As a folk performer, I'm usually performing at small venues, so this was a real treat for me. I had been playing weekends with a Texas swing/country band in Maine who were striving for the big time. We had performed several times as back up band for Hank Thompson when he toured in New England.
Hank
and I backstage after a showHank is a big name in western swing music
with lots of country music hits, and career record sales of over
40 million albums sold. Most of the places we played were smaller
venues, but classy for rural Maine.
The Augusta Civic Center, on the other hand, seats several thousand
people. I found it exciting to be playing fiddle with a nine piece
country band in front of such a large audience. Our grand finale
tune was the inevitable "Orange Blossom Special," which
I played at the maximum speed of our drummer. After Ricky's band
performed, I got to spend some time visiting with him and he gave
me a picture of himself autographed to "Captain Fiddle."
What fun!