A Review...by Heather and Cheryl

Last night's show was incredible! (As usual)

The day started off by finally getting to meet Cheryl ....and her friends, who by the way are some of the sweetest people I've ever met!!! We sat through the fiddlers, the hollerin' contest (Cheryl I still say you should have entered! STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!!) And then listened to the First Church Bell Choir, who were very good....Blackhawk was supposed to play at 8:15 + 9:30....but Henry and Dave got lost in the country sides of Connecticut and were 10 minutes late getting to the show, I think they were cow tipping!! (No, they were stuck in traffic!) Well, they jumped on stage and from there proceeded to put on an incredible show! I didn't write down the set list (Cheryl, I think you have it) and I couldn't even tell you what song they started off with because at the moment they all set foot on stage I am in a complete different world!!! Towards the end of the first set, Dave was smokin' on the piano, had an amazing solo going on, and then in an instant ALL THE POWER WENT OFF! ( I guess the lightning from his fingers caused a power surge) The guys came to the front of the stage and finished the set acoustically with the whole crowd singing along......To me (and I'm sure the guys didn't feel this way) I thought this was the best part of the night!

We then did the meet+greet, I brought my niece to meet the guys, she had the whole Marsha Brady thing going on, cause' now she doesn't want to ever wash her face EVER again!! Henry thanked Cheryl, myself and ALL of the fans on this website for being such faithful and loyal fans and and wanted us all to know how much all of our kind words mean to him and the rest of the band!

The second set was pretty amazing too...they took a ton of requests and just played their asses off! It was nice to finally hear Dave sing "Always Have, Always Will" and "The Bluest Eyes in Texas".....They played "Grey Ghost", "Knoxville Girl", "So Long", "Freeborn Man" and a BIG tease with "Green Grass and High Tides"...I'm sure I've missed a bunch of others...Cheryl, you can fill in what I missed! It was an amazing show overall....It was a nice welcome for Anthony and Kirk they are VERY talented and seem like they will have NO problem blending with the Blackhawk family....aside from the great vocals from Henry and Dave, this band has the most amazing talent with Chris, John and Jimmy....when it comes to asking about a favorite, drummer, fiddler, or electric guitar player..they are the TOP of my list!!! At times throughout the show I was speachless, breathless and in complete Heaven........Thanks guys for a GREAT performance...

Ahh yes...the hollering contest. "Mom, can I have a cookie!!!!!" Well before I add to Coach's review, I must say it was wonderful meeting Coach, her husband and her niece! Back at ya honey, you all are some of the nicest people I've met and I hope to see Cottonwood perform some time; Coach is quite the looker!! It was also good officially meeting Mark and Mike and the gentleman (whose name I never got) that saw me give a poster photo of Chris to him. He said he'd seen that photo on my website and something about me being famous.(???) As always it was nice seeing Carol and meeting her friend.

Anyway, Val, Lee, Char and I arrived at the fair grounds at 11:00am to insure we'd be right down front row of the stage. As fairs go it was nice and the people were really nice also. Like Coach said Henry and Dave got delayed. The guys got stuck in traffic on Rt. 61 North. Had that cop they saw going South on 61 been a lady, they probably never would have made it to the show for her drooling all over them. LOL

For the first show they were introduced as a group whose lead singer used to be with the Outlaws...imagine that. The guys opened with "Gloryland" and unfortunately since my friend has the song list, I couldn't remember the order of the songs and maybe not all of the songs they did even if I were to be put under hypnosis. They performed "I Sure Can Smell the Rain", "That's Just About Right", "Postmarked Birmingham", "There You Have It", "Days of America", "Brothers of the Southland" , "Knoxville Girl" and others I can't remember right now. They'd begun performing "Big Guitar" when Dave caused a city wide power outage, with thousands of people pouring out of their homes wondering just what song Dave was keyboarding on at the time. Just kidding! At first there was a slight amount of panic on Henry's face but as the true professionals they are, that did not stop them from continuing on as Coach stated. The crowd rose to their feet and there were some lighters held up as we all sang right along with them. Seeing those guys at the edge of the stage determined not to let a little power outage deter them from finishing the first set and being a part of such an incredible moment, was something I'll never forget. I've been to a number of concerts in my time both rock and country and I have to tell you, had a power outage have occurred during a performance at a lot of concerts, the artists would have simply left the stage and the people would have been pissed. But I saw this as a collective effort of not letting it end there and as a way for the fans to show their love for BH. I had planned a way to show the guys how much I love them but this was much better than what I had planned. Another something that makes you go hmmm....The last time I was a part of something like that was in an arena with 20,000 people singing "Give Peace a Chance".

After the set was completed, the utility company arrived in what I thought was record time to begin to repair the blown transformer, which I was told blows every year during the fair(yeah...that's it Dave...UFO's, like I'm giving anyone the secret recipe to Bush Beans). Hmmm....you'd think they'd have gotten a larger transformer by now? LOL We lined up for the meet~n~greet, which was illuminated by flashlight and it was THE coolest meet~n~greet ever. Henry thanks for signing your hand instead of the photo! J/K There truly is something to be said about the darkness. :) Ouch...there's a drum case there! Now, about my 30th reunion photos................?? Yikes, you saw those?!? If you thought I looked nice in that shot with Pam, you should have seen the rest of me. Never thought I could still dance in shoes like that! LOL What you said to Heather, Val, Kim and I was just the sweetest and most heartfelt I've ever heard. BTW, I was so sorry to hear about your Father. You have my deepest sympathy.

Coach, you did good with the second set songs. That was amazing! For the second set, they were introduced as the world famous BlackHawk. (so it is written, so it shall be done) I was absolutely in awe when they did "So Long" and a little of "Grey Ghost". They also performed some of "Love and Gravity" and "One Night in New Orleans"(YAY!). Yes, Kirk and Anthony did a fine job! And maybe one day, I'll be able to get a photo of Jimmy playing the drums. I never thought there'd be a draw back to being too close to the stage. We got lost in the wilds of CT and what would have been an hour drive back to the motel ended up being 2hrs. If it weren't for that streaking light in the sky, it would have been fine with me. LOL

Well, I'm a photobug by nature and these aren't some of my best because of the lighting at times but being there to witness and play a small part in such a phenominal event is really what it's all about. The guys were smokin'!!!! Thank YOU is never enough!!! We're still in a dream Kim and only God knows when we'll wake up! Stay safe on the road guys!!!

I can't wait for the next time Coach and life is not only good but it's beautiful! The shiniest day happened on this magical night!!!