RANDY TRAVIS

It was 3:45 p.m. Only five more minutes until I start gathering my stuff and power off my computer. An email came in and it read as follows:

TIM and WILLY Radio
October 8th, 2008

Dear Joe Cool,

Mention Tim & Willy and GET IN FOR FREE!
Celebrity Theater - TONIGHT!

Country Superstar Randy Travis plays the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix tonight. Call or visit the Celebrity Box Office right now. Mention Tim & Willy. We'll put you on our guest list and get you in for free!

I thought that the concert taking place on the same day the email came in would not be a good idea because I would have to rush to make it on time. Nevertheless I decided to give the Celebrity Theater a call and I was happy to find out the concert would start at 8:00 p.m. Wow! Plenty of time to get ready.

I powered off my work computer and drove to the Celebrity Theater which by the way and luckily for me is only 10 minutes away from where I work. I got there, parked, walked over to the ticket box office and said, "I understand I can get a couple of free tickets for tonight's concert". Without any hesitation the attendant pushed some buttons and after a minute or two she produced two tickets for me. How easy was that?


Celebrity Theater -- Phoenix, Arizona.


I called mi chica and told her about the concert and so it was official, we had a date.

Now, most of you that have been reading my blog for a while now know of my love for Country Music, and Mr. Randy Travis is one of my all time favorite singers. Not too many performers have a voice as distinct as his. He's been around for so many years that I knew I was going to listen a lot of his hits. After all the man does have over 21 number one hits.

Well, I was not disappointed at all. Randy Travis delivered. The Celebrity Theater is a small enough venue where it really doesn't matter where you seat, you will have a clear view of the stage which is in the center of the Theater. The building is in a circular shape as is the rotating stage. This allows for everyone to see the performer at one time or another thus giving the feeling of an intimate performance. I got the impression that this is how it must feel during the MTV's "Unplugged" series.


I took this image and it was a that time un usher came to me and said, you can take as many picutes as you like but no flash... Huh! can you see it's like freaking dark in here?


Tim and Willy opened up for him with a 45 minute set of all their wacky music. This talented pair are not singers although they can sing, but for the past 11 years they were the morning DJ's for KNIX. When KNIX did not want to renew their contract they started freelancing. When they were let go, many of us loyal listener of their show left that radio station and moved to KMLE "The Camel".

The total tally for the night came to a whopping $25.00. That was for parking and an autographed copy of Randy's latest CD. He had not done an album in eight years and this one debuted in the number three spot.

All in all, mi chica and I had a wonderful outing. The only complain mi chica had was that she couldn't understand many of the words he said and since she didn't really didn't know many of the songs it was all new to her. It's kindda funny she said that because I can listen to a song on the radio over and over and I really never know what it says or what it's about until I read the lyrics.


Mi Chica
She looks so pretty, don't you agree?


The only complain that I had was that they should not allow guys that are over six feet tall sit in front of short guys like me. All I could see was a pair of shoulders and a big black hat and nothing else, and then the couple next to us were having a big all conversation like if there were in a restaurant instead of a concert hall. Luckily for us there were some empty seats behind us and we moved. After that we were able to enjoy the rest of the concert.



A bit blurry, but there he is Randy Travis.

So, thank you Tim and Willy for the invite to the show, and to Randy Travis, YOU ROCK!... or should I say YOU COUNTRY!

Here's my take on a Randy Travis classic.

Visit me on Bix.com!

In closing let me just tell you all, "I'm gonna love you forever, forever and ever AMEN!"