Garth at Wynn, Las Vegas
When I walked in the theatre the stage was set with a lone guitar, a wooden stool and a bottle of water. I sensed this was going to be a ‘stripped’ down version of Garth and I got all nervous and sweaty, oops not that kind of stripped down, phew. This appeared that it was going to be a ‘barer’ version, oh my, okay no you get the idea, this wasn’t going to be a production, concert event, this was just going to be ‘Garth’ as the sign said.
Took my seat, centre, row 14, waited patiently for the ‘hats and boots’ crowd to saunter in, after all this was rodeo weekend in LV. Once all were present and accounted for, there were only two ‘hats’ in the crowd, and not many ‘boots’. One of the hats was worn by a young boy sitting in the row behind me (more on him later). Finally on the dot of 8pm, Garth strolled on stage, sans boots, sans cowboy hat, sans ill-fitting wranglers, no no not that ‘stripped’ down thing again, just not the cowboy Garth of days past. Momentarily wondered who this guy was...dressed in levi’s (501’s I think), regular casual guy type walking shoes (looked a bit like Doc’s), black cotton button up shirt with a tshirt underneath, and a black ball cap. Looking mighty fine, not Chris Gaines thin, but not chunky 80’s Garth either, just a nice happy medium.
He was very relaxed, looking a bit like the cat who swallowed the canary, very happy with his gig at the Wynn, talked about his arrangement set up with Steve Wynn and his ability to fly in Fridays and out Saturdays to be home with his family. Of course, this was not news to me, uberfan.
Then he picked up his guitar and set about giving us what we paid for. Not a concert but quality time WITH Garth. He talked mostly about his musical influences, his Dad, his Mom his family (he too is the youngest of six kids, we have soooo much in common and yet I’m not a country star, go figure). He talked about George Jones, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, James Taylor, Bob Segar to name a few. Interspersed with the chat he’d strum his guitar play a few lines of one of their songs, maybe a few verses of one of his. I was leaned forward on my chair, mesmerized, so interesting, fun and engaging. Others seemed just as enthralled aside from some yahoo behind me who loudly remarked, ‘wonder if he’s actually going to sing any of his own songs?’ to which someone else replied, ‘yeah no kidding’. Made me want to shush them but that would mean taking my attention away from HIM.
His wife Trisha Yearwood came out and sang with him a bit. She’s kind of like the good witch to Faith Hill’s bad witch. Dressed in jeans, Uggs, and long sleeved grey tshirt, she too seemed happy and very comfortable, they laughed, had a kiss (clearly he HAS to tolerate this, it must be in the contract). Sang a verse or two of song that someone requested from the audience. She exited stage right, he carried on. He talked about being Mr. Yearwood and how the one with the most grammys in house is the boss. She has the most Grammys. I have no Grammy’s Garth, just sayin’.
During ‘friends in low places’ some people got up, including the cowboy hat boy behind me, went down to the stage. He was carrying a sharpie and a piece of paper and his hat, having some difficulty walking, he was disabled. Security tried to move him back from the stage but as the song ended, Garth saw him, cued the lights to come up and started to chat with him. They boy wanted his hat signed, long story short, Garth refused saying he didn’t want to ruin his hat and instead unstrapped his guitar, signed it and gave it to the boy. Ahhhhhh Garth....then the boy said, ‘can I see Trisha?’ she came out gave him a kiss and a photo op for everyone.
Boy requested Garth sing ‘Shameless’, probably the best moment of the night, his voice was fantastic but he did point out that he never actually played guitar on that song so it was more of an acapella verson. Boy returned to his seat, concert/Garthapalooza went on. He talked about places he’d been and favourite concerts he’d played. He put the lights up on a few occasions to have conversations with audience members, told stories about writing songs, talked about taking a year off in the nineties (said it was the dumbest thing he’d done because he was bored and didn’t have anything to do). Talked about growing up, standing on the front seat as his Mom drove him to school, talked a little about his career and how it progressed.
Told stories about meeting his idols and being so nervous and overcome. Sang more talked more...was in the midst of one of his louder songs when a woman four rows behind me shrieks, ‘oh my God this guy just barfed on my head! Seriously!! Someone do something’. Again, I felt a ‘shushing’ was in order but could not afford to divert my focus, poor woman...she and her husband got up and and left and then the sheepish barfer was escorted out. Thankfully Garth was not distracted.
Finally two hours later it was over, he said goodbye, came back for an encore, sang Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ and everyone sang along, song ended, he left, lights came on and it was over. Amen Garth.
