One of my favorite singer/songwriters as well as friend, Michael Hearne, came to Nocona yesterday to perform at our April Nocona Nights dinner/music show. Becky and I drove up from Decatur around Noon and hung out at her mother's house until it was time to go down to Daddy Sam's Saloon to help set up for the show. Michael arrived at the venue around 4:30, and I got a chance to sit and talk with him while he put new strings on his guitar and to catch up on what has been going on since we last saw one another in October at Gruene Hall. He talked about some of his recent shows with Shake Russell and with Davin James and Chuck Pyle down in the Houston area the past couple of weeks and about the new CD he's working on in Nashville.
Around 5 PM, Carmen Accioli and Zeke Severson, the other members of Michael's band, South by Southwest, arrived. Zeke had driven from his home in Santa Fe and picked up Carmen, who lives in Amarillo, earlier in the day. He said it had rained on them all the way from Amarillo. They all began hooking up their amps and microphones with help from Dennis McBroom, who does the sound system for our shows and finally did a sound check to make sure everything was to their liking before going to their motel to hang out before the show.
During the next hour, several people from out of town who are not season ticket holders, but follow Michael, began to arrive. Judy Mays, our good Parrothead friend from Plano, was the first to show up about the same time as Zeke and Carmen. She visited with Becky and I and even helped set up some of the tables.
A little later, Michael's father, Carl and his wife came in. They live in Preston Hollow in Dallas, but have a small ranch between Nocona and Henrietta that has a house they drive up to and stay when Michael plays in Nocona. A little later, Diane Gentry and Don Burke, two more Parrothead friends from Dallas, arrived and were followed a little later by Dave Hensley, a really good photographer, who lives in the Metroplex and attends shows and festivals all over the area and often posts photos on Facebook . There was also a couple of Michael's old classmates from his time at R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton who also made it up, though I didn't catch their names.
Another friend of Michael, from his high school days, Tom Faulkner and his wife also made it up from their home in the Lewisville area. Tom is a talented singer/songwriter in his own right and, became friends with Michael back in the early 70's when they both had bands that played around Dallas, and has played at Michael's Big Barn Dance Music Festival out in Taos several times.
By 6:30, most of the crowd had arrived and we started serving a meal of BBQ brisquet, sausage, cold slaw, potato salad, beans with sopapilla cheesecake and peach cobbler for dessert.
This ended up being our largest crowd of the 2009-2010 Nocona Nights series. We can seat a maximum of 126 people in the showroom at the tables if we really pack them in, but limit our season ticket sales to 120, which means we can only accomodate six additional people for any of our shows for nonseason ticketholders unless some of the regulars don't come.
We can, however feed additonal people out on the back patio or next door in the sitting room at Daddy Sams for those don't mind standing or sitting in a chair at the back of the room to watch, and last night was one of those times.
Michael, Zeke and Carmen finally took the stage around 8 PM and put on a great
two- set show. The band was tight despite the fact that they haven't played together as a trio in quite some time since Michael decided to move to Nashville last year and now splits time between living there during most of the Fall and Winter while spending some of the Spring and Summer in Taos where he has his festival the first full week of September.
The band started the show with a song I had never heard SXSW play before, "The Edge of Texas" which was written by Rod Taylor of the Taos based band, The Rifters, and is one of my favorite Rifter's songs. Michael knows that many of the regular Nocona Nights crowd are big Western Swing fans and the band included three Western Swing songs including Bob Will's "Right or Wrong" and a medley featuring Carmen on the fiddle playing Faded Love and Maidens Prayer. Of course, during the course of the night, they also played many of the great songs Michael has written over the years and a few from some other great songwriters including Van Zandt's "If I Needed You", which he recently played at actress Julia Roberts request at a show in Taos, Shake Russell's "Acadian Angel" and Mentor Williams, "Drift Away" which has become an encore song at many of Michael's shows. The show ended around 11 PM to a standing ovation by a really appreciative crowd.
After the show, most of the crowd headed home while those of us involved in putting on the show spent some time cleaning up the room while Michael, Zeke and Carmen loaded up their equipment. Afterwards, we visited with some of those who had come in from out of town to see Michael, and then some of us drove out to the Veranda Inn, where Michael and several of those from out of town spent the night and visted some more.
While the owner of the inn gave a tour of the new motel to several people in the group, Michael asked me to go out to his car, an we sat and listened to two tracks from the CD he's working on in Nashville. One of the songs was "Evergreen" which he wrote with Monica Smart and Susan Gibson who wrote the Dixie Chicks big hit, "Wide Open Spaces". The other was a song I'd never heard Michael play before, "Black Eyed Susan" which was written by his friend, Jed Zimmerman whose song, "Texas New Mexico Line", Michael sang on his last CD. He's using Nashville studio musicians on this CD, and the two songs really sounded great, so expect the new CD will be a good one. After going back inside, Michael called it a night, because he had to get up this morning and drive down to Plantersville just northwest of Houston to do another show with Shake Russell.
Becky and I visited for a little while longer with Don Burke and Diane Gentry who spent the night and Zeke who says he's become a night owl due to having a graveyard shift job as a night auditor in a hotel in Santa Fe. The party finally broke up and we said our goodbyes at about 1 AM. Zeke and Carmen were headed back
to Amarillo and Santa Fe this morning to work and are driving back down again on Thursday to Melody Mt. Ranch to play with Michael at Larry Joe Taylor's big music festival on Friday. Becky and I will be packing up our 5th Wheel tomorrow and heading down that way on Tuesday morning to attend the entire five days of music. Can't wait.
