ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART
Mission, Texas…..”Performing down in a pit, completely surrounded by several thousand people is an interesting experience,” Bob Everhart wants everyone to know. “Sheila and I were booked on the Fiesta Festival in Mission, Texas, and the venue was a huge open-air circle of seats with the staging area way down at the bottom. Well, for one thing, we couldn’t see half the audience, they were at our back. I thought maybe we could move the sound gear around and do a half-n-half, but that wasn’t easy to do either, so we just swam our way through it. There was some incredibly good talent on, but we got to close the show, so that made us feel good. The fantastic Cajun fiddler Wayne Landry was on just before us, and did a great show. He’s married to Cuz’n Pud’s daughter, who I believe was married to Moe Bandy for awhile. Not sure about that. Cuz’n Pud comes to the LeMars Festival all the time. Anyway, we had a great time, rain threatened but it didn’t happen.”
“Our next show is the FAME awards in Mission,” Sheila added. “FAME stands for ‘Families Advocating Moral Entertainment’ which we could sure use a little more of in America these days. Anyway, we are going to perform for the show, and our good friend Francis Hahn is going to be one of the ‘presentors’ an emcee like person who announces the various winners of entertainers that fall within the ‘definition’ of a FAME performer. Should be fun.”
“Red Johnson is also down in the Rio Grande Valley performing,” Bob added. “He’s a great classic country singer, and will be at the Oak Tree Opry on June 15. We’ll probably celebrate my birthday a day early and be there. We might also try to get the Phoenix Theater in Neola for the 16th (which is my birthday) and do a little show there.”
“Budget lunches are hard to come by in the Valley,” Bobbie Lhea the 15-year old daughter of the Everharts piped up, “but dad lucked out again. At the Mission Fiesta Festival, everyone who came to it got a big sack lunch for free. So dad sure got on me about that being a budget lunch. Well, I guess it was, it was free, but it was only cheese and lunch meat sandwiches, a little pickle and some chips.”
The Everharts are working out a program dedicated to the great folk singer Woody Guthrie who would have been 100 years old this year. Some of their summer concerts will be of this type. “This Land Is Your Land” might be even more meaningful today than it was when Woody wrote it,” Bob added. “I know America is going through some pretty tough times right now. Campers are down in the Rio Grande Valley, attendance at shows are down, and Bobbie Lhea will be the first one to tell you that CD sales are down. That’s because she gets all the money from CD sales to help pay for her trip to Paris, France, for her sweet-16th birthday.”