Authors: K.T. Hastings
Two of them were to be Native interpretive dance groups, one was to be a country string group, and one was to be a western folklore humorist. The act scheduled after
Brandee
had captured the attention of the crowd, including the members of the group. They were anxious to hear Whistlin” Willie Jack, the yodeler that was the headliner of the evening. Privately, Brandee herself felt insulted to be placed on the card in front of a yodeler, but she was nevertheless intrigued to hear Willie do his thing.
The evening entertainment got underway at 5:00 PM, following a chuck wagon dinner. Brandee broke her own rule of just picking at her food before singing and had a bit of the pulled pork and brisket that was offered.
The other members of the group fell into the meal with a hearty appetite. Jake's earlier disappointment that the truck stop had been closed was quickly smoothed over under the mounds of food offered at The Folklife Center. He was balancing two plates, each overflowing with meats and cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a slice each of deep dish apple pie ala mode and peach cobbler.
Suzi and Diane both ate heartily, but Bruce became an all-time legend that night. He carried his four plates up his arm, waiter style. He had a plate designated for his salads, and one dedicated to the barbecued pork, brisket, and fried chicken. He had another plate that had breads and rolls covering it, and finally one that had cakes, pies, and cookies. Without playing a note, he had become the most popular member of
Brandee
for the night.
***
Brandee Evans certainly captured the eyes of The Center that night. The arc lights that surrounded her caught her hair just right. Men and women alike were mesmerized by her look that evening. The old saying, “Men wanted her. Women wanted to be her” certainly applied that night in Elko.
Vocally however, it wasn't her finest hour. It may have been that she ate before the performance. It may have been that her voice was roughened up a bit by the dry desert air in which she had to sing. It may have been the nearly mile high altitude in Elko. Whatever it was, the other members of the group knew almost as soon as she started that she didn't quite have it that night.
It hardly seemed to matter to the crowd at The Folklife Center. She was beautiful and sincere. Her band played up a storm. Bruce and Suzi's dynamic keyboard and bass duet was stretched to almost 7 minutes so Brandee could get some water and a break before her finish. Diane performed a drum solo that rocked the house, her hands seeming to fly through the air, unencumbered by her arms or even the pull of gravity. The applause was a thunderclap of sound that engulfed the Center. After their encore, the group settled in to see what Whistlin' Willie was all about.
It was several minutes into Willie's performance before Jake noticed that Brandee wasn't with the rest of the group. He had gone out front before she had finished changing out of her performance attire. She had said that she would be right behind him when he left her to finish changing out of her performance attire, but she never joined the rest of the band. Jake told the rest of the group not to worry about him and that he would be right back as soon as he found Brandee. He checked the dressing room first, in case she had gotten stuck getting out of her dress or something. She wasn't there.
Next, he checked next behind the stage in the area where the group's vehicles were parked. He doubted that she would have gone straight out there after changing but he thought that he would cover all the bases. There was no sign of her near the Sprinter.
Finally, he found her wandering around behind the chuck wagon area, 300 yards from the entrance of the Center. She had signed a couple of autographs for some young people, but now she was alone and angry.
“Hey baby. I missed you inside," Jake said before he knew her mood. She didn't waste any time.
“I sang like a piece of shit tonight, Jake!” she said. “I sounded like fucking hell!”
“You didn't, honey. Your voice was a little rough, but you still sounded good," he answered, trying to take her in his arms. She brushed him aside.
“Don't you dare patronize me! Don't you dare! I know how I can sound and I know how I sounded! And I sounded fucked up! It's no wonder they wanted me on before God-damned Yodeling Billy or whatever the hell his name is. I shouldn't headline a cock fight!”
Jake waited silently for the diatribe to run its course. Brandee's temper was in full flight.
“Most nights I hope someone with some connections to the music industry will hear me sing. Tonight I pray no one heard me! The only good thing is that I don't think anyone from RCA is going to be at the Fucking Western Fucklife Festival in Fuckville, Utah!”
Jake stifled a smile, mostly successfully, but not successfully enough.
“Are you laughing at me, Jacob Evans?” she accused, invoking his whole first name, a sure sign that her anger was still glowing hot. “You'd better not laugh at me!”
“I'm not laughing at you, Brandee. It's just that we're not in Utah. We're in Nevada. Fuckville, Nevada if you must, but Nevada anyway.”
That broke her mood. She didn't want to give up her anger, but she did. When she laughed at what Jake had said, the storm clouds cleared and her face was wreathed in a smile marred only by the trace lines of tears that had moistened a path down her cheeks. Jake could usually brighten her mood at a time like this, but once in a while he couldn't and just had to duck for cover like everyone else did when she went on a rage. Luckily, tonight was not one of those times.
Jake and Brandee walked the quarter mile back to The Center, grateful that no one appeared to have heard the profanity-laced tirade that Brandee had leveled at their town. Once inside, they found Bruce, with Suzi's head on his left shoulder, and Diane's head on his right shoulder. The girls were mostly asleep. Bruce was finishing off the drumstick of a fried chicken, just enjoying the open sky of the American West, and listening intently to the vocal stylings of Whistlin' Willie as he enthralled the crowd with his unique talent.
