Discover Mills

Atlanta, GA

November 4, 2010

Review By: Nicole

So, Drive4COPD held their "Screen-Off" event, which was much like their events earlier in the year when they kicked off the event, where each celebrity was in a different part of the states to meet fans, and encourage them to screen. The difference with Patty's event this time (and with all of the other artists) was we were not only treated with the autograph signing, we got a small show as well!

Now, this one was a tad different for us. Chris & I had already planned on going to the event, since Atlanta is only 4 hours away. (Okay, Okay, I know, we would have gone if it was 4 or 14 hours away - but it being that close just made it a lot easier :P) Our plans changed slightly when I won the Ambassador Contest Drive4COPD was running, which I really wasn't even attempting to win. We were going win or not! But, I don't do anything half-assed when it comes to Patty, so when they started the contest, Patty needed ambassadors and screeners, so…I was on it. I've said from the very beginning of the campaign, I was determined to make sure she had a great showing in their "race".

I'm certain Chris was thrilled I won, since he assumed it meant no getting up at the crack of dawn to go down to the mall to stake out our spot. I was going to meet with Patty before the show, BUT, I wanted him to grab us great spots in front of the stage and keep those down while I was with Patty- and, well, I just have the need to be there before everyone else. So the day of, I don't think he was overly thrilled when I suggested we head over to Discover Mills around 1:30. We were, as he said we would be, the first people there for her. We did kill some time and walk the mall (and side note: they have a Georgia Music Hall of Fame area there, so there was this huge set up with a list of inductees by year, last updated in 2005, so Patty & Emory were both displayed on it!). They had Patty set up in the huge food court, with a full stage. There were four other Drive4COPD booths set up around the mall to allow for people to stop by and screen - and there were posters of Patty everywhere! (Which I made Chris steal one of for me when we left!)

A little while prior to the show, they put out some folding chairs in front of the stage, so we scored our front spot -- and people began to fill in the seats relatively quickly afterwards. I really wasn't anticipating a huge crowd - the show was slated for 6:00 on a Thursday, which really doesn't give a lot of workers time to get through the ridiculous Atlanta traffic to get there, we had a few PLN'ers who had to skip her show or come in late. But even with that, she had a decent crowd, and not just the strolling through the mall and stopping once they realized Patty Loveless was there. People who actually had some of her cds and brought to get signed, and knew her music. It was a good crowd.

Drive4COPD had me do some photos and an interview and then took me to the other side of the mall to have a private M&G with Patty while Chris held our spots in front of the stage. As usual, Patty was super appreciative, and couldn't have been nicer. Of course, it was great to have some time in with her - and when I went back to the stage, it was just about time for the show. They had a few folks come out and speak from the COPD Foundation, and then they introduced Patty to come out and tell her involvement with Drive4COPD, and explain why she got involved. Patty talked about how hard it was to watch her sister suffer from COPD, and explained about the 5 question screener. She ended her speech thanking everyone for taking the screener, or coming out to see the show, and then locked eyes with me and grinned, and thanked me (by full name - I always feel like the kid whose being sent to the principal's office when she uses that onstage! :P ) for coming out & my support.

The Emcee came back out, and then introduced Patty again. The band came out (the full band was in attendance), and they started her set off with "Halfway Down", so Todd did a shorter version of his solo before Patty actually came back out onstage to start performing.

Patty's set consisted of:

Halfway Down
Trouble w the Truth
Drive
If My Heart Had Windows
Too Many Memories
Blame

Before "Drive", she spoke of being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. The band started to look at eachother, and Patty mentioned this was one of the songs that got her inducted. Deanie quickly mouthed "Windows" to everyone to let the band know what they were going to. Patty looked down at her set list and said "Oooh no. I'm getting ahead of myself! We'll come back to that one.", and then explained she was going to do the most important song in the set now - at least for today anyway, and explained that she wrote this song to be the campaign's theme song. They sounded great on it -though she did forget the word :P and the drums were too loud. (Which we weren't surprised about, considering the show was in a mall. Considering that, the sound was actually pretty good!)

After 'Drive', she got back to talking about "If My Heart Had Windows", and explained that she chose to include it in this set because Garry Murray lost his father to COPD last year right before Christmas, and "Windows" was one of his dad's favorite songs. Garry smiled and thanked her. As usual - she sounded flawless. (And I'd actually love to see this make a comeback in the set list next year!)

"Too Many Memories" was absolutely the highlight of the set, and she introduced it talking about losing Stephen Bruton - it sounds funny to say you could hear a pin drop in the middle of a food court in the mall, but when she opened her mouth to do that song - you could. She nailed it (but when does she not?). She closed the set out with "Blame", and included the "sing along" at the end, and the crowd ate it up! After the show, a lady came and sat by me while I was waiting for Chris to get his autograph, and said she got caught in traffic and missed most of the show but got there in time for "Blame", and was so thrilled because she just loves that song! Given the small set they did, she chose good songs to do.

They gave Patty a quick break, and everyone lined up for the autograph signing. Since I'd had my time with her, Chris went and got in line and I went off to the side to wait for him and get some photos of her. She didn't take very long, I looked to the side a couple minutes later and there she was, smiling and walking over to start signing. I have no clue how late she wound up being there until (they had her scheduled until 8:30), but she definitely had a full day in and had early morning interviews & campaign filming. Once Chris got his autograph & photo, we'd taken up enough of her time and headed out.

NOW I'm just hoping for an Opry gig before the end of the year. That's not too much to ask for, right? I'm not really ready for the tour break….

On a side note, I totally got to rock the stage before the show….they asked me to pop up there to do a pic for them….like I was going to argue standing at P's mic!