Tracy Byrd performed at Colusa Casino on August 21, 2005. I had last been to the casino when I had seen Josh Turner perform in July, and things had changed a bit since then. They finished the on-site hotel, and opened a new buffet and a steakhouse on the property. My friend Dianne and I ate at the buffet before the show, then took our front row seats, a ways off to the left of center stage. The pre-concert music coming out from speakers over our heads made the sound a little hard to hear as we were under the sound, not in front of it. We hoped this would not be the case when Tracy hit the stage.
As 8:00 pm neared and the room filled, we checked to see if it looked like the show was sold out. The room had two sections of seats and a row down the middle with some bleachers at the back of the room, and I'd guess it was about 3/4 full by showtime, which started about 5 minutes after the hour.
The local DJ from KALF, Kansas, came out on stage to warm up the crowd and distribute some free t-shirts to the fans. After tossing two boxes of Colusa Casino shirts into the audience, Tracy Byrd soon hit the stage. I was hoping, hoping, hoping he'd be wearing white, yellow, light blue, light green, tan, any sort of a light colored shirt, so that my pictures would come out great. But... nope, he wore a dark red button down shirt with a black t-shirt underneath. Many of my 190 pictures were blurry as dark colors are really hard to focus on in a dark room. Colusa isn't known for having the best lighting (see my Josh Turner Concert Review for my comments on the lighting at that show.)
Being in the front row is a good thing, however being so far off to one side makes it more like being in the 5th or 6th row. Even when Tracy came right in front of me.. not more than 5 ft from my camera, he was still too dark to focus. Man, they should ban the color black in concerts. ;)
This was my third time seeing Tracy live. The first time I saw him with Mark Chesnutt in 2001, then I saw him as part of the Superstar Spectacular show in 2004.
Tracy opened his show with a song I don't have the name of. From there he went right into one of his biggest hits, with "Watermelon Crawl." "Holdin' Heaven," "Don't Take Her She's All I've Got," and I Wanna Feel That Way Again" followed before Tracy took us to the islands with "Just Let Me Be In Love."
There wasn't too much talking, but Tracy did mention how it was great to be back in California again. He said that it's been a while because California won't let them pull the trailer behind their bus with their instruments. This is news to me. I guess most artists use a separate semi to bring their instruments.
Whether playing hits from his first Greatest Hits album, called Keepers: Greatest Hits, or his most recent Greatest Hits album, everything was great to hear. Unfortunately, with the seating Dianne and I had, we heard a very odd mix. We could hear the fiddle fine, as it was in front of us, but all the rest filtered over our heads and made the music sound disjointed. That's not Tracy's fault. It's the setup of the speakers in the room. I'm hoping that when we return to see Sara Evans in a week, they'll have it set up differently, as we have basically the same seats as we had for Tracy's show.
Tracy asked if anyone had his Greatest Hits 2 and no one really responded, so all night he was teasing us, saying, "Well, if you had the Greatest Hits 2 album, you would have known that song.
One song, he knew everyone knew, cuz everyone bought it, was "Keeper of the Stars." That's my all-time favorite Tracy Byrd song. He ended his show with "I'm From the Country," then came back for a two song encore with a song he said he wrote, but it wasn't on any album yet. It was called "She Was Smart." His final song was the Jackson Brown cover, "Running on Empty."
All in all Tracy's show was about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Wow! He sure did give us our money's worth. Be sure to look for Tracy when he comes to your town. He's got so many hits, you won't much be at a loss for the songs he sings, and he puts on a fantastic show!
Set List:
- Heading for the Highway?
- Watermelon Crawl
- Don't Take Her, She's All I Got
- I Wanna Feel That Way Again
- Just Let Me Be In Love
- Drinkin' Bone
- Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous
- Love Lessons
- Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman
- The Truth About Men
- Tiny Town
- Big Love
- The First Step
- Put Your Hand in Mine
- Why
- Behind Closed Doors
- I'll Do You Right
- Cowgirl
- Love Tune?
- Take Me Back to Tulsa
- Keeper of the Stars
- Ten Rounds
- I'm from the Country
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Encore:
- She Was Smart
- Runnin' On Empty
