Patsy Cline . . . Live!

June 21, 2016 Uncategorized

Patsy Cline . . . Live!

I spent part of the morning plotting out upcoming Alabama trip. Rather than come back to Colorado River on our usual schedule, July 31st we’ll head east for a two week loop through Alabama

We’ll spend the first night at Poche’s Fishing Camp, a Passport America park, just north of Breaux Bridge, LA, and then our second night at the Hollywood Casino in Biloxi, LA.

Jan wants to stop here again, because when we stopped here the last time in 2009, she took the $40 in slot cash they gave us and ran it up to enough to pay for our 3 night stay, and all our meals. And when we left for Gulf Shores, we still had $100 left.

Jan says she’s feeling lucky again.

Leaving the Casino, we’ll spend the next week at the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, one of our all-time favorite places. And a place I grew up in. Then at the end of the week, we’ll head up to north Alabama to spend a few days with my relatives there.

Coming home we’ll stop off in Meridian, MS for one night, and then another night at Poche’s in Breaux Bridge, before heading back to Conroe.

A little before 6pm Jan and I headed north for La Grange, about 25 miles away. We were going to have dinner at the Whataburger before attending the Fayette County Country Music Opry at the Knight’s of Columbus Hall there.

We first came to a show here back in January, but since they only perform once a month,, on the 3rd Monday, this is the first time our stays here at Colorado River have synced up.

Since they don’t have a website, we had no idea who was performing tonight, but we really lucked up. Normally you find 4 to 6 performers, with one ‘headliner’. Tonight we just got the headliner, and boy was she great.

‘She’ is Lisa Layne, a Patsy Cline Tribute Artist, who’s been performing Patsy Cline shows on Broadway in NYC, and all around the country in touring companies since 1995. Her performances are approved by the Patsy Cline Association, and Lisa and her husband were close friends with Patsy’s husband until he died last year.

The first set covers Patsy’s early years, and somewhat lesser known songs as she was getting her start. Lisa came out in true Grand Ole Opry cowgirl style in an identical outfit from the cover of one her albums.

She did about about 10 songs ending up with her first two big hits, Walking After Midnight and Faded Love.

The second set covered Patsy’s songs as she became a bigger star, a little more mainstream, moved into ballads and torch songs, and a more glamorous look.

Lisa ended the show with what she said was Patsy’s least favorite song that she recorded, “Crazy.”

Willie Nelson, Patsy called him William, wrote ‘Crazy’ in 1961, when he was an up-and-coming songwriter, but not yet recording. Willie did a demo record and pitched it to Charlie, Patsy’s husband, who played it over and over and over.

Patsy hated the song because she absolutely hated Willie Nelson’s nasally voice, and said she couldn’t record it like that. But after it was rearranged as a ballad, it suited her style perfectly. And even though it was a big hit for her, coming right after “I Fall To Pieces”, and going to #2, it still was not one of her favorites.

All I can say is that Lisa Layne passes my ‘Eyes Closed’ test. I close my eyes and just listen, matching in my mind Lisa to the Patsy Cline recordings I’ve played so many times. And she’s dead on.

Lisa matches Patsy trill for trill, overnote for overnote, glissando for glissando (a smooth slide between two notes), and even has Patsy’s range, nailing those high notes perfectly.

Another thing that really sold tonight’s performance was the keyboard player, whose name I didn’t get.

Floyd Cramer played piano on most of Patsy’s hits, and his ‘slip note’, or ‘rollover’ is an integral part of her songs. For the best example of this, listen to Cramer’s instrumental recording of ‘Last Date’.