100 Mile House Cowboy Concert
February 13, 2010
Reviewed by Mark McMillan

Once again this annual Cowboy Concert was sold out - for both the Matinee and the evening shows. The results were that the audience was happy, the entertianers got a nice pay cheque, and proceeds to the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame, the BCCHS Student Scholarships, and the BC Cowboy Heritage Society were wonderful.

Gary Fjellgaard was his usual huge crowd pleaser. A lot of folks came especially to hear Gary and they definitely didn't go home disappointed. The CD sales that Gary had, which were amazing, are a really good indication of what his performances were like! In every set he was asked to come back for an encore.

Corky Williams impressed the audience with his memory as he recited poems that were not only true to the cowboy world, but also extremely long. I can only hope that when I get to be his age (72) I'll have half of his memory - as it is I seem to have trouble with my own name now! Corky's poems were quite entertaining and most of them had the crowd laughing.

Jessica Noad did a fine job on stage singing covers that were written by some great cowboy singers. She included two Joni Harms songs that went over well, especially to those that had been to the Kamloops Cowboy Festival and had heard Joni herself sing the songs. People applauded as soon as she sang the first few words of Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds. Her Grandpa, BC Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Bud Webb, should be proud to have such a talented granddaughter!

Dave McClure had everybody in stitches! He was a terrific emcee throughout both performances and when he did his own sets it seemed like he could come up with a never ending number of jokes, all of which had the audience wishing they had brought a box of Kleenex with them. We've never seen this before at a Cowboy Concert, but this cowboy pulled a stool up to the big grand piano, introduced the musical piece by saying for the audience to imagine a storm rolling in while out riding the range, and then proceeded to play a song he had composed himself - the audience was in awe and I heard many comments after as to how people had enjoyed this so much.

Some of the entertainers were guests of ours, here at Meadow Springs Ranch, and all in all we had a teriffic weekend.