Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

When the stars shone down on Country Road
It was Country Road 2004, Wild Wild West style at the Taj Airport Garden Hotel last Sunday. Past the pool, down by the lagoon, a stiff breeze was blowing across the waters. We enter to find people walking around in cowboy hats, boots, the full works. Whoa… Sri Lanka does have quite a following for country music.

There was a rumour that there would be a jamming session and it turned out to be true. Aha…. So this was the reason one of our friends wanted to get there early. The jamming session started off with a lone guitar player who was later joined by three singers. They jammed their way through a few best-loved country hits that set the tone for the evening.

Next up was a relatively new band to the country music scene, ‘The Revolutions’. The band is just five months old and comprises members from all over Sri Lanka. As they opened with Girl From Yesterday, the crowd settled in for the country night ahead.

Joining the band later was Mariazelle, the popular Sinhala singer who psyched up all of us. A regular performer at Country Road since its inception 15 years ago she took the audience through popular songs like, Picture that got all of us swaying to the beat and attempting to sing along with her.

Yodelling into the night Bob Livingston lived up to expectations. He added a bit of Sri Lankan flavour to This Land is Your Land as he started off. We were surprised to find a tabla player next to him. Where did he fit in? We found out as they started playing. Blending both the oriental and western sounds, the guitar and the tabla provided a glimpse of the popular fusion music that has become a trademark for Livingston.

Some of the great old sounds of country music came alive, as ‘Cosmic Rays’ got onstage. After a few country hits by them it was time for one of the much-anticipated bands of the evening… the Mavericks.

They started out on a different beat… a rock beat. We were surprised. But not for long… with a sigh of relief we figured it was only their theme song. They each introduced themselves to the beat of their song. Dirk and the Mavericks from Germany have been making special trips to Country Road from the mid 90s. This band like all the other bands performed free in keeping with the spirit of the show.

Country Road organized by The Country Music Foundation together with UNICEF is dedicated to raising funds for underprivileged children in Sri Lanka through projects initiated and run by UNICEF. Proceeds from this year’s concert will be donated to UNICEF’s child-friendly schools programme, under which CMF will contribute to the construction of reading room/library facilities to three schools in Hambantota.

As the evening drew to a close it was obvious that the audience had a wonderful time toe-tapping, singing along or just dancing under the stars. It certainly was a night in the wild wild west. Country Road 2004 was sponserd by Emirates, Cargills (Ceylon) Ltd., The Taj Group of Hotels, Classic Radio and The Sunday Times.

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