Sunday, April 15, 2018

an evening with...



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.

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.

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.

Way back before the baby and cancer, Joey and Rory recorded a song written by a good friend about the death of her mother, When I'm Gone. Joey sang the song in the video as if she was gone, talking to Rory and telling him he will be okay when she is gone.

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).

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. Rory took them over and showed them the schoolhouse and talked about the future plans there, the man wrote out a check for $150,000. The schoolhouse was started with the over $95,000 in small donations that came in when Joey died, in lieu of flowers. The school will be for local children, several with special needs.

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.


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