On Friday, August 21st Reba McEntire brought her biggest hits to the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor, ME. Reba, along with opening acts Gord Bamford and Jillian Cardarelli kept the crowd entertained all evening. The weather was humid and the clouds hovered all day, but the rain held off.
Jillian Cardarelli started the show off with a five-song set that included covers and original songs from her upcoming EP. She began with a cover of Miranda Lambert’s ‘Baggage Claim.’ Cardarelli performed three songs off her upcoming EP including ‘Just Another Sundown’ and ‘Give Me Something to Go On.’ ‘Rest in Pieces’ is a song she wrote about an ex-boyfriend and she told the crowd, “relationships are like fireworks, the sparks are either there or they’re not.” Before singing the last song of her set, Jillian asked “how many of y’all like sing-a-long songs?” The crowd cheered and she said “y’all just nominated yourselves to a sing-a-long,” before launching into Garth’s hit, ‘Friends in Low Places.’
Next to take the stage was Canadian Country Music artist Gord Bamford. Gord kept the crowd entertained with both original songs and covers for the next hour. He told the crowd “It’s a dream come true for me to play my music in America.” He also said he was excited to be opening for Reba who he said is “the classiest lady in the world next to my wife.”
Gord gave the crowd a special treat playing a brand new song called ‘The Country I Grew Up On,’ which won’t be coming out until next year. He said, “nobody’s ever heard it, not even the Canadians,” and if the crowd didn’t like it he was taking it off the album in the morning. Judging by the smile on Gord’s face as he ended the song and the crowd was cheering, the song will still be coming out sometime next year.
Bamford said he didn’t want to play just his songs, so he added in a few covers that any country music fan should know. He performed songs like Brooks and Dunn’s ‘Neon Moon’, Garth’s ‘Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),’ and Alabama’s ‘If You’re Gonna Play in Texas.’ He and his band really got the crowd going when they started playing ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia.’
The Canadian did perform his songs, like ‘Leaning on a Lonesome Song,’ ‘Is It Friday Yet?’ and ‘Drinking Buddy.’ He asked if there were any Canadians in the crowd, and being so close to Canada, there were. You could tell where they were in the crowd when Gord was singing his own songs because they were singing every song right along with him. He ended his set with his new single, ‘When Your Lips Are So Close,’ which made its debut on XM The Highway on Saturday, August 22nd.
Shortly before 9:30, Reba took the stage singing her very first number one song, ‘I Can’t Even Get The Blues No More.’ She told the crowd “it’s good to be back in Maine again.” McEntire said she was glad to be here, because at 4:00 she was still in Montana as the plane she was supposed to be on had a flat tire. She ended up taking a charter flight to get to the show on time.
Reba sang hit after hit including ‘Whoever’s In New England,’ ‘Little Rock,’ and ‘I’d Rather Ride Around With You.’ She didn’t stop moving the entire time she was on stage and was dancing all over as she belted out song after song. At one point she asked, “is my hair curly yet? Goodness gracious, y’all got more humidity up here then we do in Tennessee! Haha I love it!”
Before singing ‘Consider Me Gone,’ which stayed at number one for four straight weeks, Reba told the crowd, “I love looking for new songs to record, you never know where that next number one record’s gonna be coming from. You record a bunch of songs and just put ‘em out there. It’s like raising your kids and sending them off into the world, you never know what’s gonna happen.”
Reba said she was going to perform some of the songs off her most recent album, including ‘Love Somebody.’ “The songs I’ve been doing already, I’ve been recording them in the past 107 years. I thought it might be nice to do something a little more current.” The crowd laughed as she launched into her current single ‘Until They Don’t Love You.’ She also sang ‘Going Out Like That.’
Reba told the crowd about 2001 being a really fun year for her as she got to play Annie Oakley on Broadway and then got to go to California to work on her television show, Reba. She said making that show wasn’t work, it was a lot of fun “hanging out with Barbara Jean and Brock, Van, and Cheyenne. Oh my gosh wouldn’t it be great if Barbara Jean just walked out here right now?” She waited a few seconds as the crowd went crazy and then said, “she’s not here, but wouldn’t that be great?” Barbara Jean may not have been there, but the director of the show, Will Mackenzie and his wife Patsy, were in attendance. Reba said on behalf of Will and all the actors from the show, “thank y’all very much for sitting in your living rooms, laughing right along with us. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
After singing the theme song to the Reba show, ‘I’m a Survivor,’ she ended with ‘Is There Life Out There.’ She thanked the crowd and then left the stage. As the lights went out the crowd started cheering and not a single person left their seat. Many in the crowd started chanting “Fancy! Fancy!” After a few moments the lights came back on and Reba came out and sang one of her biggest hits ‘Fancy,’ while the crowd sang right along with her.
This was my first time getting to see Reba perform and she did not disappoint. She is a true entertainer and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. She makes it look effortless when she sings and when she is performing you can tell that she truly is doing what she loves.