Around 5 PM, Carmen Accioli and Zeke Severson, the other members of Michael's band, South by Southwest, arrived. Zeke had driven from his home in Santa Fe and picked up Carmen, who lives in Amarillo, earlier in the day. He said it had rained on them all the way from Amarillo. They all began hooking up their amps and microphones with help from Dennis McBroom, who does the sound system for our shows and finally did a sound check to make sure everything was to their liking before going to their motel to hang out before the show.
During the next hour, several people from out of town who are not season ticket holders, but follow Michael, began to arrive. Judy Mays, our good Parrothead friend from Plano, was the first to show up about the same time as Zeke and Carmen. She visited with Becky and I and even helped set up some of the tables.
A little later, Michael's father, Carl and his wife came in. They live in Preston Hollow in Dallas, but have a small ranch between Nocona and Henrietta that has a house they drive up to and stay when Michael plays in Nocona. A little later, Diane Gentry and Don Burke, two more Parrothead friends from Dallas, arrived and were followed a little later by Dave Hensley, a really good photographer, who lives in the Metroplex and attends shows and festivals all over the area and often posts photos on Facebook . There was also a couple of Michael's old classmates from his time at R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton who also made it up, though I didn't catch their names.
Another friend of Michael, from his high school days, Tom Faulkner and his wife also made it up from their home in the Lewisville area. Tom is a talented singer/songwriter in his own right and, became friends with Michael back in the early 70's when they both had bands that played around Dallas, and has played at Michael's Big Barn Dance Music Festival out in Taos several times.
By 6:30, most of the crowd had arrived and we started serving a meal of BBQ brisquet, sausage, cold slaw, potato salad, beans with sopapilla cheesecake and peach cobbler for dessert.
This ended up being our largest crowd of the 2009-2010 Nocona Nights series. We can seat a maximum of 126 people in the showroom at the tables if we really pack them in, but limit our season ticket sales to 120, which means we can only accomodate six additional people for any of our shows for nonseason ticketholders unless some of the regulars don't come.
We can, however feed additonal people out on the back patio or next door in the sitting room at Daddy Sams for those don't mind standing or sitting in a chair at the back of the room to watch, and last night was one of those times.
Michael, Zeke and Carmen finally took the stage around 8 PM and put on a great
two- set show. The band was tight despite the fact that they haven't played together as a trio in quite some time since Michael decided to move to Nashville last year and now splits time between living there during most of the Fall and Winter while spending some of the Spring and Summer in Taos where he has his festival the first full week of September.
The band started the show with a song I had never heard SXSW play before, "The Edge of Texas" which was written by Rod Taylor of the Taos based band, The Rifters, and is one of my favorite Rifter's songs. Michael knows that many of the regular Nocona Nights crowd are big Western Swing fans and the band included three Western Swing songs including Bob Will's "Right or Wrong" and a medley featuring Carmen on the fiddle playing Faded Love and Maidens Prayer. Of course, during the course of the night, they also played many of the great songs Michael has written over the years and a few from some other great songwriters including Van Zandt's "If I Needed You", which he recently played at actress Julia Roberts request at a show in Taos, Shake Russell's "Acadian Angel" and Mentor Williams, "Drift Away" which has become an encore song at many of Michael's shows. The show ended around 11 PM to a standing ovation by a really appreciative crowd.
After the show, most of the crowd headed home while those of us involved in putting on the show spent some time cleaning up the room while Michael, Zeke and Carmen loaded up their equipment. Afterwards, we visited with some of those who had come in from out of town to see Michael, and then some of us drove out to the Veranda Inn, where Michael and several of those from out of town spent the night and visted some more.
While the owner of the inn gave a tour of the new motel to several people in the group, Michael asked me to go out to his car, an we sat and listened to two tracks from the CD he's working on in Nashville. One of the songs was "Evergreen" which he wrote with Monica Smart and Susan Gibson who wrote the Dixie Chicks big hit, "Wide Open Spaces". The other was a song I'd never heard Michael play before, "Black Eyed Susan" which was written by his friend, Jed Zimmerman whose song, "Texas New Mexico Line", Michael sang on his last CD. He's using Nashville studio musicians on this CD, and the two songs really sounded great, so expect the new CD will be a good one. After going back inside, Michael called it a night, because he had to get up this morning and drive down to Plantersville just northwest of Houston to do another show with Shake Russell.
Becky and I visited for a little while longer with Don Burke and Diane Gentry who spent the night and Zeke who says he's become a night owl due to having a graveyard shift job as a night auditor in a hotel in Santa Fe. The party finally broke up and we said our goodbyes at about 1 AM. Zeke and Carmen were headed back
to Amarillo and Santa Fe this morning to work and are driving back down again on Thursday to Melody Mt. Ranch to play with Michael at Larry Joe Taylor's big music festival on Friday. Becky and I will be packing up our 5th Wheel tomorrow and heading down that way on Tuesday morning to attend the entire five days of music. Can't wait.
2 comments:
Great review and photos Gary. It was a special night, as they always are when good friends and great music get together. My photo set is located at Nocona Nights 2010. Looking forward to seeing y'all at LJT.
Headed down in the morning Dave, so will see you there.
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