Henderson Fine Arts Center
August 12, 2010
Henderson, KY
Review by: Nicole

Patty's show at The Fine Arts Center is part of "Bluegrass in the Park" for Henderson -- she kicked the festival off, and was the act that wasn't "in the park" and was not free. As usual though, you couldn't really beat the price of her tickets - $28 and $18.

This set up was a little "different" though - the show was put on by the Henderson Area Arts Alliance. Their ticket sale procedure was strange. They had season ticket holders, and the original holders got their tickets first, then you could become a holder and get tickets, or just get individual tickets at a later date. When you became the season ticket holder though, I had to explain to multiple people about getting multiple tickets to Patty's show and not the others. It seems others had problems too - having to leave their information on the machine to get a call back to order tickets, etc.

But, moving on - a few plans changed and Richard & Patti weren't able to come up, but Malissa was going to drive up for it. Since they had screwed up her ticket order and it was the only show she was seeing this year, I swapped seats with her so she'd be up front. I drove up to Henderson the night before (which, at only 2.5 hours from Nashville really wasn't needed, but gambling in Indiana Casinos the next morning was worth it!), and Lissy showed up the following morning. It was off to the venue we went!

Or so we thought. We made it to the college campus the venue was on, but the act of finding the VENUE was a little more difficult. They have massive construction going on -- there is NO parking immediately around the venue. Small signs were up with arrows stating Fine Arts Center --- but we couldn't find the building! We finally parked on one of the only parking lots we could find, on the opposite side of the college and walked around- which in 112 degree heat index was NOT fun. We couldn't find the venue because it was not marked, at ALL. Folks that came in after us after Patty got there were only able to find it because of the bus. Perhaps they don't get many people coming in from out of town, but it was incredibly difficult to find not being marked.

We left for awhile to gamble, and take Flat Patty around town and over into Indiana, and I came back a little while later to find out what was going on. They said to come early because of the parking situation, so I scored great parking and headed into venue, running into G and his wife Vicky, so we were able to sit in the lobby and catch up. (Great to see you guys again!) They had a band in the lobby to entertain and then opened the doors to venue 30 minutes before showtime.

The inside of the venue itself was fantastic -- nice and small, and she really filled the place up, the floor and balcony. We noticed in the lobby that everyone seemed to know each other, and much of the crowd were elderly. So it was a very local, older crowd. They first thing I noticed was the set. She took out the stools to sit on, the lamps, the radio, and the band was still using the Mountain Soul mics, but Patty was using a regular mic. I didn't care for it during the MS sets, but it did give her the freedom to wander the stage since she was so confined last year behind the mic.

Patty came on shortly after 7:30 to mild applause. The crowd was very different - in my notes I said the crowd sucked, and well…they did. It was not a Patty crowd. BUT on the same note - some of the people that I had sitting around me that sat there and barely even clapped for her commented as they left on what a great show she put on - so they ENJOYED it at least!

Patty came out and thanked everyone for coming, and said they were going to do some real country music for everyone, and launched into "The Night's Too Long", followed by "Nothin' But the Wheel". Now, the plus with this dull crowd was when she started "Wheel", it was complete silence. You could hear a pin drop. Thank goodness, because she SLAYED it--- she never missed a note, and just sounded incredible.

After "Wheel", Patty took a minute to introduce the steel player, Steve Fishell. He was new, and she said she'd been changing it up this year band wise, and laughed saying, "I have to keep looking back to see whose playing with me this time!". She explained he'd worked with many artists, but one he was really proud of was Emmylou Harris - just like her husband.

Patty kept the chatter minimal and went straight into "On Down the Line" - and then took some time out to talk about the music she grew up with, and artists she used to listen to as a kid, and how much she loved George Jones. This of course, led into Patty & Garry doing "You Don't Seem to Miss Me". She introduced Garry and said he was "truly a wonderful singer", which made Garry blush as he said "Thank you Patty!"

She followed it up with "You Can Feel Bad" & "Lovin' All Night" - and then stopped and told everyone about taking her hiatus and trying to take some time and figure out where she wanted to go, and then Saguaro Road showed up and wanted her to cut a record for them. This launched into a few songs from "Sleepless Nights", which she swapped up a bit, and kicked it off with "Crazy Arms". LOVE the switch, I don't know what it was about kicking that off with that song, but it just works. THIS was a huge crowd favorite --- they LOVED it. The ending was also different, and Steve did not finish the song with steel, they ended it with Patty's last line.

