7/21/07 – Boone, NC (solo)

Boone was awesome! If you’ve never been to North Carolina’s “High Country” ski area, especially in the summertime, I highly recommend it (downtown Blowing Rock is BEAUTIFUL). The show at Appalachian State University’s Farthing Auditorium was excellent, as well. Bruce seemed to be in a fun mood, and the organizers of the concert — part of a larger summer series — provided pens and paper to use to write requests. As Bruce said, anything he played would have been a request, he received so many. He played about 3 hours, an incredible solo show. Loved the set:
SET 1: Country Doctor, Valley Road, What the Hell Happened, End of the Innocence>Danny Boy, Streets of Laredo (?) tease, Talk of the Town>Charlie Woody & You, Big Stick, The Road Not Taken, In the Low Country, (Camp Meeting item)>Rainbow’s Cadillac.
SET 2: Song C, Sticks and Stones, Darlin’ Cory>A Night on the Town, Shadow Hands>Bach, Gulf of Mexico Fishin’ Boat Blues, The Way It Is, Hooray for Tom, Big Rock Candy Mountain>Run, Look Out Any Window, Mandolin Rain>minor key version.
Encore 1: Standing on the Moon, Halcyon Days. Encore 2: King of the Hill.
Apparently the true-life story upon which “Country Doctor” is based was told to Bruce by his wife and took place in the Raleigh area. “What the Hell” he played in response to a request for “one of his sons’ favorites.” He played both “Big Stick” and “Gulf of Mexico” by request even though they are normally band songs. Bruce had the ASU audience explain the “correct” way to pronounce “Appalachian,” (“App-uh-latch-en” — the last “a” is silent), even though he said he pronounces it differently on “The Road Not Taken.” Some clever person (…ahem…) gave Bruce a big wooden letter “C” to request “Song C.” He also played a tease by request that was, I believe, “We Will Rock You” (?). He said he’d taught one of his sons to play it on the guitar. He played one of the latter songs both cross-handed and cross-legged. B^)

Vic