On February 10, 2001 a handful of us waited outside of Club 92.5 to see Steve Holy perform that night. Steve arrived and greeted us with hugs. He went inside the club and then emerged shortly to find the restroom. After he had gone back inside, he came back out a few minutes later and told us that he had checked with management and they said it was okay if we wanted to come into the club while they had sound check. You bet we wanted to go inside! It was really cool as he came over to chat with us during breaks and we were in there for about an hour before everyone else was let in. Steve had a refreshing peronality and was a natural. If you've seen him perform on stage, you can tell one of his greatest influences was Elvis. No, there's no hip-shaking gyrations going on but you can imagine this little boy entertaining his family when they were all gathered around. Steve would meet who would eventually become his Fan Club President. His name is Steve also and they are both from Texas. One day during Christmas time Steve Holy was driving down the street and spotted Elvis Christmas decorations on a house. He stopped, knocked on the door, introduced himself and they became fast friends.
Mindy McCready came to Club 92.5 on February 14th. She especially impressed the guys there and is very pretty. Her skin is flawless and she too signed autographs and took photos after her show. On March 7th, Gary Allan performed at the club. He put on a really good show and has recorded some of the best songs I've ever heard. Pat and Ed, Joyce and Brenda had become regular concert attendees at the club and we had become friends. Joyce and Brenda had become friends of mine more so from Great Adventure. When Gary left the stage, some guy reached up and grabbed a few guitar picks from the mic stand. Thanks...oddly enough, Gary's guitar picks had "this pick was stolen from Gary on it"! Three weeks later, SheDaisy performed at the club. While they gave a good show because Kelsi, Krystin and Kassidy's voices blend so well, a number of people in their fan club missed out on a meet~n~greet because it was invitation only. The majority of the artists performing at the club held general meet~n~greets as opposed to fan club ones or invitation only. I was not in their fan club but I understood the disappointment of some.
Three days later, Collin performed at the local Community College and Randy Lee again opened the show. It was a great show and more and more people flocked to Randy's merchandise table to purchase his CD's and for photos and autographs. On June 6th, XTU had their 17th Anniversary Show. The tickets were free but you had to either win them on the radio or go to ticket runs. The show was held at the Tweeter Center in Camden and you either lucked out with seats inside the shell out of the rain (which it often did) or on the lawn. The morning started out with rain and we had lawn seats (yuck!). But thanks to Sandy, we were upgraded to inside the shell. We were once again upgraded to good seats thanks to Sue. Throughout the day South 65 performed, as well as Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Neal McCoy, Sawyer Brown and Travis Tritt. We then knew that if you wished to get an autograph, you had to head into the building after each performance to the radio station's broadcast booth.
I was told that BlackHawk would be appearing at the Great American Music Fest in West Springfield, MA on June 30th. So off we went! We arrived before dawn because it was general admission. I met a very nice and huge Jo Dee fan there (hey Jen!) and our paths would cross again. Once the sun came up, it began to get hot and after the gates were opened, the plan was that one person would carry the bags to be checked out, while the other one ran to get as close to the stage as possible. As I began to run, then trot, then run (*pant* *pant*), then trot, it crossed my mind as to whether anyone had had a heart attack doing this before. God, I did not want to be the first or one of others for that matter. But we were going to be seeing BlackHawk and we had meet~n~greet reservations and whatever sacrifices I had to make, I was prepared! Hell, I'd given two years of weekends to the Army Reserves for what, two weeks with a bunch of women and mediocre pay. LOL Out of my way...I'm going to be meeting these guys today!!! I might add that also on the bill was Craig Morgan, Phil Vassar, Tim Rushlow, Lee Roy Parnell and Trisha Yearwood but at the time, that didn't matter. By the time I