"Color of the Blues" and "Why Baby Why" were up next, and then finally, my highlight of the show: Mountain Soul time! The MS set consisted of:

Prisoner's Tears
Bramble and the Rose
Busted
Harlan
Boys are Back in Town

So, not nearly as long for the die-hard MS'ers, but it fed the appetite and she didn't take it completely out (which I hope never happens again :P) And I'll admit it: this is where I do not like the addition of the drums. Last year's tour was by far the dream Patty show -- the treatment for every song was just BEYOND incredible, so I knew I was spoiled and wouldn't know what to think of the drums being back.

Dave Racine is on drums, and is super talented. So, it's definitely nothing against him. But my heart hurt a little when they brought him out to play the drums on "Bramble and the Rose". Yikes! I'm sure the ones that aren't the die-hards like most of us think nothing of it, LOL.

As she introduced Harlan, she started off by saying she was a Kentucky girl --- and then after everyone applauded that, she replied with "and proud of it!" in a sing-songy voice. "Harlan" was incredible - as usual. And Kentucky crowds usually "get it" - there's always someone in the crowd who has been in the same place Patty has been, watching her dad come home from the mines. Half the audience gave a standing O at the end of Harlan.

Patty said she was going to "let the girls loose" for "Boys", and they took off on the fiddles. Seriously, there's just nothing better than the Mountain Soul set for me. Pure heaven. Can we get a show of Mountain Soul I & II in their entirety? : )

That closed out the MS set, and they went into "Here I Am", which she seemed to get completely lost in as she stood there. She then introduced Todd Lombardo on electric guitar to do his intro for "Halfway Down", which slowly started to get the crowd a little pumped up! And when she went from that to "You Don't Even Know Who I Am", people in the crowd started to cheer a little bit as the music started. They were finally livening up- and a few folks even gave a standing O afterwards!

Patty took a minute to say she knew she had already told us who everyone in the band was but she wanted to introduce them one more time so that everyone would leave truly remembering who they were. She went through each member one by one, starting with Deanie, and introducing them and saying where they were from. When she got to Steve, she said "Um….where ARE you from, Steve!?!" She then got to Garry, and prompted him to tell everyone about his gig the following night in Arkansas with his band, which he pointed out Dave Racine is also in. Patty said "And….tell the name of the band….", which made everyone laugh, as he told them it was Calico Trail. Patty told everyone to keep an eye out for them, and then looked over and said "But you boys make sure you make it to Colorado Saturday!!", and said if they didn't, she would have to start sending the next song out to him, and started into "The Trouble with the Truth".

With Patty having her freedom about the stage again, the "Blame" sing along is back, and as she started the song, she asked everyone to stand, and taught them the words to "Blame", but made sure to warn them, "It's a mouthful!". It's like the crowd did a total 360 when she started that - even the elderly lady next to me was dancing! I did get a kick out of the folks on the other side of me - they were the very first people I've met that has never heard "Blame" before! Never! The woman told me at the end of the song that there was NO way she was gonna get the words right! That would be okay with Patty, though, who told everyone she didn't care if they knew the words or not --- but she wanted to hear you sing!

She closed the show with a new addition to the set- which she hasn't done since '05- "I'm That Kind of Girl". The crowd was still on it's feet from Blame and never sat down.

When Patty came back out for her encore, she told everyone they could sit back down and relax, because she was gonna bring it back down again. The original encore was going to be "My Old Friend the Blues", but they decided to change it to "Too Many Memories". Patty the audience of what an incredible writer Stephen Bruton was, and how she wanted to do this song for him that she had recorded "many, many moons" ago. I'm sure she did him proud, it was absolutely perfect.

She brought the band back out to do a bow, thanked everyone for coming, and was gone. It seemed like it went by way too quickly.

Before the show, Vicky and I had commented that we didn't really care for the venue, and I guess they paid me back after the show! As G and I walked through the dark grass to go to the bus, we were greeted by a muddy pond we didn't know about. Surprise! Down we went, and thanks to G grabbing onto me, I only sunk down to my knees. I'm sure we looked lovely- what a way to end the night. It was a long, muddy-smelling drive back to Nashville. I stopped at a gas station to get something to drink and there was a cop inside talking to the attendant….who couldn't help but notice my mud-caked jeans and feet, and had to ask what happened. I grinned and told him and he said "You look awfully happy for someone whose covered in mud!". It's all worth it....now, if September and October could just hurry on up for my next 6 shows!