ON THE ROAD WITH BOB & SHEILA JULY 30. 2012

ON THE ROAD WITH BOB & SHEILA

     County Fair USA….”We had a great time in Riverside, Iowa
(future home of Captain James K Kirk) last Week.” Sheila of Bob &
Sheila said, “and this week was fun too.  Bob has been super busy
working on the LeMars Festival, and tries his very best to make sure
everything works out to the best of his abilities.  Now it looks like
Tom T Hall might not come because his wife Dixie wound up in a wheel
chair this week, and it looks like she is going to the hospital next
week, so their plans are strictly on hold.  Bob just hates it when this
happens because there is nothing he can do about it, yet there are some
folks out there that think he’s just putting it together at the last
minute anyhow.  That sure isn’t the case, but he does the very best he
can.  Tom T Hall might not be at the festival because of sickness, but
Bob just got a call from Charlie McCoy wanting to know if he could come
be with us, so he said sure, why not.  That’s the way it goes in our
household right now as the planning stages start to meld together for
one of the best gatherings of old-time music in America.”
     “Sheila’s right,” Bob added, “there just isn’t any way I can
‘guarantee’ anything when I’m dealing with so many older people. It was
pretty difficult last year, and this year is no different, but the
surprises keep popping up, so we’re thankful to the Lord that He keeps
an open mind, and that makes it all worthwhile.  We did two really neat
shows this weekend, first one was at the Pawnee County Fair in Pawnee
City, Nebraska.  This is the hometown of Larry the Cable Guy, and that’s
a good example of how things work with celebrities.  Early this year
Larry said he’d like to come and MC the Minnie Pearl record setting
‘howwdeeeee’ we’re going to establish, but he is also contracted to do
certain things for the History Channel, and they lured him away to do
some filming elsewhere.  That’s how it goes, all the time.”
     “The Pawnee County Fair was fun,” Bobbie Lhea added to the
melee.  “While mom and dad were performing with the Corn Crib Theater of
old time music and humor, the fair had a goat dress-up contest.  Wow,
it was funny to see those people trying to put clothes on a goat.  What I
really liked was the large group of Amish people that come to this
fair, because their food is so good, and home-made ice cream and fried
pies, wow, they are delicious, and I don’t care, that was my budget
lunch.”
     “We also did a concert for the brand new refurbished opera
house in Corning,” Sheila added. “What a beautiful job they did bringing
the old performance center back to life.  And playing in a near-perfect
acoustic room was pure pleasure.  It was so good, and the audience was
so quiet, it made Bob nervous.  But he still did a good job singing and
playing the old songs, and this audience especially liked the stories
that go along with some of the songs.  The opera house can seat over
200, and it wasn’t full, but it sure was close to it.  Jack Drake, one
of our Southwest Iowa Representatives was there, and it was very nice to
see him again.  He’s the legislator that created Resolution-35 and had
it passed in the Iowa Legislature, honoring Bob’s and my work as music
preservationists in the State of Iowa, so it was very nice to see him
again.”
     “Now we have to get ready for the Terry Smith shows,” Bob
added.  “We’re going to do four of them with him, Aug. 2 at the Phoenix
Theater in Neola 7pm; Aug 3 & 4 at the Oak Tree Opry in Anita, 7pm;
and Aug 5 at the Legion Club in Neligh, Nebr. at 2pm.   His Aug 3 show
is sold out, but we still have reserved seats for Aug 4.  If you are
from the other areas, just come early to be assured of a good seat. 
“The Far Side Banks of Jordan” I believe will go down in country music
history as one of the best written songs about true love ever.”

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