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This afternoon, early, I was sitting at my computer doing press materials, when my cell phone rang, it was my husband calling to say he's just seen an ad that Joan Baez was going to be at TPAC in Nashville. Last time she was here, several years ago, I missed out, and vowed I would not let this happen again. After all, she is a national ...maybe a world treasure, as far as I'm concerned.
I got online and ordered our tickets, and could scarcely wait to get ready to go. We got to the theater, and I was like a little kid. You would think, after all these years of performing, that being at a theater would feel sort of ho-hum for me, but I was so excited! I watched like a school kid as the seats filled up, did a quick scan, and proclaimed the venue to be about a 600 seat one, said aloud to my husband I hoped it filled to the gills for her.
It was a pretty full house when some of the band came out, and in the darkness, a smaller band member appeared, in the center of them all, and with outstretched arms, welcomed the audience....the applause started...and the lights came up, and there she was....my musical hero for more than 45 years...she picked up her guitar...a copy of her original lovely jewel-like Martin 0-body, one of two of the same model she played for the show, alternating between the two... the one with the abalone purfleing and slotted headstock....and she sang....and suddenly, I welled up with tears. There she was. It was magical to me...and my heart was fluttering madly at seeing Ms Baez right there on stage. She seemed tiny....and every movement was deft, steady, and quietly assured. The audience was wild for every thing she said, everything she did...and she deserved every bit of adulation she received from Nashville that tonight.
I was, for once, proud of Nashville, the toughest town in the world to play...there is so much music here that it is hard to get people out to shows, and most of us won't even try to book things here...we are so ...I don't know the word I want...lackadasical, perhaps...about show business here, and maybe that's my perception, because it is just business as usual to me, and I see all the tricks, all the nuances of working an audience....but they showed out for that lovely silver haired nightengale, and they acted as if it were the most remarkable thing they had ever seen.
Towards the end, I saw her energy pale a bit, and heard the voice that made me love music softening with the show's end approaching....and suddenly, she was saying thank you to the audience, bowing, and exiting. "Oh, she's not done, she'll come back and to "Dixie" " I said to hubby....and when the crowd , which had stayed on it's feet, raised the level of applause and calls high enough, of course, she came back....and did "Dixie"....took another bow, and exited again....another standing ovation, and another really extended curtain call....(I said to hubby, "She'll be back to do "Diamonds and Rust") and of course, she came back and did that, and another standing ovation, and I knew by her shoulders that she was finished performing for the night.
Oh, but it was so enchanting, to see her perform live, and to hear that magical voice, and to let it transport me....and I made an effort to forget the staging, forget the movements, and just get lost in the show...and for a good part of it, I certainly did.
Thank you Ms Baez, I was humbled and awed to be in the Polk Theater at TPAC tonight!
6:21 AM
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