|
|
||
|
|
 Oh Boy Records Home of John Prine |
|
|
RICK VANOVER'S BIRCHMERE BUZZ Ok, here’s the long version of my experiences at the Birchmere on Friday October 1,1999 when I saw John Prine perform one of the greatest concerts I have ever witnessed. When I woke up that morning, I went into action. I logged onto the John Prine Shrine to check for any new entries on the Birchmere message board. I read them carefully and made notes. Then I opened my email client and retrieved all of the emails from Jerry Briggs and yourself that I had received over the past few weeks. I wrote down names and any advice that both of you were so generous to give me. I wanted to increase my chances of talking to John after the show and to get an interview with him for the ‘Shrine’. I was well prepared and started to rehearse in my head all of the various scenarios that might arise and how I would handle them. I’m into positive thinking and I felt ready for anything. Then as the time approached to leave for the Birchmere, I made a last minute check to make sure I had everything that I might need. I had my wife, Brenda, she is a great conversationalist and fills in the quiet spots when I can’t think of anything else to say. And besides that she looked fantastic, she was dressed in an Iris Dement sort of outfit and was just gorgeous. I really couldn’t even comb my hair without her. I had my eighteen year old son, Patrick, it was his birthday and we were celebrating this milestone by taking him to his first John Prine concert. I had my guitar, because, well you never know when you might need a guitar. I had my notebook with my questions for John written out in plain English so, that I wouldn’t get so excited just being part of the scene that I would forget what to ask. I had a well sharpened number two pencil with eraser, actually I took two. I had the tickets and the extra money for CD’s, T-shirts and other concert necessities. My Chevy Blazer was full of gas, the fluids levels checked and was ready to go. I packed everything inside and we were off at exactly 12:30 PM sharp. (T-minus 7 hours, before show time, and counting) We got onto interstate 95 heading north but, soon we found ourselves in a traffic jam. I had to divert to a side road as there was an accident ahead blocking all traffic. My wife said that she bet it was Mrs. Tom Walker and her beautiful daughter, Pamela. She always knows just what to say when I’m getting tense. Anyway, I estimated that we only lost about ten minutes and still had a shot at being first in line. The Birchmere seats guests in the order that they arrive so, the early Prine birds get the front row tables. As we rolled into the parking lot I was relieved to see only a few cars but, alas, being first in line was not to be. A long time Prine fan, Mary, was already there sitting by the entrance in her lawn chair, wearing her John Prine t-shirt that was signed by John so many times that there was hardly any more room for another, she had her boom box playing and an orange crush in hand. And as we settled into line behind her I could hear John singing the Great Compromise softly from Mary’s stereo. It wasn’t long until the line started to fill in and by the time doors to the box office opened at 5:00 PM the line was hundreds of people deep. (Still 2 ½ hours before the 7:30 show time) The Birchmere is such a great venue. When one arrives and gets past the box office with your seating ticket you walk into this huge room where there are tables, chairs and benches to accommodate several hundred patrons. There is a cash bar, pool table room, and a souvenir shop to occupy ones time while waiting for the doors to the theater/dining area to open. Once inside of the theater proper you can order full dinners, drinks or just appetizers to your hearts content. Food and drinks are even served while the show is going on. Anyway during this entire time I was looking for Eric, Johns guitar tech, hoping to strike up a conversation with him that would put me in his good graces and so that I could do a little name dropping. But, since I didn’t know what he looked like I wasn’t having any luck. It was almost 6:00 and time for the doors to the theater to open so, I left the pool room where I had been watching my son, Patrick, play pool with a couple of guys that he had met in there. At six o’clock the doors to the theater opened and as I was waiting for my number to be called out for our seats, Patrick came over to me. He looked very excited and he told me that he had beat the other guys at eight ball in the pool hall. Then almost as an after thought he says."Oh, Dad when I won the pool game one of the guys gave me these. "He opened his hand and handed me two pink John Prine guitar picks! I couldn’t believe it, who was this Robin Hood person with a pocket full of Prine picks? As I stammered to try and get out questions to Patrick about this guy, Patrick says," I think he said his name was Eric." Can you believe it, he had been playing pool with Eric and David Jacques the bass player! While I was standing around with my thumb up my butt drinking a beer and soaking up the atmoshere Patrick had the guys cornered and I didn't know it! Anyway, as we entered the theater I had Patrick on the look out for Eric. Once we were seated and had ordered our first round, Patrick says."Dad, there he is." Over by the stage stringing John’s J-200 Gibson was Eric. I went over and introduced myself and thanked him for giving Patrick the guitar picks. We chatted about guitars, life on the road and John. I told him that you asked me to say "Hi" to him from you and he asked me to do the same to you. So, Hi Reeda, from Eric. He commented on the great job that you do for John on the John Prine Shrine. He also said that John had said something about borrowing a computer some day to check out the Shrine. I told him that we would all be thrilled if John could log into the Chat Room on some Monday night and chat. Even though we had just met, Eric went out of his way to treat me like a friend. He is a great asset to John’s road team. The house lights started to dim so, I found my seat and settled in for the show. Iris Dement did a forty five minute set. She sounded great as usual. My wife really likes her music. After Iris’ set there was about a twenty minute break. And we sat on the edges of our seats waiting for John to come out. During the break, Eric was busy setting up the stage for John. I did get a few more minutes with him just before the lights dimmed again. I had heard that John had some old friends there that night and was busy entertaining them in the green room. John was introduced by a local radio DJ. John always honors him by letting him do the intro when he plays in the Washington DC area. He is disabled and is a long time friend of John. John came out and rocked to house! He was amazing! I’ll be sending a review of the show itself for the Six O’Clock News in a few days. It was the best that I have ever heard John sing. Not only that but, he was the ultimate entertainer. He seemed so happy that he was performing again that he just couldn’t stay away from the microphone. After each song he would tell stories - some were funny but, others were just straight from his heart. He touched everyone in attendance that night. It was almost enough to make a grown man cry. I really wanted to meet him. I was still hoping that I would get my chance. When John finished his encore we waited in our seats as most of the other guests made their way out of the room. Some of the audience went over to the stage door where John had exited. Someone came out and said something to them and they all left. We stayed on the other side of the room near where Eric was still working and they left us alone. Eric said that in about half an hour John would come out after the theater was nearly empty and for us to just hang tight. We were excited as it looked like we were going to get to meet him after all. We waited patiently trying to blend in with those who were supposed to be there. We met Iris and the guys in the band. Jason and David were very nice. Iris seemed a bit shy at first and acted like she couldn’t believe we wanted her autograph. Our spirits were high but, then someone with a radio came out of John’s room with the bad news. He said that John was tied up with VIP’s and wouldn’t be coming out after all. We were disappointed but, understood. We knew that John Mellencamp was in town doing a benefit and we had seen Nanci Griffith there already. But, we met some great people and made some new friends. And we can’t wait until he comes to town again. We went away singing John Prine tunes all the way home. When I got home the first thing I did was take one of the pink John Prine guitar picks out of my pocket and played and sang a few of my favorite Prine tunes on my guitar. All the best, Rick Vanover rvanover@songbook.net "YEAH LITTLE BUDDY GONNA GET YOUR
CHANCE -
|
| ||||||
