us nothing short of fantastic shows each and every night! Patty, thank
you for taking your time to come out on the road and singing your heart out every single night! And thanks for the second night Denny’s suggestion;) We love you all (and Shayne- thanks for always making sure I get Patty’s set list!)
And of course, the review would NOT be complete without shoutouts to the little boy at Denny’s who seated us who didn’t look old enough to have a job, Our waitresses (“sweep Jenny, Sweep!” & “well Jenny, I will have…”), Gus Bob for the wonderful conversation on Buckdancing, Alan Jackson and the Frog, Rose Colored Knockers and John Conlee (and a few other things that I wont post on here!). All the random people I yelled to from the car on the way to the show (“raw’r”!), and the two nosy chicks who eavesdropped on our conversation while at McDonald’s. And last but not least, The Heehaw Gang for making me laugh so hard I choked on my food! (And of course Anita..err I mean Lulu for being my duet partner to “Pretty Little Miss” at Denny’s! And oh! "Speaking Of"!) I love you guys, and we will do our Heehaw party after every single show…Git-R- Done! All hail the infamous Denny’s Cup!
