As I said in my review of Kenny Rogers a few weeks ago, if famous acts who I want to see come into this area, I go and see them if it does not cost too much. Such was the case when Charlie Daniels came to the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson Sept. 25.
I got what I thought was a bargain price. To see Charlie Daniels and his band it only cost me $31.50. There were several levels of pricing, starting at $31.50 and increasing to $41.50, $51.50, and you could do a meet and greet with Charlie for $151.50.
There is no one who I want to see so badly that I would pay $151.50. Maybe just the Quebe Sisters, but I got to meet them at the Iowa State Fair in 2012 for free.
It seems to me that the Charlie Daniels concert in Jefferson must have been a rush job, probably a last minute open date that worked for the Charlie Daniels Band and Wild Rose Casino. I see from the website that the Charlie Daniels Band played Sept. 21 at the Ashland County Fair in Ashland, Ohio, and then played at the Spirit Lake Casino in Saint Michael, N.D., Sept. 26.
Mr. Daniels said they drove all night to be at the concert in Jefferson and said at the end of the show that they needed to head to North Dakota for the next show.
I first heard about this concert in Jefferson in the local media, including ThePerryNews.com. I was excited until I saw that the date was on a football Friday. As most of you know, I usually cover Perry High School football games on Fridays for Pegasus Cable Channel 12.
Since the 1999 season, I have only missed recording 3 football games. Once was in 2000 when I went to Romania on a Volunteers in Mission trip with the United Methodist Church. In 2008 I had my gall bladder removed. In 2011 I attended a playoff football game but did not record the game because of issues with the Iowa High School Athletic Association wanting to be paid $150 for recording playoff games at that time.
I even made it to all of the games in 2001 when I was very ill with colitis, and we have recorded every home game since 1998. We missed one home game in 1997 because of rain. We used different equipment in 1997, and it is not good to mix electricity with water.
For the games I missed in 2000 and 2008, fellow Pegasus volunteer Dan Haymond filled in for me. I even made it to all of the games in 2014 when it was lightning, raining or so windy and cold that I was ready to give up. I even had my car totaled out by a freshman football player in Gilbert but still made it to all of the games.
When I first found out about Charlie Daniels concert, I was torn as to what I would do. I went back and forth hundreds of times between forgetting about the concert and recording the football game to giving up on the game, which was in Carroll. I had an idea to try to get Dan Haymond to fill in for me since he had not recorded a football game in nearly eight years.
He would not do it.
I even offered to pay for Arbys after the game, but nothing worked.
If I was going to see Charlie Daniels, so was he. I tried to think of anyone or anyway that I could get the game recorded. Nothing worked. If I could only get the video, I then could tie in audio from KDLS, which would work fine.
No options came forth.
I prayed that it would rain so much in Carroll that the field would be flooded and the game would need to be moved to Saturday or that Charlie Daniels would have to cancel out on the Friday and move the concert to a day that would work for me or that the concert would be sold out if I waited long enough.
I prayed that Shawn Kenney of KDLS would find out about the Charlie Daniels show and shame me into recording the game — as he did on one extremely hot day when Perry played their first playoff baseball game this year in Boone and I thought that it was too hot — or that by some miracle someone would be found who could record it for me.
Divine intervention did not work in this case.
I had been watching ticket sales for some time. Surprisingly, this concert was not selling very quickly. Finally, on Monday, Sept. 21 I made the decision that I was attending the concert no matter what.
Charlie Daniels is nearly 79 years old, and I figured that his touring days may be limited. This may be the only time that I can see him. So on Tuesday, after checking with Dan, I purchased two $31.50 tickets to this concert. The tickets said, “Partially obstructed view.”
I still cleared everything with the activity director in Carroll in case God came through with a way for me to record the game and be at the concert at the same time. So after work on Sept. 25, with much guilt, I planned for driving to Jefferson and missing my first Perry Bluejay football game in nearly seven years.
Dan also went on to the show in Jefferson. We left at 5:30 p.m. and planned to stop at the Jefferson A&W to eat. When we were leaving, ThePerryNews.com Sports Editor Jeff Webster, who had been in the Pegasus office when we left, called Dan and told him that we were going to be late for Carroll.
Dan told him about the Charlie Daniels plan, but Jeff never said much. He was not attending the game in Carroll because he was covering the Woodward-Granger Hawks who were having their Homecoming.
We arrived at the A&W around 6:20 p.m. The dinner was more nostalgic than anything. I do not get to eat at an A&W too often. When I was a kid, we ate at one nearly every Friday night during the summers. Dan and I then proceeded to the casino complex.
We arrived at the complex just before 7 p.m. I had arranged to pick up the tickets at the concert. At the Kenny Rogers concert, I picked it up as we were going into the concert. This time we had to go clear back to the Iowa Store and pick them up. By the time we got into the concert hall, it was nearly 7:19 p.m., and the show was to start at 7:30 p.m.
The show was far from sold out. At the previous Kenny Rogers show, there was no room. In fact, it was sold out for two nights. For the Charlie Daniels show, one-quarter to one-third of the seats were empty.
The type of crowd was also entirely different from the Kenny Rogers crowd. The Kenny Rogers crowd were a lot of couples in their mid-70s to early 80s.
At the Charlie Daniels show, there were a lot of people from their 20s to their 70s. It was mainly couples, and they had a different feel to them than the Kenny Rogers crowd, a more rural (but not farming) feel.
