Martina McBride/George Strait
US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ
February 3, 2012

Intro:
I am up way too early this morning after getting to bed last night about 2 AM.
But it’s a half hour later than I usually show up for work during the week and the dogs, being old like me, can only wait so long to be let out in the morning. Besides, my head is filled with last night and when it is time to write, it is time to write.

Act One.

I didn’t get in on the Fan Club Presale because my bank balance was a bit thin at the time so I waited a couple weeks to go online to get tickets for last night’s Martina McBride/George Strait show at the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
By the time I got the tickets, the only ones left were in the “nose bleed” section up high.
Interestingly enough, I didn’t really care. The venue is a basketball venue, home of the Phoenix Suns, and not a huge football stadium and since my seats were at the “50 yard line”, we had a perfect view from what others would have considered a Sky Box in other circumstances. So I felt secure that “I was going” and that is really all that mattered. I entered the Meet & Greet contest on Martina’s web page but since I can’t remember ever winning anything anyway, it was no surprise that there was no email on the Friday before telling me that I had won.

There was little talk about the show from to my co-workers during the week leading up to the show. Except for a local fellow musician calling me the day of to say that she had heard the show advertised on the radio, thought of me and called me to say hi and ask the rhetorical question “Are you going?”, all seemed quiet in me emotionally. Perhaps it is because I have been to so many shows and was relaxed rather than anxious about the show. Ross & Paula had called and touched base to say they were coming into town and getting together would be looked forward to. And in fact, after my daughter Alicia had driven in from Queen Creek, 60 miles away to the South East, we headed downtown to meet up with Ross & Paula for a preshow dinner. I only live 2 miles north of downtown Phoenix now so it was an easy scoot. We parked, met them and walked to the Arizona Center to have burgers and beer (I had on my Levis and Tony Lamas as this was not a gourmet French Restaurant kind of night). After dinner we headed downtown to the venue, about 4 blocks. When inside we said our goodbyes, it was great to see you, and hope we see you again next time you get to town as they were seated on the floor and we were headed up, up, up……………

Act 2
We got seated what turned out to be about 15 minutes before the show started.
The seats were very steep there and we looked right down on the stage. The stage was dead in the middle of the venue, fully taking up 1/3 of the floor space. It was four cornered and diagonal to the venue. So we looked right down on the exact middle of the stage, in line with our corner and the corner opposite. In fact we were up so high that we could only see the lower half of the performer when at the opposite side of the stage because of the overhead hanging stage lighting. But there was a huge projection screen hanging parallel with the venue above the edge of each side of the stage (diagonal to the actual stage corner) and it was directly in our view as we looked down so we did not have to crane our necks as we could view the screen and stage in one look. The sound pit was directly off the stage and the performers had to walk next to and by it when passing to ascend the 4 or 5 stairs to access the stage. It didn’t take long and the place appeared to be sold out. There were very, very few unoccupied seats.

Martina’s band, those well known and trusted musicians, that carry Martina’s sound to us each and every show took the stage accompanied by Carolyn Dawn Johnson as the female back up for Martina’s voice. What a treat to get her as part of the show package, especially since she has a history with Martina. The lights dimmed and the announcement came and like the Star she is, Martina came out of the passage way, in spotlight, walked past the sound pit and ascended the stage. The music started with the drums and bass booming and……………….Martina’s voice! Yes, Yes, I have been here before I told myself but there are no words for the Magic. I felt instantly transported to that place where the readers of this forum will go and have always gone when they hear that voice live. I told myself to keep track of the set list because I knew that there would be those that would want to know every single detail of the show. But somehow it didn’t seem to matter now because I was there, I was in the throws of Martina Land. She did a couple new and a couple old tunes, mixing it up as she went through the show. The sound up high had a bit of an echo to it but none of that seemed to matter. For an hour and 10 minutes she took us where ever she wanted to, from up beat and funny with “Teenage Daughters” (my teenage daughter who is now 35 was sitting next to me) to swelling eyes and tears running down my cheek with “I’m Gonna Love You Through It”.

