An evening with Rory Feek... reminds me of another concert years ago - An Evening with John Denver. Two great songwriters connected in time, brought to mind when I first heard Rory sing John's Back Home Again.
We have followed Rory's career for a few years. Buddy told me about this country duo, Joey and Rory, he liked their music and started following them on Facebook. We started watching their TV show and loved watching their story unfold. Rory was also documenting everything in his blog, This Life I Live. They were touring and performing and living the life of rising country stars, when their journey suddenly took a few unexpected turns. They decided to start a family, along came little Indiana and soon after a cancer diagnosis for Joey. All this time Rory was still documenting everything about their lives in words and film, and fans across the world were following their story and hanging on every word, waiting for the next update. Two years later Joey was gone, Rory was once again a single dad.
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| Hardison Mill Farm |
When I saw on Rory's blog that he was going to start performing again, I immediately got tickets. The show was going to be at his farm in 'some barn' (named after the song that paid for it - Some Beach) a small venue holding about 200 people, very small and personal.
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| Some Barn |
We arrived early and parked in the gravel lot between the barn and the new
schoolhouse, watching the rain and waiting for the venue doors to open. Buddy
asked if I had some tissues to take in. "Yes, I have a couple in my jeans
pocket." He said, "I guess I should take some, too, my allergies have been
acting up." Allergies uh huh.
We were sitting in the audience, chatting with folks when the lights dimmed right at 7 p.m. and the video screen lit up with Joey singing When I'm Gone. Whoa, this is not going to be easy. But then Rory came out and started telling their story, and he is going to be okay, as okay as he can be (he said).
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| Rory Feek |
Heidi was singing backup just like on the TV show, and little Indiana made an appearance, she is 4 years old now, so sweet. There are new books in the future, plans for the schoolhouse opening, lots of stories and songs. It was a great evening spent with old friends (we felt like). Is it weird that millions of people feel like they know this man personally when he doesn't know any of us? (facebook followers = 2.3 million). Look there's Julie (Joey's best friend/fan club prez), and Gabe - filmmaker and neighbor, and oh it's Russ the bus driver (they called him Russ Driver). All these folks we met through the show and blog.
Stories from way back in younger days to stories of 'how we
met' and daughters and farm life all the way up to a story from just the day
before. A couple flew up from Florida to see
the show, were eating at MarcyJos and talked to Rory - they wanted to give
$10,000 for a trust fund for Indiana
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| Hardison Mill School |
After the show Rory wanted to meet everyone so we waited our
turn, got to meet him, give him a hug, Russ Driver took our picture in the
lobby, where sweets from MarcyJos were being sold alongside lots of CDs and
books.
Rory expressed his gratitude for all of his support team of
friends and neighbors who encouraged him to get out and do this, said if it was
up to him he would be sitting in his house. And if he did get up on stage he
would just tell stories, but he was encouraged to sing and play and he did so,
beautifully entertwining the songs with the stories.
An evening with Rory Feek, time well spent.
