Encore! Country Roads
View(s):By Duvindi Illankoon
It’s a beautiful thing when a guitar strums for a good cause. The vibrant notes fill the air and the good vibes are catching. It gets even better when an audience joins in, clapping and singing along with the music. But you know what the best thing about music for a cause is? When everyone involved comes away beaming-because it was a night to remember.
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The 25th anniversary instalment of Country Roads was fantastic, to say the least. The Hilton Colombo’s Grand Ballroom was packed with men and women in cowboy hats, children in Stetson boots and first timers anticipating nothing much. To be proved wrong spectacularly would have been a welcome relief; from the music right down to the authentic bales of hay at the entrance, Country Roads was pure entertainment.
Kuma De Silva, the seasoned compere for the evening kicked things off with a brief introduction to the origins and main premise of the concert. Country Roads began in 1988 for a special reason-to raise funds for children living in disadvantaged conditions. Twenty years on, the cause behind the show remains very much the same. Organisers – the indefatigable Feizal Samath and Jury Majid of the Country Music Foundation have held many shows in aid of their beneficiaries’ requirements-be it pre schools, tube wells and even mosquito nets. This year the show was to raise funds for a joint Government-UNICEF project to build three juvenile courthouses for children.
The five performers at this year’s show were well versed in the Country Roads cause. Mariazelle, the Cosmic Rays, Astrid Brook, Bob Livingston and The Mavericks are old hands, the former two having performed since the concert’s inception. Mariazelle kicked things off with ‘When You Say Nothing At All’, an old favourite made all the better with her powerful voice. The Cosmic Rays followed up her performance with some lively numbers-as the country’s only country music band, they occupy a special niche market. The band stuck to mainly fast numbers, including an Engelbert Humperdinck favourite.
British songstress Astrid Brook was next up, and she smartly reminded the audience that ‘not all country music singers are American’ singing a number by Shania Twain (who almost launched her career in the 90’s in Sri Lanka with Country Roads, did you know?) to prove her point. Astrid also sang some Dolly Parton and a Kenny Rogers number called ‘The Gambler’, which she laughingly dedicated to her mother, ‘a compulsive gambler who didn’t pass those genes down to her kids-thankfully!’
A brief interval later, Feizal and Jury from the Country Music Foundation took some time to thank the audience for their generous contributions and performed an original number with Astrid and Bob Livingston titled ‘They’re All for the Children’. Bob stayed on stage, performing songs that included classics by Johnny Cash along with some of his originals. In what was perhaps the most striking performance of the night, he did an ‘East meets West’ duet with tabla instrumentalist Ranjan.
The show closed with a lively, hilarious performance by German band The Mavericks. Led by the irrepressible Dirk, the band members pranced around on stage, trying out Elvis Presley get ups and role playing keeping the audience well entertained. A fitting end to a grand anniversary concert. Encore!!
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