CAPTION: Ronnie Milsap – what a difference he made to Music Fest's life. At 66 the Grammy-award winning star put on a music revival and capped off a weekend that I really enjoyed – beats mowing the lawn and other "senseless" house work!
Before we reflect on the spectacular Sunday night revival by Ronnie Milsap, the touching tribute to our troops by Ken McCoy, the inspirational lyrics for cancer survivors by Rick Tippe, the tear-jerker duet by Kenny Hess and daughter Kate, or the cache of catchy country tunes about love, lust, breakups and hookups, we need to discuss The Brent Lee Band.
Despite intermittent performances in the Canadian Tire Beer Garden on Sunday – just a few pickup trucks north of the main stage where the “big bands” were allowed to play – the Vancouver-based entertainers had drinkers and onlookers hooting and laughing out loud.
And, thanks to a superb sound system that carried extremely well at Mission Raceway Park, some blushing mothers were forced to cover their kids’ ears as the beer garden party boys sang about sex, women, camels, hooters, butts, lust, Surrey girls and . . . well, you get the drift.
Two giggling 12-year-old boys, leaving Rockin’ River Music Fest Sunday night, were singing Lee’s “get your tongue out of my mouth, I’m kissing you goodbye,” and snickering about the mischievous ditty “big, big teets,” which Lee served up four hours earlier. Ah yes, lasting impressions!
Speaking of which, for a first attempt, organizers of Music Fest did a great job lining up efficient volunteers, award-winning talent, sponsors and vendors.
Unfortunately, not too many people gave up their rain-free summer weekend to enjoy the two-day party. An encore performance will undoubtedly require deep faith, deeper pockets and, without question, enhanced advertising/promotion to get the word out to the majority who stayed away for whatever reason.
There were some glitches that can easily be fixed. There were some acts that can be rebooked for longer shows and some, perhaps, chalked up as ineffective and replaced by bigger, crowd-drawing names.
Toby Keith was mentioned, for example, as the ideal magnet to pull in fans for 2010.
Dixie Chicks, Doc Walker, Rascal Flatts, Big & Rich, Keith Urban, Emerson Drive or Sugarland would work, too!
The few people who paid to see an all-star cast of B.C. country artists, some out-of-province stars, Loverboy and Milsap, didn’t go home disappointed. There just weren’t enough there to make it feel like a can’t-miss party, save for those who indulged in the brewskis with Brent Lee, Live Rust and Bud Webb!
I was at the first Hedley Blast, then followed that dog-and-pony show to Merritt. It was always packed and boasted top names. There was no recession back then and country-rock acts meant big crowds. Eventually, the party got too big, too pricey, too risky, with too many drugs, thugs and bugs.
Merritt Mountain Music Festival decided to “reinvent” itself two years ago to include families and fewer knuckleheads and took a financial bath, despite bringing in Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney and Johnny Reid. It may have had its last call last month. Go figure.
Music Fest decided to include entire families, keep it fun, keep it clean and, for this year at least, keep it mostly country, recruiting acts you can find most weekends at Gabby’s, Boone County and Rooster’s – or local casinos.
I was surprised, for example, the Canadian Idol faithful didn’t turn out on Saturday to see a much-improved and vocally gifted Karen-Lee Batten perform. I was somewhat surprised that the Lower Mainland-based bands, all with websites and legions of loyal followers, didn’t steer more fans toward Mission.
I wasn’t surprised Loverboy didn’t fill the grounds, and I was disappointed more people couldn’t have witnessed and enjoyed Milsap’s inspiring gig. Pure Love doesn’t even come close to describing the best act of the weekend.
At 66 years of age, the Grammy-award winning Nashville icon put on a brilliant performance that rivals anything we’ve seen in these parts for a long time. I could have easily watched another hour of that masterpiece. If every concert has a “moment,” that was it, even if the kids are still humming Brent Lee songs around the house today!
So, do organizers need more stars, more variety, more hype to make this thing grow? Do they need to change the dates, spend more money or just be patient and stick to the Field of Dreams mantra – a.k.a. “Build it and they will come”?
Tickets were fairly priced, vendors sold everything at flea market, bargain prices and the good folks from Mission’s Tim Hortons gave out free coffee at the park. The sweet hostess had me at “hello, help yourself!”
The majority of performers, many just arriving home from performing for our troops, were not only great musicians, they were quality people. One of them, Ginette Genereux of Langley, went to the Persian Gulf last year to sing for the troops. The model-like musician then went to Afghanistan this spring to do the same and has been nominated for B.C. Country Music’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.
She wrote the emotional song What You Are To Me a few weeks ago and on Sunday afternoon sang it for the first time to fiancé Trevor Biro, who was sitting near the front with a lump in his throat. They will marry on Nov. 7.
One of her lesser-known songs, and perhaps the optimistic theme of Music Fest, was On The Verge of Something Better.
As Rick Tippe said: “This sure beats driving up the Coke [Coquihalla] every summer.”
As Patricia Conroy stated: “I love the look of this. Bring your friends and your friends’ friends next year.”
And as Brent Lee said . . . uh . . . um . . . uh . . . nevermind!
See you next year – hopefully!
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