stopped running and realized what spots we had staked out for ourselves, I discovered I had no chest pains and my pulse began to return to normal. Thank God for small wonders! I could die after BlackHawk's performance and after the meet~n~greet. With the full band on stage (including Chris and Mike) the guys rocked out! We made numerous trips to various radio station people to inquire about the meet~n~greet. I was not happy to say the least that no one was helping us. Did they not recognize the look of desperation? They either didn't know anything about it or brushed us off politely saying they'd find out. Finally, with the help of some interns, they found our passes and showed us the way. By now, I was convinced there was no way I'd be nervous meeting them for the first time...not me. There were sodas and water in a tub in the tent and I didn't think anyone would mind. It was hot as hell and about 93 degrees! Did I forget to mention that a well composed lady who sat in front of us during Lee Roy Parnell's performance went to get up and fainted?? Oh my God, they're coming! I could do this and kept telling myself to breathe. There were only a handful of us and when I walked up to Henry and Dave, the strangest thing came out of my mouth. I said, "can I say that I simply adore you guys?" Thanks guys for not laughing because I still didn't think that would come out of me. We took a couple of photos together, I was in the middle of those two musical giants and I was in..."Heaven...I'm in heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak..." As we were getting ready to leave the meet~n~greet after being told...this way ladies, we saw a couple of Lee Roy's fans come over to get autographs and photos with Dave and Henry; of which Henry razzed Lee Roy about. We were so drained and elated that we didn't even stay to see Trisha. (sorry Trisha!) Two weeks later, I'd see them again. I was much more composed. Damn...I dropped the photo they just signed! LOL
Our first trip to Nashville during Fan Fair was in the middle of June. This would also be the second drive to Nashville and we followed Jim and Cathy there. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Brentwood and attended Fan Club parties, etc. The idea of actually getting tickets to Fan Fair was really not of interest to me because I'd been spoiled by smaller venues for the most part and really good spots and seats. So Fan Club parties seemed to me to be the best of both worlds. You usually were given a performance by the artist, fed and in a number of cases the meet~n~greet was not rushed. The atmosphere in itself was usually more casual as well. That year we attended Mark Wills' Fan Club Party on June 14th. Cindy from Spring Training was there and Terri from PlanetGarth was there also. It was held at Denim and Diamonds and was rather cool sitting at he and the band's feet while they performed. Raffle tickets were handed out for various collectibles, including a pair of Mark's jeans and a very nice buffet was served. The only downside was Mark performed longer than anticipated and had to be somewhere else at a certain time. Therefore, the only ones who got a photo with him were the ones who won one of the raffles. Previously that day, we had attended Phil Vassar's Fan Club Party.
We'd gotten tickets to the Opry on the next day where we saw among others, Jamie O'Neal and Eric Heatherly. Renee' was there as well as Lisa and Janine. We'd also gotten tickets to a Matinee at the Ryman Auditorium with Pam Tillis, Patti Loveless, Vince Gill and others. Ty England's party was held on the morning of the 16th at the Douglas Corner Cafe'. Ty joked about having borrowed one of Garth's vehicle's to drive to Nashville for the party. He said there was no way he could see himself pulling up to Douglas Corner in his Ford Taurus. When he called about borrowing a vehicle, one of Garth's people told him that the Chevy Dually and the Lexus were available. When he went to pick the vehicle up, they said, "you are taking the Chevy right?" Enroute to the party, he had an accident. Allbeit a minor accident but an accident just the same. When he went to exchange information with the guy he asked the guy if he knew who he was. The guy said no and then Ty asked if he knew who Garth Brooks was and the guys said yes. Ty said, "I'm Garth Brooks". LOL He had us laughing our butts off!! After which, he pleaded that no one show the video tape to Garth as he looked toward the back of the room as if Garth might be there.
