You Can't Get Too Much Mack and Chris

Thursday we flew to Raleigh for a Mack and Chris Christmas Concert in Holly Springs, NC.  Yes, we just saw them in Nashville last week, but that was a Symphony concert with a couple of Christmas songs.  This was a Christmas concert with just them (and a drummer).    The concert hall was rather intimate, with under 200 seats.  We could see quite well from the 10th row.

What a concert it was!  Many John Denver songs, interspersed with Christmas songs.  And, as Chris said, no Christmas concert could be complete without his playing the Charlie Brown Peanuts theme song. Of course Mack sang Christmas for Cowboys along with Elvis Presley's Blue Christmas.  Chris told a story of being on tour with John Denver just after he joined the band.  John, who was very competitive, took them on a fishing trip near Aspen.  Chris ended up catching quite a few fish while John was skunked, so Chris was a bit worried about his job, but it all worked out. John even cleaned the fish, cooked them, and did the dishes!

Mack closed with his song, Star Light, a very moving song. 

Overall it was a beautiful Christmas concert. 

Of course we stuck around afterwards and had a very nice conversation with Mack's brother, Tom, and their father.  We had a great conversation with both Mack and Chris as well.  

Saturday we fly back to Detroit, with memories of this wonderful concert.

Nashville Day 2

Our full day in Nashville started with a visit to Lipscomb University's Dolly Parton dress exhibit.  The exhibit was organized by Dolly's niece (who is her archivist), and the Lipscomb University Fashion and Design department.  The exhibit was very interesting and had a nice video explaining all the behind-the-scenes work needed for her dresses.  Dolly has a staff of at least 6 people to make her apparel.  As you can see in the bottom right picture, the detail on the dresses was quite fascinating!  (click to enlarge) The staff has to prepare around 300 dresses per year and, fortunately, Dolly does not have a problem with wearing the same dress more than once since each new dress takes around 40 hours of work to prepare.  These are just a few of the many dresses on display.

After the Dolly exhibit, we spotted Nashville's replica Parthenon.  It's a full recreation of the one in Athens, only this one has a roof and no scaffolding.  

And, of course, no visit to Nashville is complete without buying some Goo-Goo clusters! They remind me of a local Fort Wayne candy that I grew up with. 

The main event of this trip was the John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas show.  It was mostly John singing on a video on the big screen, accompanied by the live Nashville Symphony and the musicians. Mack Bailey (right) sang Oh Holy Night and Chris Nole (left) was featured on For You, just like he did in the concerts he did with John; it was as beautiful as ever! 

At one point in the concert Mack told how whenever John Denver bought a new guitar, he bought identical 6- and 12-string models.  At the time of his death, the 12-string was in final preparation and got lost in the shuffle of his estate.  Well, tonight was the first time these two guitars were reunited! 

The main performers are shown on the right: Jason Seber (conductor), Chris Nole (piano), Alan Deremo (bass), Nate Barnes (drums), Mack Bailey (guitar and lead vocals), and Jon Conley (guitar).

Tomorrow we start a 2 day drive home so no further posts for this trip are anticipated. 

Driving to Nashville

Mary and I took 2 days to drive to Nashville, enjoying lunch with Katie in Ohio before staying overnight in northern Kentucky.   We came to Nashville for a Mack Bailey and Chris Nole concert with the Nashville Symphony tomorrow night.  

After arriving we drove downtown to see the sights, driving down 3rd, Broadway, and other famous streets on our way to the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.  All in all, it was cool driving around a very busy Nashville downtown and seeing all the museums and souvenir shops.  After that, we then drove out to see the new Grand Ole Opry.   There is quite a commercial development around the Opry site, with the Opry Mills mall and a lot of themed restaurants.  

We then enjoyed dinner at the Santa Fe Cattle Company.  You just gotta have some BBQ when in Nashville!   Now we're back in our motel and getting ready to see the Dolly Parton "My Life in Rhinestones" exhibit tomorrow before heading to the concert.  

Denver

We had a quiet day today as we moved from Colorado City to Denver.  Seeing the noon formation at the Air Force Academy did not work out since today being a federal holiday, it was cancelled.
Instead we headed to the Red Rocks Amphitheater and visited the Trading Post where the Spirit statue is located.  The park was extremely busy, possibly due to it being a holiday, but I managed to find a parking place.   Upper left is a view of the park as we drove in.  The one on the upper right needs no explanation.  


Mary took two pictures of John's display in the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. 

After that we headed to our hotel to get ready to fly home tomorrow.  So this will be the last blog post for this trip.   I hope you have enjoyed sharing our travels!  

Leaving Aspen

We checked out of our condo and left Aspen today.  First we went to church at Snowmass Chapel, visiting the JD memorial (right) before attending the service.  We attended their traditional service (as opposed to their contemporary service) but it sure seemed rather contemporary to me.  

After church we headed over Independence Pass on our way to Colorado Springs. The scenery as we headed to the pass was beautiful.  Of course, we had to take the classic photo by the sign.   There was very little snow for it bring late in the year, although we heard there was a small snowfall last Wednesday.

