 Marty and the Rock and Roll Cowboys performed on the MCA Show at Fan Fair. Also on the bill were Rebecca Lynn Howard, Gary Allan, Chely Wright, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood. During the pre-show, they played "Red, Red Wine and Cheatin' Songs." At Fan Fair, they run two stages. While an act is performing on one stage, the other one is being set up for the following act. It's always fun trying to guess which stage Marty will appear on. Some guy there was telling everyone the wrong stage, so we Marty fans had to pick up and move to the other side.
While I was sitting in the back, Mario, Mary Runyan, and Sheila Walters decided to try the photo line to get better shots. This year they had only one TV screen in the middle of the stage. Mario tried taking some photographs of the screen and they really came out good. Generally, you are only able to go through the photo line once since there are so many people and they only let a few go in front of the stage at a time.
He said he's been coming to Fan Fair since 1973 and this would be the last one before the next century. (Did he say he would love to come out and hug everybody's neck? I took notes during this show and I can't read them. LOL). Next they performed "The Pilgrim." He received warm applause for his great mandolin playing, however the crowd was more interested in talking than listening to a extremely inspirational song. At one point, the cameraman went behind Marty on stage and you could just see Marty's shadow against a sea of stadium and stage lights. The effect was incredible--did anybody capture that on film? The song received a rousing appreciation from the audience.
Written by Sherry Mattioli |
I was able to watch Marty and Connie walk from the bus to the stage area. Marty performed after Chely Wright. Marty opened with "Sometimes The Pleasure's Worth The Pain." He felt like the crowd should be in the mood to sing and asked for a "Weeellllllll." That "sucked" so we had to do it again (will we ever get it right the first time???). He then performed "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'." Marty said Travis and Theresa were going to have a baby boy and that Trabvis said he'd finally put the "stem on the apple" (the baby was born the following day).
Next, Marty performed "Now That's Country." He introduced the band. He said he'd been with MCA Records for 10 years and it was the greatest record label. He said he was releasing a new album called The Pilgrim and if he could be remembered for an album, this was the one he wanted to be remembered for. Marty and the band then sang "Red, Red Wine and Cheatin' Songs."
Marty closed with "Hillbilly Rock" His closing words were "I love you with all my heart, country music people." And, you know what? Marty meant it! Every word! It was great to see him on the label show again.