Saturday, March 25, 2006

Heat Stroke and Jones Country

At dinner last night before the George Jones concert, I suddenly remembered the last time I saw George Jones. It was 1986 and it was Fourth of July weekend. It was also an outdoor concert at what was then known as Jones Country here in East Texas. Do you have any idea how hot it is outside in Texas on the Fourth of July?

However, on the show were the not-yet-famous, Mark Chesnutt, and his band Rimfire, simply known as Rimfire in those days, George Straight and George Jones. We had been following Mark locally for a while and when we found out he was opening for George Straight and George Jones, that was the icing on the cake that prompted the road trip.

I brought my son with me who was five years old at the time. Cory was an active child and, when he sat down beside me and laid his head in my lap mid-way through George Jones' set, I knew we had been in the sun too long. We tried our best to enjoy the show but, by God, it was HOT.

How hot was it? It was so hot that during George Jones' set, the fiddle player threw up on the piano player's back and neither of them missed a note. That's what I call professionals. It was disgusting but it was professional as hell.

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