I love an outdoor concert in the mountains like last night's Bluebird concert at Sundance with Gretchen Peters, Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman. It was a perfect night. Comfortable temperature with the threat of a shower that never materialized. I went mainly to see Matraca Berg, but the others were pretty awesome too! Matraca sang 3 of the songs from her new album. They were: Your Husband's Cheating On Us, Oh Cumberland and the title track The Dreaming Fields. Thank goodness her compatriots talked her into performing the latter. She thought it might be too much of a downer. How wrong she was! The audience loved it. A significant omission was You and Tequilla which is climbing the charts for Kenny Chesney. His version with Grace Potter is outstanding, but I'm kinda taken by Matraca's. Love that low voice! She and Gretchen sang a song they co-wrote which I believe they called Nashville Girls. It was a tribute to Tammy Wynette and was a hoot. Too bad it's never been released. Matraca also sang a song Martina McBride recorded called Cry On the Shoulder of the Road from Martina's Wild Angels album. I wasn't aware that was one of Matraca's, but she's written so many great songs for so many people I'm not surprised to have overlooked it.. Another high point of the evening, not even a musical one, was when Marshall Chapman read en excerpt from her book, They Came to Nashville. It was about interviewing Willie Nelson. I guess it's not easy to get to meet him even for a Nashville regular like her. It was an interesting tale. I wouldn't mind reading the book. As you might guess, it's about singers/songwriters in Nashville.This was the most well received of the Bluebird concerts I've attended. The concert ended much too soon and the audience showed their approval with a standing ovation.The performers came back for an encore even though the house lights had come on and some people had already left. I loved it! I got a chance to meet Matraca afterwards for an autograph. She's as nice in person as she appears to be on stage. Great evening!