As we approached Colorado Springs,  we headed to the Garden of the Gods which was beautiful with the clear blue sky as a background.  We saw Balanced Rock (left) as we entered the park.  As we drove on, we caught this view of the central formations.  

We settled into a Fairfield Inn for the night and are looking forward to visiting the Air Force Academy to observe their noon meal formation before heading onto our Denver airport hotel. 

Aspen Day 4

Our day started quietly with a walk to the John Denver Sanctuary.  Once again, we had a clear sky and lots of sun.  On our way there, we spotted the Aspen Farmers market.  There were a few potential farmers there, but it was mostly crafts and jewelry with a selling baked goods.   We also came across these guys outside a hotel, watching the passerbys.  

The Sanctuary itself was pretty empty which made for good photography. It's amazing to think back to when we first started coming, when the pine tree in the middle was barely 15' tall; it's now probably over 40'. 

The picture on the bottom right is a close-up of two of the stones with words from John Denver's songs embedded in them.  

About 10 years ago, the city decided to expand the Sanctuary to have it pretreat the rain water from the storm drains. They have a LOT of very large stones and carved sayings from many famous people in several of them.  Once again, pictures cannot truly describe what it looks like and I encourage any readers who come to Aspen to check it out for themselves.

After lunch we went to the Dave Stratford concert.  Dave sang many songs, both his own and a few John Denver songs.  His wife joined him on the cello, which made for some very nice harmonies.  Dave's brother, Ron Matthews, joined in on a few songs along with flautist Karen Savarese.   It made for the very enjoyable concert. 

The evening concert featured Chris Collins and the Boulder Canyon Band.  It was an enjoyable concert, and a nice way to cap off the weekend. 

Tomorrow we are off to Colorado Springs, with a possible stop at the Garden of the Gods.  

Aspen Day 3

 

We had some extra time this morning so, as we do nearly every year, we headed up to the Grottos.   It was a pretty 20 minute drive past Kevin Costner's ranch (which is still up for sale).  Again, we had a clear blue sky, and the color of the aspen trees was fabulous.  

The highlight of the day was lunch with Mack Bailey.  We had a great visit as we caught up with news about his family, his Music Therapy of the Rockies non-profit and more.   He even gave us a heads up about two Christmas concerts he'll be doing with Chris Nole.   

Another JD fan was in the restaurant when we arrived so when Mack came in and Mary introduced him to her, it was a very cute moment since she did not recognize him at first. 

This afternoon we enjoyed a very interesting folk concert by Ellen Stapenhorst and her brother, Steve. They sang a wide range of their own songs which turned out to be very enjoyable!   Little known to us, Steve was very active in the music community in Los Angeles.  In 1964 his band was playing at the famous Troubadour Club in LA when a new artist came on the scene and opened for them - John Denver! Steve had an on and off acquaintance with John over the years and he told a few tales of their interactions. 

All I can say is "WOW! What a Concert!"  Mack and Chris put on a great show at the Wheeler Opera House!  You could clearly see they were having fun on stage.  Of course, Mack sang most of the songs, with Chris at his usual spot at the piano, but Chris did sing 3 of them.  As always, the concert went way too fast.  For the encores, they sang Calypso, then Chris brought out Mack's son, Hayden, so Mack brought his wife, Rachel, on stage along with musician Chris Collins to sing "Country Roads". 

Tomorrow we have a concert in the afternoon, then back to the Wheeler for Chris Collins' concert. 

Aspen Day 2

Today we had reservations to go to the Maroon Bells.  When we looked out this morning, the sky was covered with clouds - not a good sign. We got ready and headed to the Maroon Bells Shuttle to arrive by 9am.  The sky was starting to clear which was a good sign.  By the time we arrived at the Bells, the sky was solid blue!   The wind was calm and the temperature quite moderate. 

The one disappointment was the water level in the lake.  With the the rain and snowfall last winter I hoped it would have recovered, but it seemed to be lower than ever.   The old beaver lodge is now high and dry, but the industrious creatures have built a new one well out into the lake. Mary and I walked around past the old beaver lodge, then back to the log jam where we took a break to enjoy the sunshine and the view.  As we waited for the bus, I took the bottom right photo, our last view this year of these magnificent mountains.

This evening we had a Ron Matthews concert. Ron opened with a lengthy medley of at least seven John Denver songs strung together, starting and ending with Mary's favorite Heart to Heart, which he has sung for her every year.  The medly was very impressive.  Ron was accompanied by Paul Swanton.  Ron did a full 1 1/2 hour first set. Near the end of that set he had his brother Dave come up and play; first Dave and his wife, Sarah, gave a quick preview of their Saturday guitar and cello concert, then Dave sang a song with Ron.  Ron sang all of John Denver's Alaska songs and included many from some of John's specials that had not been performed before at Aspen.  

Tomorrow we have a concert by Ellen Stapenhorst in the afternoon and a Mack Bailey/Chris Nole concert in the evening at the Wheeler Opera House.