***
Brandee's
next appearance was the next night at the USANA Amphitheater in West Valley City, Utah, just west of Salt Lake City. It was a drive of about 230 miles, a relief after yesterday's marathon. The group was amped up for this one because it represented a step up in terms of venue.
The USANA Amphitheater could seat almost 20,000 people. 13,000 of them sat on the main floor, which was actually an open lawn. Another 7,000 could be spread out in two balconies that rose above the lawn. Being a true amphitheater, the performers were protected from the elements by a stage shell. The paying customers hoped for good weather, but were always prepared with ponchos and blankets.
The members of
Brandee
were anxious to experience a crowd and venue that size. They knew that they sounded good in a small room. They even knew that they sounded good in a large room. While the USANA Amphitheater was by no means a stadium, it was close enough for the group to get at least a taste of what it would be like to rock a truly big house.
Suzi was especially impressed by the venue when the Nissan arrived at around noon the next day. In her mind's eye, she envisioned great things for the group.
“One of these days,” she told Bruce in bed one night, “We're going to play in Madison Square Garden. And that will just be the start.”
When Suzi got excited about something during pillow talk with Bruce, she often abruptly bolted upright in bed, effectively taking the sheet and blanket away from him in her excitement. Bruce was used to this by now and lay quietly, waiting for Suzi's brainstorm to pass so he could get some sleep.
“Stadium rockers!” she went on. “That's what we're going to be! We're going to play the Coliseum!” she finished triumphantly.
“That will be great, honey”, Bruce said, “I'll work on getting our passports in order.”
“Not the Roman Coliseum, baby. The L.A. Coliseum.”
It took a moment for Suzi to realize that Bruce was just yanking her chain, which happened to be one of his favorite pursuits. When she did realize that, she engaged in one of her own favorite pursuits: smacking him hard upside the head with a hotel pillow.
Whap! “You're not taking me seriously, you bozo!” she said.
Whap! “You never take me seriously," she said, trying not to laugh.
Whapwhap! “Why don't you ever want to take me seriously?”
Bruce attempted to talk to her about her playful assertions, but had a hard time doing that and defending himself from the foam pillow onslaught that Suzi was raining down on him.
From a protective position with his arms over his head, Bruce said, “I do, baby. Maybe someday we will play at the Coliseum. Maybe we'll play in both of them. Right now, though, why don't you scoot over here and I'll play with you.”
Suzi put her pillow down and folded herself into his arms.
“Game on,” she said as she caressed him under the covers that he had managed to pull back over himself.
“Game on,” he answered into her waiting kiss, his desire for sleep overtaken by his desire for his little stadium rocker to be.
***
Brandee herself was only too ready for the show that night. Anxious to put what she considered to be a really bad night in Elko behind her, she was happy to see the Wasatch Range loom up in the windshield of the Sprinter. She was ready to show the Greater Salt Lake City area that there was a new girl in town and that girl was Brandee Evans. She hadn't slept a wink in the car that day, so excited was she for the show that night.
The USANA Amphitheater draws some big acts from around the country. Kenny Chesney was scheduled there in June followed by Tim McGraw and Sugarland in July. It was only because of a fortuitous cancellation that they had an opening for an as-yet-unknown act from Northern California. Brandee didn't like to wish ill on others (unless it really REALLY would be helpful to her), but she found herself a tiny bit grateful that the members of Rascall Flats had developed strep throat at just the right time.
Brandee
was first on the card tonight. That meant that all of the pre-show prep work was moved up over 2 hours from the previous night. They would take the stage at 6:00 sharp.
Brandee herself always paid close attention to where she was on the card. It gave her, she felt, an indication of how she was perceived by the ownership of that particular venue. The other members of the group didn't care as much as she did where they were billed or whether there was a poster of their faces outside the entrance.
Actually, Diane secretly liked being first on the card. It told her exactly when she would need to be onstage and ready to clap her sticks together, which was always how the act opened. At 51 years old, Diane had developed a routine that kept her body in top shape.
She watched her diet carefully. While the others were chowing down after the show on pretty much anything (the greasier the better, according to Bruce) Diane monitored her intake. She kept an eye on her fat consumption as well as her carbohydrate count. She had recently been diagnosed with a mild form of Type 2 diabetes, which for her meant being more careful. She checked her glucose count before and after their shows, usually discovering that her number was a little low after
Brandee
played. The diabetes situation played into why she liked being first on a given card. It provided her the opportunity to warm up, getting her body slightly lathered up before they took the stage, without having to cool down when another group ran long with their set. She was determined that neither being older nor being diabetic was going to cause her to slow the group down.
Nothing slowed the group down that night. Brandee had never been in better voice. She had gargled her salt water and lemon combination a little closer to the time she took the stage than she normally did, to allow for the fact that they were performing at 4200 feet above sea level. The rest of the group was on its game too. Bruce had added a few tricks to his repertoire. When he had studied with Ormond Brown, he had perfected some parlor tricks with the keyboard. On this night, he used a couple of them to the delight of the crowd.
For all of the quality effort
Brandee
gave the crowd on this night, the crowd itself was not as responsive as the group would have hoped. It was a late arriving crowd for one thing. The 20,000-seat amphitheater was only about 40% full when
Brandee
took the stage. By the time they were finished, the crowd had filled in some, but still the group's dreams of playing in front of 20,000 screaming, adoring people was not to be realized on this late spring night.