Well, Hello Dolly!

Just got back from the Dol­ly Con­cert! I am so wound up! IT WAS UN-BELIEVABLE!

We got there ear­ly. My mom and Daugh­ter sport­ing their Dol­ly T‑Shirts. We grabbed some piz­za, some sou­venirs and then took to our seats. WOW! I picked great seats. We were on the aisle (great for a big per­son like me) an we were pret­ty close.

The Gras­cals opened and warmed us up to some great tunes. They men­tioned their new sin­gle com­ing out and one of the songs on it “Viva Las Vegas” a Duet with Dol­ly would be on it. A local Dol­ly Imper­son­ator danced in the aisles to one of their songs.

Then the band played Hel­lo Dol­ly while they showed some pic­tures of Dol­ly in a “Hel­lo Dol­ly” gold­en gown, she was mak­ing some cute pos­es, some fun­ny pos­es and just being Dolly!

Then Dol­ly came out to wrap up that song and start off the show (She even plugged a Dol­ly­wood com­mer­cial while in the songs “Hooray for Dol­ly­wood” she even said she would plug a com­mer­cial where she could).

She asked us if we want­ed to Par­ty. Well, that only means we are going Two Doors Down! She then con­tin­ued the med­ley with 9 to 5, Here You Come Again and I believe Jolene.

She talked about new tech­nol­o­gy and how they had her decked out with like 3 mics (One on her head, one on stage and one in between her assets–she test­ed that one out and it over­ly-echoed!). She talked about her cos­tume changes and how they will hap­pen on stage (sor­ry, no Janet Jack­son replay! She said she would have tak­en out the first four rows)

She played the piano to The Grass is Blue in Norah Jones style. Talked about how Elvis want­ed to sing I Will Always Love You, but she did­n’t want to give up the pub­lish­ing rights. (Good thing too!) And sang songs from her new album com­ing out after the 1st of the year. John Lennon’s Imag­ine and Kris Kristof­fer­son­’s Bob­by McGee and a new Song called Blue Smoke (about a train). Her ren­di­tion of Imag­ine almost made me cry.

She sang “I Will Always Love you” with Elvis and by her­self. “Lit­tle Spar­row” (acapella–you could hear it in the rafters–everyone was so still and qui­et. It was just awe­some) “John­ny Comes Marchin Home”, “Coat of Many Col­ors”, “Smoky Moun­tain Mem­o­ries”, “Thank God I’m A Coun­try Girl”, “Baby It’s Cold Out­side” (on an album with Rod Stew­art) “Island In the Streams” (With a Ken­ny Rogers puppet–that was made here in Min­neapo­lis by a local company–I think called Mini-Effects) Her Encore was Hel­lo God.

Her entire set was (To the best of my knowledge):
Hel­lo, I’m Dol­ly / Two Doors Down / Med­ley: Nine To Five, Why’d You Come In Here Lookin Like That, Here You Come Again, Jolene / The Grass Is Blue / Baby It’s Cold Out­side / PMS Blues / I Dreamed Of Elvis / I Will Always Love You / Blue Smoke / Me & Bob­by McGee / Imag­ine /Lit­tle Spar­row / Viva Las Vegas / Islands In The Stream / Thank God I’m A Coun­try Girl / My Ten­nessee Moun­tain Home / Coat Of Many Col­ors / Smoky Moun­tain Mem­o­ries / When John­ny Comes Marchin Home / ENCORE: Hel­lo God.

Don War­den was sup­pos­ed­ly in the audience.

I know I am miss­ing a few songs. It was such a whirl­wind of fun. Dol­ly cracked many jokes. It was a mem­o­rable event that I will remem­bers always. She had the entire audi­ence sing “I Will Always Love You” with just her and it was awe­some. She want­ed to take us all on the road with her (I am sure she says that to all the audiences!)

A few Dol­ly trivia:

• Richard Den­ni­son (who sang Rod’s part in Baby It’s Cold Out­side) is her long time back­up singer and is mar­ried to her lit­tle sis­ter Rachel.
• Don War­den pro­duced (I believe) a lot of Albums with Dolly.

Sou­venirs:

• There were two pho­to shots,
• The Con­cert Poster,
• a key chain,
• a huge book,
• var­i­ous t‑shirts,
• pink sweat­bands and hats
• her Live and Well CD & DVD.

I got a wrist­band for each girl, a key chain for my son and 2 pho­tos for me. I had for­got­ten how expen­sive a con­cert can be.

Her out­fit was very sim­ple, yet all the add-ons dras­ti­cal­ly changed the look. Dol­ly is a great per­former and espe­cial­ly one stage, there was­n’t a dull moment. She kept us with her right from the beginning.

The are­na was a half-hall show, so it was more inti­mate. It was­n’t sold out, but it was­n’t emp­ty either. I thought there was a good turn out.

I saw her at the State Fair when she was here 11 years ago and this con­cert was far bet­ter. What was real­ly mem­o­rable was that this was my 8 year old’s first con­cert and that I got to share Dol­ly with her was won­der­ful. I have loved Dol­ly’s music since I was 2 years old. So to pass that one to my chil­dren was great!

Thank you Dol­ly for a won­der­ful night and thank you for giv­ing me so much music. Music is a big part of my fam­i­ly and there isn’t a moment we don’t have music on in the house.

I tru­ly believe that Dol­ly taught me how to sing by lis­ten­ing and sing to her songs. (Although, Whit­ney Hous­ton did teach me how to breath while singing) And there isn’t a sit­u­a­tion that I can­not find a Dol­ly Song to go with it. My best friend used to tell me what was going on in her life, I would find a Dol­ly song for her to lis­ten to that would help her get through it.

So thank you again Dol­ly and I can’t wait until I get to say, “Here You Come Again!”

UPDATE: After lis­ten­ing to the local radio and read­ing local reviews, I want to say that I DO NOT BELIEVE DOLLY LIP-SYNC’d at the concert.

She may have had a back­ing track with a few of the songs, But I have lis­tened to Dol­ly since I was 2 and have just about every album except 4 real­ly old ones and I lis­ten to her every day and trust me when I say, I can tell when its a record­ing and when she is live.

I would almost say that Dol­ly has two voic­es. One for the stu­dio and one for the stage. Yes, they are very sim­i­lar, but when you lis­ten to her as long and as much as I do, you can tell the difference.

The only song that sound­ed like the album ver­sion was “When John­ny Comes March­ing Home” and that was it. I have heard peo­ple say­ing that they were 3 rows away and could see her lip-sync­ing. I was close enough too and even on the large screen you could­n’t see any evi­dence of that.

So I want to tell you that I don’t believe Dol­ly did that and I am sure that the pub­lic is just para­noid with the whole Ash­lee Sim­spon thing and are just try­ing to bring oth­ers down.

Dol­ly has been around for a long time and I don’t think she would do that to her fans, she has told us time and time again that she tru­ly val­ues her fans.