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| PHOTO COURTESY TANYA TUCKER WEBSITE |
Fast forward to this past January. Glancing through the local weekly newspaper I saw an ad that made me nearly fall off my chair. The one and only Tanya Tucker was coming to St. Catharines on March 5th. I was in a state of disbelief.
My mother’s birthday is in February. “I bet she’d enjoy seeing Tanya Tucker too”, I immediately thought. I went online and discovered there were limited tickets still available. Although they were reasonably priced, as far as concerts go, they were still quite a bit more than I had budgeted for mom’s birthday gift. I stepped away from my laptop and put the idea out of my head.....well, at least that’s what I tried to do. That night I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, second guessing my decision. “How often will Tanya Tucker be in St. Catharines?” I pondered, “Mom will be so surprised,” and the one that sealed the deal...“You will be kicking your ass on show night if you don’t get tickets.” That's all it took.
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| TANYA'S DOG STELLA JOINED THE SHOW PHOTO COURTESY TANYA TUCKER FACEBOOK PAGE |
As expected, mom was indeed surprised to open her birthday card from me and see two tickets to Tucker’s show. I knew mom hadn’t been to the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) before, but I didn’t know until she got my gift, that she had also never ever been to a concert before. This added yet another layer of excitement to the event.
I made sure we arrived early the night of the show. There was limited Tanya Tucker swag for sale inside the PAC lobby, but I still managed to get an autographed photo and cowboy boot shaped beer koozie with Tanya’s logo embossed on it.
The entertainment started promptly at 7:30 pm with opening act Madison Kozak. The 22 year old is originally from Ontario, but she’s called Nashville home since she was 14. It was just Madison and her guitar for an approximately 40 minute set. An intermission followed, which some restless concert-goers felt was a bit long. I however didn’t mind, as it gave me more time to get even more pumped up.
And then it began. Tanya’s band members took to the stage first. There was a drummer, 3 acoustic guitar players, a keyboard player and two backup vocalists, one of whom was Tanya’s 30 year old daughter Presley Tanita Tucker.
The band began to play, I recognized the tune immediately. It was an extended intro to the hit ‘Trouble’ and a minute or so later, out strutted the country legend herself, looking fabulous dressed in leather, topped off with a stylish black cowboy hat. “WOO HOO!!!” I exclaimed loudly.
I made sure we arrived early the night of the show. There was limited Tanya Tucker swag for sale inside the PAC lobby, but I still managed to get an autographed photo and cowboy boot shaped beer koozie with Tanya’s logo embossed on it.
The entertainment started promptly at 7:30 pm with opening act Madison Kozak. The 22 year old is originally from Ontario, but she’s called Nashville home since she was 14. It was just Madison and her guitar for an approximately 40 minute set. An intermission followed, which some restless concert-goers felt was a bit long. I however didn’t mind, as it gave me more time to get even more pumped up.
And then it began. Tanya’s band members took to the stage first. There was a drummer, 3 acoustic guitar players, a keyboard player and two backup vocalists, one of whom was Tanya’s 30 year old daughter Presley Tanita Tucker.
The band began to play, I recognized the tune immediately. It was an extended intro to the hit ‘Trouble’ and a minute or so later, out strutted the country legend herself, looking fabulous dressed in leather, topped off with a stylish black cowboy hat. “WOO HOO!!!” I exclaimed loudly.
Tucker, 61, recorded her first number one hit ‘Delta Dawn’ at the tender age of 14. With a catalog of music that spans almost 5 decades, there was no shortage of chart toppers in the lineup, including several selections from her recent Grammy winning album While I’m Livin’.
The extremely personable Tucker shared stories of her life and music with the audience between songs. At one point they brought out her bulldog Stella. Tanya spoke of her love for the spotlight stealing dog, who didn’t want to return backstage. As a result, Stella amused us all, tagging along behind Tanya throughout the next song. It was very endearing.
After performing her current hit ‘Bring My Flowers Now’, several people in the crowd did precisely that, bringing bouquets to the front of the stage. Tanya was very grateful.
The show concluded around 10:15 pm. There was no encore, however after the final song, the band resumed playing while Tucker signed autographs and posed for pix, before blowing us all a big kiss and leaving the stage.
It was a show I will always remember with much fondness and one that would have been cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, had it been slated to happen a week or so later. WHEW! Now that would have indeed been ‘Some Kind of Trouble’.
The extremely personable Tucker shared stories of her life and music with the audience between songs. At one point they brought out her bulldog Stella. Tanya spoke of her love for the spotlight stealing dog, who didn’t want to return backstage. As a result, Stella amused us all, tagging along behind Tanya throughout the next song. It was very endearing.
After performing her current hit ‘Bring My Flowers Now’, several people in the crowd did precisely that, bringing bouquets to the front of the stage. Tanya was very grateful.
The show concluded around 10:15 pm. There was no encore, however after the final song, the band resumed playing while Tucker signed autographs and posed for pix, before blowing us all a big kiss and leaving the stage.
It was a show I will always remember with much fondness and one that would have been cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, had it been slated to happen a week or so later. WHEW! Now that would have indeed been ‘Some Kind of Trouble’.