Kenny Rogers @ The Hummingbird Centre
The Hummingbird center was alive with
excitement waiting for the show to begin. Looking around we saw fans of
all ages, eager to find their seats and for the show to begin. The various
age groups represented during this show proves that country music has a
wide spread array of followers. It also shows that artists such as Deric
Ruttan and Kenny Rogers’ music are loved by the young, and the young at
heart.
Deric Ruttan opened the show. It was
great to see a local boy (Originally from Bracebridge, ON) share the stage
with one of the greats.
Deric's set was done acoustically, and with the cozy theatre it brought more of a personal and close feeling for the fans. His first song was "When You Come Around" which is Deric's first single off his album.
Deric then took a chance to talk to
the audience to tell us about when he was asked to open this show. He
asked the audience what they thought he said when he got the call, about a
month ago when asked to be part of the show. After the audience let Deric
know their answers, he admitted to us that it was an immediate yes.
Deric's next song was "Take The Wheel" a song that uses Thunder
Bay at the beginning of the song shows us how proud Deric is of his
Canadian heritage. The warmth and sound of Deric's voice outweighed the
fact his guitar was out of tune (which he later teases happened at a show
in NYC).
"Love Did", Deric's third
song of the night contained the name "JENNY" so of course we
thought the song was all about me. Don’t we all do that though, when you
hear your name in a song, it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling?
Keeping in the spirit of showing his
fans the emotions he expresses in the songs he writes, he took a chance to
say hi to his parents, friends, aunts, cousins and label reps. Deric told
the audience about how he has been writing for half of his life. A song he
wrote with fellow Canadian Tim Taylor was next. It’s currently on the
charts now recorded by Aaron Pritchett called "My Way".
Reminding the fans that his C.D's are
available at the front where he will be signing autographs during the
intermission, he also reminded us that his C.D’s make great stocking
stuffers; since Christmas is just around the corner. (Coincidentally so is
Bracebridge, the home of Santa's Village).
"What Was I Thinking" is a
song Deric co-wrote with Deirks Bentley and Brett Beavers. Deric teases
that he prayed Deirks would take it to number one so that he could buy a
new truck.
Deric's last song "I Saved Everything" is a moving spiritual ballad. With Deric's heartfelt performance and strong voice; mixed with the incredible lyrics in this song he really made the audience feel like he 'saved everything' for his performance tonight. Deric is a great and talented singer/songwriter.
KENNY ROGERS
With an 8-piece band, Kenny came
onstage with a bang singing "Something’s Got A Hold On Me".
After the short intermission this got the crowd going and geared up again
for the rest of the show. "When Love Comes Knockin" was his next
song to perform, which showed the audience that we were going to be in for
a great show".
After the second song, Kenny Rogers took a little time to chat with his audience (and HIS audience we were) as we all focused all our attention on stage eager to listen. Kenny Rogers told us that for the first few years of his career, he could never see the audience from the stage. He had lights installed for all of his shows at the front of the audience so that he could watch the audience, and to make sure they all didn’t leave. Kenny also stated that he believes if you are in the first 10 rows of an audience, that using binoculars is just an invasion of the artist’s privacy. This of course got the audience laughing and we didn’t stop for much of the show, being entertained not only musically, but also through Kenny Rogers' great dialogues and interaction with the audience.
One lucky fan (JIM) went from being a
'fan of Kenny Rogers music' (and wanting Kenny's flashy shirt) to being a
'huge fan of country music'. Kenny Rogers admitted to us that he wasn't
against bribing fans... as Jim walked away with 90$U.S. of Kenny's money,
and a Kenny Rogers 'On Tour' T-shirt.
Kenny's third song "If You Want
To Find Love” was written over 10 years ago. Kenny stills sounds great,
and sings ballads like no other. A great example of this was his next song
(and fan favorite) "Through The Years". As you can imagine his
strong voice, and the lyrics to this song had people listening at the edge
of their seats, leaning in to listen more.
