Rams Head
September 24, 2010
Annapolis, MD
Review by: Nicole

Rams Head is smack dab in the middle of downtown Annapolis, which is absolutely gorgeous- so, I didn't mind that we wound up there a little early for our dinner reservations. It's a superb venue, and usually has great sound. This year Richard had some friends coming who had never had the chance to see Patty before, so it was a prime venue for them to see her live.

Our large somewhat obnoxious (I mean this in the most loving way possible!) group had dinner reservations at 5:30 and then headed to our seats. Our group was a little more spread out this year, but to my delight, Nelson ended up at the same table as me, and was super sweet enough to swap sides with me. A couple inches closer is a couple inches closer, right!? Yes - I have that thing where I absolutely need to be in the closest seats possible. Now, Rams Head is a really small venue. So, at our front tables, you can't help but see the set list as you sit down. As I sat down, I noticed something taped down to the OTHER side of Patty's mic… which is unusual, so naturally, I peered over to see what it was--- and to my shock were the lyrics to "Diamond in my Crown"! This told me that Patty was probably going to actually honor my request from the night before.

Patty came out to excellent applause - I should note tickets to the Rams Head show is usually around 70-80 bucks a pop since the venue is so small. So, usually this crowd that paid that to see her IS a Patty crowd. As Patty walked out, she told the crowd she wanted to do music from her past and from her present, starting with a song that was about a waitress that she could relate to, saying "And her name is….", launching into "The Night's Too Long."

The Rams Head show seemed more relaxing for Patty. She seemed to talk a bit more, and had more energy, and she had a killer crowd. There were no changes in the set until the end, so she followed with “Nothin’ But the Wheel” and “On Down the Line”. Now, at the Birchmere, towards the end of “On Down the Line”, she didn’t hold her note on “Well….. if I were a rich girl” like she has been at most shows, but the Rams Head, she did and absolutely nailed it, and the crowd loved it! She told the story of George Jones being on “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me”, and spoke of how honored she was that he agreed to come in the studio and sing on it with her, but had Garry Murray fill in for George tonight. Garry does George proud on the song – although, I’m not sure there’s ever been a time where Garry DOESN’T sound great with her!

The best part about Patty crowds is they know when to applaud, and when to keep quiet (you know, the ones who know when "Harlan" is not over and do not start . You could hear a pin drop on stuff like “Wheel” & “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”. “You Can Feel Bad” and “Lovin’ All Night” followed. The sound was much better at the Rams Head than the night before, although the drums were up too loud again. Patti suggested part of the problem were the mics on the drums – could be, I don’t know, but they were certainly too loud every show we saw. (And no, I promise I’m not saying that just because I thought the show was better without drums!)

When Patty mentioned “Sleepless Nights”, she got a huge response from the crowd – and not just from our group. She spoke of wanting to honor some of the artists that came before her, and kicked it off with Pete’s insanely amazing start to “Crazy Arms”. I know, I say this all the time, but Pete is just incredible. There’s just no one like him that plays the way he does, and all eyes were on him. “Crazy Arms” was easily one of the biggest hits of the night, Patty sounded incredible, Pete just blew everyone away, and Deanie and Sydni on twin fiddles just made it all come together. When Patty finished the song, just as she was about to start “Why Baby Why”, I heard a guy behind me go, “WOW.” I think he spoke for everyone in the audience!

And then, once again, it was time for “Mountain Soul”. She explained she cut “Mountain Soul” (which drew a huge response from the audience), and was always being asked by fans if she was ever going to do something like that again, so she decided to go in and cut something like it, which they called Mountain Soul II, only because they wanted people to be able to know what to expect from the record. The set was kicked off by “Bramble and the Rose”. And, I won’t even mention how the drums don’t fit in the song this time :P Patty was brief in telling the story about “Busted” tonight, but said being a Coal Miners Daughter she just thought it made more sense for her to cut the original lyrics, instead of cotton, like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. “Busted” was a huge hit for the night, which is something I notice at almost all shows ---- every single person in the audience absolutely loves it! This night, we didn’t get our request of “Harlan” in, and Deanie and Sydni went straight into “The Boys are Back in Town” – another crowd favorite, that most of the audience sang along to.

Patty took some time to introduce the band, which consisted of: Garry Murray, Pete Finney, Dave Racine, Matt McKenzie, Todd Lombardo, Sydni Perry and Deanie Richardson. Patty mentioned how talented each and every one of them are, and by the end of the night, each band member had their moment to shine, and had been introduced multiple times.

Once again, you could hear a pin drop when they started “Here I Am”, which was totally flawless. Emory mentioned in an interview one time that “Here I Am” was cut at once, one take. It’s easy to believe once you sit and hear her do it live. Afterwards, she introduced Todd Lombardo again and said she was going to, “let him loose”….to do his intro to “Halfway Down”. As Todd played, Patty stepped to the left to be completely out of the way, and Garry moved over near her, so the spotlight was totally on Todd. Every band member stood to the side and watched and cheered him on as much as the audience did.

As Patty made everyone leap to their feet to sing along to “Blame”, she taught everyone the words once again, quickly doing the “Blameitonyourlyincheatincolddeadbeatintwotimindoubledealinmeanmistreatinlovinheart” line as fast as she possible could – the girls that were sitting at the table with Nelson & I (who had never seen her before, and seemed kind of lifeless during the rest of the set) said “What did she just say??” – but once they realized what song it was, immediately started singing along- with Patty AND the rest of the audience. Once again, she closed the show with “I’m That Kind of Girls”, which just about all the girls sang along with and one sole guy in the very front middle.

The crowd stayed on it’s feet, cheering for her to come back, which she promptly did – and told everyone they could go ahead and sit back down because she was going to take it down a notch. Since “Too Many Memories” or “My Old Friend the Blues” were still listed as the encore possibilities, I wasn’t 100% sure she was going to do “Crown” until we saw only Sydni, Garry, Deanie and Matt return. She told everyone that she wanted to share a song that was cut and written by Emmylou (no last name needed) that she recently did on the “Mountain Soul II” record. I’m a little biased because this is really one of my fave songs that Patty’s ever cut, but I think the entire audience was in complete awe, she completely blew everyone away. I heard multiple people comment on what an incredible job Garry and Deanie do re-creating the feel of the pump organ from the record with their fiddles in the live performance. Once again, another very, very well deserved standing ovation.

Saturday night, we had a party at Richard and Patti’s, and one of their friends came up to me to tell me how much she enjoyed Patty’s show – and commented, “It was the best concert I’ve ever seen.” That’s exactly the kind of reaction was love to hear….

Unfortunately, Rams Head was our last stop with Nelson, Mike H and Jackie, since they were all leaving before the Sellersville shows – once again, another awesome time with some fantastic PLN’ers.