Aug 15/08 Shenandoah at the Watermelon Festival in Russellville, Al

AUG 15/08 RUSSELLVILLE, AL Shenandoah at the Watermelon Festival

Leave time for Shenandoah was set for 9 am Friday morning, August 15. Jim Seales would be picked up in Alabama on the way to Russellville. Mike Mcguire would meet us later that afternoon in Russellville at soundcheck. Meeting the bus in Nashville was myself, Jimmy Yeary, Mike Folsom , Bart Barlettano, his daughter,Chelsie, Billy Ryan and his girlfriend, Amanda. Byron Cumbie, our merch man would not be on this run. We all had to get up that morning around 6 am to get to the bus in time..."musician's hours"...right! lol  I wanna thank my wife Donna for meeting me at the bus with an egg mcmuffin. :) Way beyond the call of duty. We arrived in Russellville around noon at the Russelville Suites and parked the bus. We had an hour and a half to kill at the motel, so we all walked down to the Dairy Queen and got a bite to eat. Burgers and fries for everyone. After stuffing ourselves, we departed for down town Russellville to load in and do soundcheck. It was another hot, humid day and we found the stage to be uncovered...which proved not be a good thing, as the clouds were starting to build up..filling us with the dreaded thought of rain. We had already lost several pieces of gear a few weeks back due to water damage. I found my top keyboard to be in non-functioning order and took it to the bus, using only my main board to drive my other synth modules...frustrating to say the least. After soundcheck, we were taken to the nearby Baptist church and fed salad, pasta and various types of pizza and bread sticks. Several members of the opening band joined us at the church for the late afternoon feast. After eating, Chelsie, Jimmy Yeary and myself got a ride to the motel to get cleaned up. We had two clean up rooms and found that each had a hot tub. That is always a nice surprise. When I got to the room, I took a quick catnap while Jimmy hit the workout room and then the hot tub. I should have taken advantage of the relaxing jets but passed this time...putting priority on the nap. We arrived back at the bus at around 7:45 pm and found the bus to be filled with friends and various band family members. My family showed up to see Shenandoah, as they only lived about 45 minutes away. With the help of my good buddy, Wayne Counts, of Counts Bros music and The Midnighters..we moved their chairs to a location where they could see me and the band...about four rows back center stage. It is always great to have my family show up..it is a rare treat because Shenandoah doesn't usually play close enough to allow that to happen very often.  At 8 o'clock, the opening act started their set, which included Shenandoah guitarist, Jim Seales and other various musicians from the Muscle Shoals, Al area. Among those were Donnie Carpenter, a talented fiddle player we had all known for years...who later set in with Shenandoah on Next to You, Next to Me. They treated the huge crowd of thousands to lots of great cover tunes..that they truly made their own. This was the first time that Jim Seales had ever opened up for himself! History was indeed made. After Jim Seales and the opening band finished, Shenandoah hit the stage at 9 pm and it had already started raining. By the end of the first song, Janie Baker's Love Slave, the gear was getting pretty wet and so were we. I had a hard time keeping my fingers on the keys and was constantly wiping them off with my shirt. The crowd showed no signs of leaving and we plowed through our show with the rain coming down. It never quit completely but did lesson to a degree where it was somewhat tolerable. I got off the stage in the middle of the show and stood with Ralph Ezell's brother and wife as Jimmy Yeary did the song, "You Never Know". We hugged each other with tears in our eyes..this was the song that was inspired by Ralph, the original bass player who passed away last November. It was a very moving moment for all. We did about 75 minutes and after the show, the rain soaked audience cleared out fairly quick..no long autograph lines that night. I walked my Mom and Dad, Aunt Betty Anne, Uncle Richard and Aunt Martha to their vehicle.. which was parked quite far away and bid them goodbye and thanked them for coming to the show. It was so great to see them..I was sorry they had to endure the rain. I made my way back down the street to the bus and ran into several old friends I hadn't seen in years, including Mary Carter Young.. a talented singer who was like family to me. I bet it had been at least fifteen years since I had seen her.  With the bus loaded, we pulled out of Russellville around midnight and with post show hunger kicking in...pulled into Arnold's truck stop and got food to go. Jimmy Yeary got a ride back to Nashville with his girlfriend and of course Mike Mcguire and Jim Seales stayed in Alabama. The few of us left on the bus arrived back in Nashville at 3 am. Shenandoah would like to thank our families and all our friends for the great show of support and for sitting through our rain soaked show. You mean a lot to us. I would also like to personally thank the wonderful, up and coming duo, "The Redheads" for making the trip down. I feel I should mention that the music world lost two greats recently...Jerry Wexler and Isaac Hayes..they will be missed.  Yep, another country music adventure was had by all. Down the road...Stan Munsey_