"Ruby, Don’t Take Our Love To
Town" was the song Kenny Rogers thought he might get some audience
participation. During the first chorus we were expected to sing, yet it
wasn't till the last chorus of the song that the audience sounded like we
knew the lyrics to the song. Always remember 'Don't take our love to
town'. After the first chorus, Kenny Rogers stopped the song to let us
know that the audience in Quebec (which we all know as the hotbed of
Country Music) sang the song better than we did. This brought on a lot of
boo's from the audience, but we quickly recovered. I think it was the
amazing performance we all witnessed as well as one of the most
complimentary lighting and light show I have witnessed during a show.
Kenny shared "It's A Beautiful
Life" a song off his new album about the feeling you get at a family
reunion, and the title track of his 61st album "Back To The
Well". "Back To The Well" is an upbeat bluegrass song that
shows off the talents of the fiddle and mandolin players, and has some
amazing harmonies.
Amber Randall showed us her talents
as she and other musicians in the band played an instrumental number.
After starting with the fiddle solo, it spotlighted other musicians in the
band. You almost thought of lightning watching the electric acoustic
player, as his fingers moved so fast.
Yet another number 1 hit for Kenny
"Coward Of The County" the audience redeemed themselves by
knowing the lyrics and singing it back to him. Even Kenny laughed that at
least we knew the words this time. "Daytime Friends” was next, and
even though these songs were number one hits before, Kenny Rogers brought
new life to the songs.
Kenny Rogers said that he truly
believes in the meaning behind "Buy Me A Rose" admitting that
'men just don't get it'. This is a perfect relationship song that will
help listeners to realize what they don’t do and should--- hopefully
before it’s too late. During "Buy Me A Rose" the back screen
showed a picture of a perfect red rose, which added the perfect ambience
to the song.
Back to the audience participation
parts of the show, "Stand Up" where the words 'stand up' were
sang at least a dozen times, resulted in only 2 people standing up. No
worries though, Kenny Rogers gave us a chance to redeem ourselves again,
and as he sang the last chorus, the entire audience was on their feet.
Everyone knows how important
friendships are and as Kenny Rogers said, few songs can really represent
that. "Have A Little Faith In Me" was just the song. This time
Kenny Rogers let us know in advance that the "Have A Little Faith In
Me" was our line, and just like "Coward Of The County", we
didn’t disappoint. Another ballad that Kenny sang with heart.
One of Kenny Rogers most popular
songs, known in any musical genre is "The Gambler" has inspired
movies of the same name. The audience was treated to clips of The Gamblers
1-5 while clapping along. Kenny Rogers also gave us a sneak peak at The
Gambler 6, in which his good friend "Coolio" adds a little rap
to the song. This gave a whole new meaning to remix and cross-genre duets.
Looking out at the crowd, Kenny
Rogers remarked that we looked like a bunch of 'Ray Charles' as we swayed
in time with the music during "Lucille", yet another one of
Kenny Rogers #1songs. Fans who have seen Kenny perform know that the
traditional last song is "Lucille". Kenny Rogers told us that we
all know he is going to walk off stage, the audience will all go hoarse
from screaming and cheering, and in total that the whole 'encore' idea is
rather silly. So instead "trying to preserve those precious steps off
stage and back again" Kenny took the opportunity to introduce his
band, then sang "Lady" in which he is an amazing a vocalist as
he was when he originally recorded the song. Kenny Rogers' last song of
the night was "Islands In The Stream" a song he recorded as a
duet with Dolly Parton.
Overall this was an amazing show, with Deric and Kenny complimenting each other by being strong vocalists. The audience was loving it, especially those that caught Frisbee’s and tambourines and Jim who took home Kenny's money. There was a lady who has seen Kenny Rogers in concert 10 times, and her husband has been to 6. I am sure I'll hit those landmarks soon if I get the chance.
Thank you to James Monaco for his help, to Crowne Entertainment, House of Blues. It was a wonderful show!
Just remember if you get the opportunity to see Kenny Rogers live, "Don't Take Our Love To Town"
Karen and Genn