Back home they would have said that these people came “from the sticks.”
About a quarter of the crowd was standing in the beer line when the show started. For Kenny Rogers, everyone was seated early.
Dan and I soon found our seats. I saw some people who had black and white autographed photographs of Charlie Daniels. They must have paid $151.50 for the meet and greet. Where Dan sat was a ways behind a computer monitor for the sound and light people, which affected his view.
I figured that this was God’s punishment of him for not recording the football game for me.
I could see two-thirds of the stage and more if I leaned to the right. Just before the show started, a man standing 6 foot 5 inches with long, bushy hair sat right in front of Dan, totally obstructing his view. His 5 foot, 2 inch wife sat in front of me, which did not bother me a bit.
I presumed this was more of God’s wrath falling placed on Dan for not going to Carroll.
To the right, a bunch of $41.50 seats were empty in several sections. We moved down several seats. Once we got settled, this same tall man moved and again sat right in front of Dan. Obviously more divine justice. We moved down some more.
As stated before, a quarter of the crowd was in the beer line when the show started. Another 10 percent were standing in front of their seats so that no one behind them could see. After about 10 minutes, everyone sat down or stood drinking beer at the tables behind the seats. I would guess around 700 people were in attendance.
Charlie Daniels came out pretty much on time. Although I have known who Charlie Daniels was for many decades, in reality I only know two of his songs. One is “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s a Flag,” which was a big after Sept. 11, 2001.
The other, of course, is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
I remember once seeing on TV that Charlie Daniels was in the 1980 movie “Urban Cowboy.” I looked up a clip before the concert on YouTube and saw a much younger Charlie Daniels playing part of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” along with parts of other songs. My brother had a 45 rpm record of this song when it came out in 1979, and we played it quite often.
I also recently saw Charlie Daniels on a Geico commercial.
Charlie came out with a large-brimmed white hat, a huge belt buckle, blue jeans and a western shirt. I never could see his feet, but I imagine that he wore cowboy boots. He dressed just like my Uncle Bob, who used to work with horses and dogs.
He started out with two high-energy songs while singing and playing his fiddle. He also was spinning on his right hand his bow, which must have been hard on the bow strings. I know that he sang “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye” and “Southern Boy.”
After the two songs he switched to various guitars for nearly all of the rest of the night. He talked about Bob Dylan and did some of his songs. For a lot of the show he thanked veterans and celebrated the country life. He played several songs dedicated to these themes.
He talked about the album Fire on the Mountain and played “Long-Haired Country Boy” from that release. He also played “Pledge of Allegiance/In America.”
After about 40 minutes of continuous playing and singing, he took a break, sitting next to one of the stage hands behind some equipment cases on stage. His band included a key board player, drummer, bass player and two guitarists. He also had on stage in the back two older men wearing cowboy hats who helped him change out guitars and other equipment.
His band members each took a turn soloing on an instrumental number, and one of them also sang a song.
Charlie came back and talked about how nice Johnny Cash was and sang his hit song, “Folsom Prison Blues.” He then surprised me and sang “How Great Thou Art.” I see he did record a religious music album some time back.
His band and he also did an instrumental version of the “William Tell Overture.”
Then came the last song, which was “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” He sang this in a higher key than the recorded version. He again got out his fiddle, which was only the third song that he played it on.
He soon was throwing the bow back to one of the stage helpers and getting another one. I imagine that the spinning loosened and broke the bow strings. The record that my brother had in 1979 said at the end of the song, “I told you once you son of a gun that I’m the best that’s ever been.” In the 1980s I was surprised to hear on a network TV news show during a story on Charlie Daniels that they played a clip of this song which instead of son of a gun said son of a b—-.
I wondered which version would be sung at this concert. It was the G-rated version. Then it was over at about 10 minutes before 9 p.m.
I must say that Charlie Daniels gave a very good show. He was very energetic and sang and played many of his standards. For a man who will be 79 this month and has faced some health issues, he did a wonderful job. You would not think he is that old.
The only thing that I could say for most of the show was that it was loud and fast. I did not know how loud it was until I got into my car and could tell that it affected my ears.
In between songs Charlie would talk, and his sound equipment made his voice unclear. I was also surprised the people drinking beer in the area behind the seats talked all during the show. This did not help when Charlie was talking.
I was surprised at the relatively low attendance at this show. Some of it had to do with it not being scheduled earlier and maybe because it was on a Friday. I see the Charlie Daniels band plays a lot of fairs, casinos and similar events. It might also be his audience is not what it was compared to 35 years ago.
Still, I got to see a legend perform for only $31.50.
After the concert, I made Dan walk through the casino. I think he was afraid someone would see him and ruin his reputation. I had my free Pepsi, and Dan had some other free soft drink.
Then we headed home.
My great fear that the Perry Bluejays would pull off an upset win against the Carroll Tigers did not occur. Perry played a spirited game but lost 34-13. Only Doug Stetzel, who does color on KDLS for the football games, noticed that I was gone.
I am looking forward to the Oak Ridge Boys, who will perform Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson. Tickets for that show are $32.50.
Dan will again be attending along with someone else from work. I even know of a Perry clergyman who is looking forward to this concert. The Oak Ridge Boys show is sold out. Watch ThePerryNews.com for a review of this show.
