Menu
Greetings, ya’ll
(see what living in Nashville for the last 17 years can do to a New Yorker’s speech patterns?).
Still, you can’t take the northeast out of the boy. It has been SO much fun playing back in the old Orleans stomping grounds this past month. ALL the dates have had their unique highspots and it was great to see so many older and new fans come out.
Ridgefield Playhouse, CT — a packed house in a beautiful theatre setting started it all off on July 14th, followed by …
The Lowell, MA Summer Concert Series — about 1,000 people outside in the park on the 15th. This town has gone to great lengths to bring entertainment to its locals. Everybody wins there!
The Von Trapp Family Lodge Concert Series, Stowe VT — The hills truly were alive with The Sound of Music in this gorgeous setting on the property of the famous musical family.
Just this past Thursday (July 26th) we played at Outerland (formerly Carly Simon’s “Hot Tin Roof” club) on Martha’s Vineyard, MA. The ferry rides and the beach atmosphere added to the total enjoyment of this return to the Vineyard experience.
That was prelude to the big Boston weekend. On Friday night … well, let me have Lane tell you about that.
From Lane:
Hello, friends. Orleans had the honor of singing the national anthem at the Red Sox-Angels game at Fenway Park this past Friday, July 28th. Even though my allegiance is to the New York Yankees, I can honestly say that it was one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life.
(end Lane)
To see the unedited homestyle video of this event by our friend, John Higgins, please go to the Fenway link from our Home page or visit http://siteboy.net/orleans/anthem.html (defunct)
Last, but certainly not least, we played The Hatch Shell at The Esplanade in Boston … right by the Charles River … opening to one of our heroes: Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals! Felix, like us Hoppens, is a Long Island boy, and The Rascals had a HUGE influence on our musical upbringing. Apparently, this might have been just the first of many gigs to come with Felix.
The Hatch was also the site of a legendary Orleans gig in 1977, when we opened to Heart. The park, which is equipped to handle about 50,000, was overrun by 175,000 fans! Yikes!
There is an aerial photo of that gig in the book, “Life on the Road”, by Dinky Dawson (page 322). Dinky, a very colorful character who had mixed the likes of Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, etc was our front-of-house sound engineer at the time.
Whoa! I just reread the whole chapter on US … takes me back bigtime!
OK. Before this becomes War and Peace, it’s time to sign off. Be watching for our first-ever newsletter in your inbox any day now … and for special gifts and offers for YOU … our much-appreciated fans!
Lance
