On Thursday the 4th of April, I started the last leg of my road trip and arrived at the Richard G. Fallon Theater at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL.
Wow, wow, wow, what a wonderful concert. The auditorium was full and she played to her fans and the audience let her know how appreciated was. Honestly, I was not that familiar with her music; I just knew her from Youtube videos and I knew her to be an amazing picker in her own right and it’s fun to watch the videos of her with Billy and Sierra and Allison and Bryan and others. I have since downloaded all her music and listened to all of it on the road to North Carolina the next day.
Playing with her were three fellows on violin, electric bass and drums and they were not overpowering like so many others and I, sitting in my second row seats really appreciated that. She really didn’t do much wicked fast picking like I was expecting, they just focused on playing together well to make beautiful music, that I didn’t feel was a chore to listen to, and she didn’t up stage any of her band either.
Some of the songs were from her earlier work, but much of it was from her newly released (the very next day) album called “When You’re Ready”, and it’s lovely, I highly recommend it. Just FYI, I got the CD at the show and got her to sign it. I don’t have any CD players, not even in my car or computer, so if any of you would like to have it, I’m only asking what I paid for it, $15 I think. Just PM me.
She did a song I was hoping I’d hear as I’ve always like her version - John Hartford’s Gentle On My Mind; I really enjoyed that. She played a couple songs clawhammer style. I’ve seen that in a couple of her videos, but I’ve never seen anyone else play clawhammer guitar, it’s quite a sight.
Just a few minutes into the show, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. It looked like the violin player had a 5 string violin. I kept looking and looking, and sure enough, there were five tuners on that thing. I talked to him after the show and he confirmed it.
She came out to sign autographs after the show and even helped sell her own merch. The people behind me in line were hung up trying to decide what to buy, so I got to talk with her for a few minutes. I tried to get her to come to the Tampa Bay area next year, I told her Clearwater Beach was voted #1 beach in the country - again. Just sayin. She was really excited about her album release and they were headed to Savanah, GA the next day and back to Nashville where they’ll be playing the Grand Ole Opry. And of course I got her to sign my @BanjoBen hat. Very sweet young lady.
I also saw Mickey Abraham and Kathryn Belle at the show and got to talk with them too. I met them at Mickey’s mandolin workshop at the Suwannee Spring Reunion just a couple weeks ago.