After Ty performed, his wife Shanna and their adorable kids got up on stage for photo ops. His daughter Aspen helped out at the merchandise table during Ty's 2003 Fan Club party. She is growing into quite a beautiful young lady and Ty has his work cut out for him keeping the boys away. It was Sherrie's birthday and she was presented with a cake. Pizza and soft drinks were served at the party and the meet~n~greet took forever. Ty loves to talk and takes his time, which is fine with me. Ty is so very sweet and rather soft spoken. He always greets you with a smile and a hello sweetheart. Garth had offered to have Ty tour with him while he was still out there but Ty opted not to. Ty's album "Highways and Dance Halls" that was produced by Garth had been released by Capitol Records but it had not been promoted like it should have. Capitol dropped him from the roster, which is interesting because the album came out at a time when people were complaining about the Country/Pop music that was being played and not enough traditional sounding songs. Ty's album was as traditional as it gets and while "I Drove Her to Dallas" and "Should've Asked Her Faster" got quite a bit of play, the rest of the album pretty much went unnoticed except by the fans. Given the chance, "Too Many Highways" and "I'd Rather Have Nothing", I thought, could have been hits. To this day, this album remains to be one of my favorites of all the ones I have.
Later that evening we had reservations at the Bluebird Cafe' to see Garth's songwriters (Pat Alger, Tony Arata, Kim Williams and Kent Blazy) perform in the round. They would eventually go on tour with their CD titled "IN THE BEGINNING, A songwriter's tribute to Garth Brooks". Hearing them perform "The Thunder Rolls", "Unanswered Prayers", "The Dance", etc. in the way they were originally written was awesome! In between songs, there was bantering between them and joking around that at times had us dying. They performed for almost 3hrs. and signed autographs afterward. The Bluebird Cafe' is an incredible place to visit. It's very small and intimate and exudes all the charm of those who have performed there. My friends Jim and Cathy would again see Garth's songwriters at The Point in PA and surprised me with an autographed copy that included Larry Bastian and Stephanie Davis. Kent wrote, "Cheryl, wish you were here". They are without a doubt some of the finest writers in music. Regardless of your preference in music, if the words to a song can make you relate to the story as if it was written about what you had experienced or grab your heart in anyway, combined with the melody that can make you feel as if you're floating on air, that's good music. Ironically enough, last year while in Nashville during Fan Fair we ran into Kim Williams walking down the street. During our four day stay in Nashville, we were walking down Broadway and I had turned to look at something. When I turned to look forward again, this guy with a child and a woman were walking in our direction. I looked in his eyes (his beautiful eyes) and I said, "aren't you Trini Triggs?" He said, "yes ma'am". I wanted to ask for a photograph with him but it seemed like he was out with perhaps his family. But his wife (I presume) giggled over my reaction to seeing him. Now hold on just one minute, remember I'm from a small town? No one comes here except Bruce Willis on occasion and then who cares! I can tell this though, I have come a long way and never again did I react in amazement, not even when I asked Keith Urban if my friends and I could buy him a drink in his hotel lounge, nor did I glance more than once when Gene Johnson of Diamond Rio chatted with some friends in our hotel lounge last year in OH. A few days after returning home, we headed to Great Adventure to see Aaron Tippin. Aaron put on a really animated fun show and my friend Sandy is a huge fan. She attended the meet~n~greet and was beside herself.
Will my story ever be made into a movie or published in a book? I doubt it and there's more to come. But if it were made into a movie or published in a book, I'd be the first in line and I lived it! This is the abridged version and maybe someday when I'm 65, I'll write everything. By then I'll be too old to care what some people might think. LOL From time to time, I will go back and add something I feel should be included, in which case it will be in green to avoid having to re-read the entire text.
On July 14th, BlackHawk performed at Great Adventure, as well as Patty Loveless. I took a sign that said OMG!!! because in MA I managed to tell Henry that we almost met in Philly when was about to enter Club 92.5 and how I reacted. I knew he would remember that. When they took the stage, I held up the sign and he mouthed Oh My God!!! As usual they rocked and I got some really good photos being right up front. During the meet~n~greet,which was before the show, I gave them some goodies which I later learned they tore into. Henry tried to remember precisely where in MA the photo of us was taken but Dave knew immediately. After we posed for another photo, I thanked them and I dropped the photo they had signed but I was cool. LOL As I walked away, I heard someone say...Cheryl! I turned to see Leigh Richards. We hugged and chatted a while about her husband who had been ill, before I returned to my spot in front of the stage. I found out later that after the show, the guys came out to sign for those who had stuck around hoping they would.
