Larry Dean kicked off tonight's festivities with the cheery Roy Orbison tune, "Pretty Paper" and Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Thru December." He was to return later with "Back To Louisiana," Brooks & Dunn's "Boot Scootin Boogie" and Jerry Lee's "All Shook Up." Lead guitar Gordon Riley led the band, including drummer John Malone on instrumentals "Birth Of The Blues," "Buckaroo" and "The Bells Of St. Mary." Gordon also received a big hand as he picked & sang Hank Thompson's "Six Pack To Go." "Magnanimous" Marvin Bredemeier, who fiddles each and every Saturday night at Annie's Country Jubilee in Tonganoxie, KS, played the beautiful "Waltz You Saved For Me," "Rubber Dolly," sang the "She's Too Fat For Me Polka" (what was that all about?), Bob Wills' "Milk Cow Blues" and our favorite fiddle tune "Ragtime Annie." The group's resident bass player Mary Bichelmeyer was up next and she did a wonderful job tonight singing Hank Sr.'s "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," Patsy Cline's "Crazy Dreams," and Ray Price's "Crazy Arms."
Garry Bichelmeyer, Mary's husband and one of the cleverest song writers you'll ever run into, at Gordon Riley's suggestion, dedicated the evening's performance to Tiger Woods, who as everyone is aware of, has been getting a lot of flack in the news lately. For the occassion Garry wrote and performed a clever parody of the old Buck Owens hit, "Tiger By The Tail" entitled "She's Got Ol' Tiger By The Tail" which had the audience rolling in the aisles. This little charmer was followed by an actual song released some years ago by John Denver, "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas." Garry returned after break with Krisofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and with Mary sang the Johnny Cash/June Carter smash "Ring Of Fire." We always get such a kick when Art Covey is here to play his mandolin and sing and tonight he picked three good 'uns: "Deep Water," "The Kentucky Waltz" and "Hobo's Lament."
We brought along some lyrics to a song we heard Saturday Night, a tune sung by Vince Gill - "My Name Is Christmas Carol" and Scott Gilmore who with wife Lisa almost always brings those cute little redheaded kids (Matthew & Kylie) of theirs in to hear the band play, volunteered and did a bang-up job singing this great little Christmas story in song. We were thrilled to see Annie Little back tonight and she used her beautiful voice the first half to sing "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow." She also closed the evening out with "A Very Special Grace." (Below) Scott Gilmore sings "My Name Is Christmas Carol" for the audience's enjoyment
