CONCERT REVIEW — ALABAMA

My plans to attend the Alabama concert Saturday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls took an unexpected turn at the last minute. I’d contacted Alabama’s merch manager, Terry Tyson, to ask if he was on the tour, and he responded with a backstage pass and a spot for my car in the bus parking lot. I first met Terry when Kayo and I went to Nashville in 2019, where we visited Alana and Hilda Young. Alana told us stop by the Ernest Tubb Record Shop to meet the manager, her dear friend Terry Tyson. We did. Terry later went to work for Richard’s & Southern, which has provided merchandise to Alabama for forty years. It began in 1959 as a company that delivered postcards in a station wagon to gas stations across the South. It has grown to design, manufacture, store, and sell t-shirts and souvenirs for dozens of entertainers, who only have to accept their share of the merch profits.

CONCERT REVIEW

I planned to see Brooks & Dunn when they came to the Sanford Premiere Center in Sioux Falls, but I didn’t expect to have such great seats or a meet & greet with Scotty McCreery. Thanks to Scott Stem of Triple 8 Management for making that happen. The meet & greet was well-organized, with each group going into the room to chat for a moment with Scotty and have their photo taken by tour manager Nathan Thomas, before exiting for the next group to enter. When my turn came, I told Scotty I’d interviewed him a year ago for my Randy Travis biography. He and Nathan asked about progress on my book, and Scotty said he missed seeing Randy by one night in Louisiana. He arrived at the Cajun Country Jam in Denham Springs the day after Randy’s induction into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. (more…)