Weird wonderful strange News Years Eve in Texas.
In the Escapee Campground guide we noted that there was a special four hour New Years Eve Show at the Liberty Opry in Liberty Texas, a mere 45 miles down the road from where we are staying. Having not made any plans we thought it might be fun to try a very different experience. I called for tickets and was able to get two. The show started at 8 so we thought we ought to have a meal in Liberty.
Checking the internet for restaurants I found a few chains and one interesting sounding Mexican. When Carol called, she learned that they used lard rather than vegetable oil meaning there was no vegetarian option she could trust, not to mention I do not eat pork products. That left McDonalds, Subway or Chili’s as the only choices. So it was New Years Eve dinner at Chili’s, not our usual option, but we were able to find some reasonable choices and were not left hungry when we drove the rest of the way to Liberty Opry. The people watching was super.
The show bill can be found at www.libertyopry.com/schedule.htm
Here is the brief listing from that website:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2010 – 8:00 P. M.-Midnight *
“NEW YEAR’S EVE” SHOW
STARRING:
HEATH SPENCER PHILIP
DONNA B “The Ebony Cowgirl”
JABBO CANNON
Jay Cantu
John Ray Baxter
Rick Burton
Jim Cox
Larry “Booger Lee” Etheridge
Kenneth “Little Red” Hayes
Andy Lingenfelter
Jerry Locke
Mike Loftin
Aaron Marshall
Marcy Rae
Ray Sowell
If those names do not mean anything to you don’t be surprised, they didn’t to us either. The top three are performers brought in for this show, and apparently many other shows during the year. The remainder are the Liberty Opry Band who play every week! Actually Jay Cantu is one of the owners of the Opry.
By 11 or so, as they were heading to the second intermission, the energy level was still rising. The mix was Country, Western, Gospel, 50’s Rock and later. Heath Spencer Phillips did Elvis and Roy Orbison and I can’t name the others. He leapt off the stage, he cavorted and by the time he finished a number we were all exhausted for him. Jabbo Cannon did a really great Johnny Cash as well as gospel (you could tell he was going to do gospel because he took off his hat). When we came back from the second intermission at 11:30, they were running 30 minutes behind schedule and started changing the playlist to try to hit Auld Lang Syne by midnight. They were only a minute or two late.
Following a stirring medley of Dixie/Battle Hymn of the Republic and something I didn’t recognize we were all invited to a buffet (Big Ugly Fat Fellows Eating To much according to the comic who was one according to his own testimony). It was 12:15 and we still faced a 45 minute drive home. We left and talked about the experience all the way home. The quality of the performance was incredible. Many of the musicians are older performers who have come off the road and settled in east Texas and this is how they keep active. Their years of performance showed in their presence and sound. There is a regular show every Saturday night and we agree that the next time we are in this part of Texas on a Saturday night we will make it to Liberty, unless it is an all Gospel night which Carol says we might still consider.
May this year be a good year for all of us.