Gene Watson at Farmers’ Opry
I took my mother to see Gene Watson at the Farmers’ Opry last night. I’m a fan of any musical genre done well. Country music is no exception, though I prefer traditional over the newer pop country (basically top-40 music with a slight twang). Watson, similar in style to George Jones or Merle Haggard, brought back memories of listening to the Grand Old Opry on my grandfather’s radio as a child.
Watson’s got a slick voice and a very capable band led by Clinton Gregory (he opened the show with a few songs of his own) who played both guitar and fiddle*. Watson took a few minutes before each song to describe its story or pick on a band member (more often than not keyboardist Joe Eddie Gough). Predictably he’s a very polished entertainer. The only hiccup of the night came when Gough’s keyboard broke and had to be replaced.
I was familiar with several of his older songs including Nothing Sure Looks Good On You and Love in a Hot Afternoon. Surprisingly my favorite of the night turned out to be In a Perfect World off his new album of the same name.
This was our first time at the Farmers’ Opry. A music hall sitting on a campground in the middle of nowhere (no cellphone service), the venue is small enough that there’s not a bad seat in the house. The stage has a background picture of a red barn, and the dinner served before the show (came with the price of the ticket) was surprisingly tasty.
A return trip isn’t far off**.
* The last two musical acts I’ve seen are Gene Watson and Flogging Molly. They couldn’t be more different, but both rely heavily on a fiddle.
** Which will hopefully take the 30 minutes it should have instead of the hour and a half it did when I took a wrong turn. I blame mapquest.
