JANUARY 14, 2010 ISSUE
The Best of the Best
Our Top Picks For Live Entertainment During 2009
Every year, The View, High Country Press’ entertainment section, brings you the broadest selection of fun things to do around the area in the best organized fashion. Whether it’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday or even in the middle of the week, there’s always an interesting way to spend your time here.
Check a nationally known act off your must-see list when they make a tour stop at ASU. Get down and dirty with up-and-coming local bands. Dress to impress for a downtown stroll during the monthly Art Crawl. With festivals, craft fairs, dance concerts, film screenings, professional theatre and much, much more, there’s so much to do in the High Country!
To prove it, take a look back at some of the many performances of 2009 in this section of our Year in Review issue. We start things off with The Best of the Best—the HCP staffers’ picks for our favorite entertainment events of 2009.
And as always, check The View weekly for entertainment features, interviews and detailed calendar listings, and please, SUPPORT LIVE, LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT!
WILLIE AND THE WHEEL
Thirty-eight years after Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel first met—oddly enough, they first met in North Carolina—the two Texas-based, musical powerhouses found themselves playing to a full house at ASU’s Holmes Center on a chilly February evening in 2009.
American musical icon and country music legend Nelson, along with Texas institution and Western swing masters Asleep at the Wheel, transformed the Holmes Center into a Texas dance party, circa 1970. The supergroup played hits from its new release, Willie and The Wheel, and ripped out plenty of indelible favorites from Nelson’s solo collection, such as “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” “Crazy,” “Nightlife” and “Stay All Night.”
I must say it made my heart smile to see the large crowd of smiling locals sing along to “Whiskey River” with Willie and company—each singing as if they were all by themselves riding down the lonesome highway with the radio turned up and the windows rolled down. Thanks, Willie.
—sc
SUITE SURRENDER
As you may realize from one of my 2008 top entertainment picks, the hilarious play Leading Ladies, and another 2009 pick, Paula Poundstone’s standup, I’m a sucker for good comedy—whether it be the most satisfying slapstick, the far-fetchiest farce or delightfully dark humor. I love to laugh (and sometimes tears and snorts are involved).
For its second performance of the 2009 season, the Blowing Rock Stage Company presented the North Carolina premiere of Suite Surrender, a play by Michael McKeever, who also acted in the play. Suite Surrender is set in 1942 at the luxurious Palm Beach Royale Hotel, where two of Hollywood’s biggest divas—who happen to despise each other—have mistakenly been booked for the same suite. As the staff desperately attempts to keep the two women separated, the play takes off with mistaken identities, double entendres and overblown egos.
Kudos to Director Ken Kay and the cast for nailing the timing in this quick-paced adventure, and I must say I thought actresses Kim Cozort and Elizabeth Dimon were absolutely fabulous as the two rival divas. And actor Derek Gagnier was fantastic as the eager-to-please hotelier.
—ao
LEAHY
A friendly elderly woman who told me she was a second-homeowner in Blowing Rock leaned over a few songs into the electrifying performance by the (amazingly) musically gifted group of siblings and asked me if I liked the show. I told her I did so far, a lot, and asked what she thought. “Not my cup of tea,” she admitted, stating it was too loud.
Leahy continued to play their joyous-sounding, Celtic-based set, effortlessly switching instruments multiple times along the way and with several of the eight sometimes dancing—in perfect unison, I might add—while playing violin. It wasn’t long before the same woman leaned toward me again and informed me to never mind her previously stated opinion; she liked them. And I could see the enjoyment not only in her face, but in everyone else’s around who found themselves hopelessly caught up in the performance—whatever their usual cup of tea might be.
—cs
PAULA POUNDSTONE
As a proud NPR junkie, I was first introduced to Paula Poundstone’s voice through my car radio as I developed an addiction to the wise-cracking news quiz program Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me. As I grew more familiar with the show, Poundstone’s wry, rapid-fire sense of humor won her over as my favorite panelist.
I almost ran to the Farthing Auditorium box office when I learned that Poundstone would be a featured performer in ASU’s 2009 An Appalachian Summer Festival. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as the comedic performance—a rarity for An Appalachian Summer—sold out.
Poundstone’s standup is brilliantly executed. From start to finish, from tales of the antics of her multiple cats to the struggles of motivating her kids, I laughed and I laughed. I think I laughed for two hours straight.
—ao
DONNA THE BUFFALO
After 20 years of touring the country and world, roots rockers Donna the Buffalo finally ended up on the main stage of Horn in the West on September 5 as headliners of the 2nd annual Daniel Boone Days Music & Culture Festival, the Town of Boone’s official annual community festival organized by High Country Press and Mountain Fountain Productions.
From the first note of the band’s signature blend of old-time-rock-reggae-zydeco rhythms, the ground shook underneath Boone’s Horn in the West as more than 1,250 music lovers from 25 states and three foreign countries danced their heart out for more than two hours under an almost full moon.
The view from the stage contained all that promoters had ever hoped to achieve with the event—live music at Horn in the West and hundreds of happy local faces, all in an atmosphere where all ages and interests felt welcome.
—sc
MARVIN HAMLISCH
It was a summer night to remember at the Hayes Auditorium at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk. As a fundraiser for the soon-to-be-built Temple of the High Country, renowned composer Marvin Hamlisch gave a piano performance that sold out more than a week in advance.
World-famous tenor J. Mark McVey, who performed the role of Jean Valjean for Les Miserables on Broadway for a number of years, joined Hamlisch onstage for several numbers and captivated audience members. Hamlisch, who, as he informed audiences, is “not Jewish for a hobby,” drew laughs from the crowd in between his riveting piano pieces, and The Sixth Floor Trio—comprised of Teddy Abrams, Harrison Hollingsworth and Johnny Teyssier—opened for Hamlisch.
—cs
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