NASHVILLE, TN. (Sawyer Brown Official Website) - They hadn't played a club that small since before "Star Search" all those years ago, but
Sawyer Brown proved without a doubt last night, you can take the boys out of the honky tonk, but you never quite get the honky tonk out of the boys - as Mark Miller & Company rocked the capacity crowd at Tootsies Orchid Lounge. For the CMA- and ACM-Award-winners, the unlikely venue was a way of keeping the scope intimate to tell country radio "
Thank You" for 20 years of hits.
"You'd've needed a shoe-horn to get any more bodies in that back room of Tootsies," lead singer/creative catalyst Mark Miller said of the belly-to-belly turn-out - and their decision to do the spontaneous show. "Usually when we're on the road, they're so busy, they don't really get to see the show. Our friends at radio have been awesome to us, so this was a way to kinda throw them a private little party, throw down - and show people what our game looks like when you take away the big stage and the fancy sound system.
"And you know… we DID this for 3 years before 'Star Search.' Six sets a night, anywhere that'd play us as many nights as we could get. We were young. We were single. We just wanted to make music - and have fun."
And have big fun they did! With a show that was scheduled for Cinderella's midnight hour at the historic honky tonk across the ally from the Ryman Auditorium, where everyone from Patsy Cline to Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson to Willie Nelson was known to have a few cold ones, Sawyer Brown's "Thank God For You" show kicked off this year's Country Radio Seminar with a great big bang.
"This has been a year of a lot of firsts for us," says the man with more moves than anyone this side of Mick Jagger, covered with sweat and rolling into the night at ten minutes to two. "We played the Opry at the Ryman for the first time… We did 'The Tonight Show' with Jay Leno for the first time… we rode on a float at Mardi Gras… and now we can say that we've played the legendary Tootsies! To get to do that - especially with this kind of crowd - was pretty awesome."
The hardest working band in country music must've enjoyed it. For while Miller didn't have his customary room to groove, Sawyer Brown played almost 100 minutes - and their freewheeling set included covers of Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good," the Eagles' "Take It Easy," as well as their chart-topping takes on Dave Dudley's full-throttle trucker's anthem "6 Days On The Road" and George Jones' quick-stepping "The Race Is On." They also scorched the Georgia Satellites' "Keep Your Hands To Yourself," which will be the title track of their May 17th album.
"You do gigs like this to have a good time - and I gotta say I'd forgotten how much fun these clubs can be…," Miller admits with a laugh. "You figure the guitar player's gonna be too loud; you're not gonna be able to hear yourself very well; the stage will be about as hot as the face of the sun - and when it's over, you'll have been right up in the face of it with the crowd. We came, we played, we saw experienced that intense in-your-face rush. It's everything that kind of gig can be when it's everything that kind of gig should be..."