She and her band were dressed in classic black as always and Marty was there with his black guitar, playing by her side as he has done for the last 40 years. And the other band members that now seem so much a part of her and the experience of seeing her live were in top form as always. As I sat there, I thought of the fleeting time I had to be in Martina Land. I knew it would be over soon but so intense was the high, it just didn’t matter. I thought of being home in the daily grind, letting the dogs out in the morning and evening, driving the freeway to work each weekday, dreaming of and working on my little sailboat, scrounging through the cupboard for something to cook for dinner when all that is left is the stuff that I don’t feel like eating. All this went past me is fleeting moments, like a review of my banal life, all while Martina was there in actual person, not just on You Tube or the truck CD player. THIS WAS FREAKIN’ REAL! and she was real, not some idea that I had of how wonderful and magical live “could” be. This woman, ordinary in so many ways that endear us to her, had several thousand people in the palm of her hand. There was this exchange of pure love and devotion between the stage and the audience, both knowing that this could not happen without both of us. I didn’t think we could love her anymore than we did, but I was wrong. Then she sang “Broken Wing” after an extended emotional version of “What Ever You Say”. ……………………The place came to its feet as I have witnessed so many times before. She held her hand to her heart and gave that surprised smile that no matter how many times you see it, you know it is completely genuine. She ended the set as always with “Independence Day” and after hearing that song so many, many times, and live at least 50 or 60 times, it still stirred me back to my senses that, although the show was over, this magical place was NOT coming to an end, only waiting for the next live show.


Act 3
The band left the stage and the house lights came up. The Road Crew was all over the stage like worker ants lifting and moving objects and equipment that seemed many times there size and weight. It took about 25 minutes to complete change the stage over to George’s band’s set up. Then the lights went down, the announcement came and George emerged from the entry tunnel. The applause was DEAFENING. I had never quite experienced anything like that before and certainly never expected it. I like George Strait but I did not realize just how much his fans did. Foolish me I guess. It was like witnessing a conquering hero returning to Athens or Rome, but in this case Phoenix, from a successful campaign in foreign lands, in this case Texas, in a golden chariot, in this case a Barrel Racing Quarter Horse, with the spoils of that campaign, in this case 3 plus decades of hit tunes, to lay at the feet of his adoring fans. They were off the scale with love and devotion, OFF THE SCALE!. And he gave them exactly what they came for and more. I must admit that it was not the magic that I received directly from Martina. It was more like a magic that came via the audience that has loved this simple, stand up guy for most of their lives. I only knew about 1/3 of his tunes and they seemed to be mostly the same but he took his audience to places they had been through their lives, varied but specific experiences they identified each and every song with, from falling in love, to having their first child, to having their first Grandchild, to perhaps losing a parent to the inevitable mortality that we all face on this planet. George took us all there with each song. And did not leave the stage, including his encore for almost 2 hours, and all with that endearing grin that seemed to say to his fans “I know exactly what you are feeling right now”.

Act 4
I was drained after it was all over and as we filed out on the venue, I thought that Martina was probably half way to Vegas by now for the next night’s show. We got in the truck, paid the parking fee at the kiosk and headed home. My daughter asked me what the name of a restaurant was that we go to occasionally and in telling her I said I had thought about going there for coffee, brandy, and dessert after the show. She lit right up and said she was still awake so we called (I love mobile phones) and being open till’ 1 AM, we headed up 16th street to just south of Maryland to the Rokerij. We had out night cap and chatted more about her new boyfriend, his kids, my boat and other assorted things, then headed home. After letting the dogs out, I curled up on the sofa with a blanket and turned on the TV for a “calm down”. I made it to bed by about 2 AM (I think).

I know this has be long winded, as most of my writing is and might be somewhat short on details (Martina’s set list for example), but I woke up this morning with the magic still there, emotional and very real. I know as I go about my Saturday chores, afternoon working on my boat and my evening out to hear a fellow musician’s R & B band at the Rhythm Room up on Indian School Rd., there will be this out of body view of myself putting my life in a perspective that would not be possible or as magical without my occasional dose of “Live Martina”.

Hey John, Hey Martina,
God I love you both………….
Thanks Again,
Rick