My Grandma on Crack. The disappointing normalness of the Indigo Girls show was shattered to pieces by the utter unreality of Saturday evening's entertainment. I went with Karen, Barbara and Wendy to the Sizzlin' Summerfest "Country Night" show at Civic Plaza featuring Karen's dreamboat, Syd Masters and the Swing Riders, Lynn Anderson of "Rose Garden" fame and cowboy singer and Taos resident Michael Martin Murphey.
The show started well, with Syd and the Swing Riders singing about 5-6 of their best originals, then Lynn Anderson came out and my brain started to melt! Lynn, who the All Music Guide claims is only 57, but looks 77, has a speaking voice and a laugh that makes Phyllis Diller sound like Dame Judy Dench. She was loud, obnoxious, and possibly drunk. She was trying waaaay too hard to be funny and personable, and she talked way too much about her life in Albuquerque (she lives here now) and the "good old days." She roamed about the stage, constantly lifting up her dress to show off her legs, which were patently unspectacular, and frequently pinched various Swing Rider bottoms. She sang mostly bad sixties pop songs backed by Syd and the Swing Riders, and screwed up the lyrics of her big hit "Rose Garden." She even dragged three guys on stage to line dance with her. This bit was marginally entertaining. The whole experience was generally pathetic. The best part was how Syd seemed to force a big ol' goofy grin on his face through the whole debacle, obviously just thinking of his paycheck! The experience was so painful, Barbara and I got up and walked around the perimeter for awhile to avoid fainting from the horror of it all. It was definitely like watching your grandma on crack.
The second most annoying thing about the evening was the announcer, who was obviously some Parks and rec flunky who volunteered for the job. He came up between acts to plug other city events and had the habit of injecting false enthusiasm into everything by elongating all the words at the end of a sentence. After everything he kept repeating Well, ALLRIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGHTTTT! This got under my skin at the second go 'round and it lodged itself in my brain so deeply, I heard it in my sleep.
Finally Michael Martin Murphey took the stage and things were almost normal. I liked when he said there were only two types of music; country and western, and he divided the show between the two types. For my money he could have spent more time on the western, but he did sing a few favorites. He managed a cheap comment about John Kerry, and gave a short lecture on the right to keep and bear arms and defend one's property. The political comments were unnecessary and unfortunate, but musically he was excellent, and his band was very, very good. The show ended with "Wildfire" and an encore, but we decided to skip the final song and hop back on the park and ride bus as it was getting late. Oh, City officials, the park and ride deal was great, thank you!