From: thughes@LONESTAR.UTSA.EDU ("Toby . Hughes")
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: In-Country Concert
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:03:53 GMT
Reply-To: Viet Nam War Discussion List <VWAR-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu>

WARNING!    The following is extremely long and boring.  Unless you enjoy
            the ramblings of a middle-aged fighter pilot/guitar picker
            going on about one of the greatest experiences of his life,
            DELETE NOW!


V-W*rr**rs,

As promised, a group of vets got together in Austin, Texas this past weekend
to tape a Veterans Day Special for the PBS show "Austin City Limits."  Lydia
has asked me to post a summary of events for you who couldn't make it,
which is most of you.  (Kali was there, and she and I got along famously,
without a single discussion of politics, misogyny, left-wing ardor, right-
wing fanaticism, or who's going to win the American League East; proof positive
of the healing power of music!).  I tried to envision how the taping session
might have been different had all the V-W*rr**rs been there, and all I could
come up with that Kim would have cried on the POW song (yes, there was one),
that Neff would have demanded equal time to sing something wickedly cynical,
and that Ed Moise would have demanded my references for the incident described
in "Sher-Babes."

But seriously, folks.

Things started on Friday, when the advance contingent hit the Quality Inn South
in Austin.  Lydia and her trusty sidekick Lisa Harmon, Kali, former Doughnut
Dolly Emily Strange, author Bill Getz, and yours truly ran an ops check on the
bar to make sure it was functioning properly before the big group hit on
Saturday.  I had to beat it back to San Antone that night, but left things in
capable hands.

The Saturday arrivals began at about nine in the morning, and the last one
showed at 4:40.  Each arrival involved a briefing on the taping procedure,
which, of course, had to be conducted in the bar.  I was in GOOD shape for
dinner that evening.

Ah, yes, dinner!  There is a funky old Mexican restaurant out on Barton Springs
Road called "Jalisco."  It's not trendy, so the y-word crowd heads elsewhere.
It's painted outside in authentic bad taste, and inside is pure Juarez.
Mexican records on the juke box, a huge chandelier made from empty Corona beer
bottles, and peeling white, red and green paint on the walls.  The walls have
also been signed by some pretty well-known country music personalities.  The
food is authentic;  overall it's just what we were looking for.  Including the
eight performers, their back-up musicians, Lydia and Lisa, and various friends
and relatives, we hit the Jalisco with a party of 42, for which the Austin
City Limits staff picked up the entire check. Pretty decent of them since they
still didn't know what kind of show they were getting.  We hung there for 3
hours, wrote our name on the wall, and headed back for the hotel.  After
commandeering the upstairs bar (it was easy. who's going to stick around when
nine guys and a lady walk in with guitars?), the picking session began. Bull
Durham treated us all with his second rendition of the night of "Gonna Build a
Bar,"  Tom Price did his Jimmi Hendrix/Eddie Albert medley (you heard that
right), and everyone went through their song line-up.  The party broke up
sometime after 1:00 A.M. and it was on to Sunday and fame.

Sunday dawned like any other day that you know you're going to be taping a
show with Kris Kristofferson that will be aired coast-to-coast on network
television.  Old fighter pilots, who never blinked at rolling in on an active
anti-aircraft position, were starting to speak in higher registers.  Grunts
who had survived firefights intact were shaking a bit at the thought of singing
about one.  All of us, who have performed this music thousands of times before
every kind of audience, knew that this was something special.

And was it ever.  The rush started when we walked into the studio, with the
ACL set across the back wall.  Having been a fan of the show for many years
I was familiar with that view of the Austin skyline, but to see it up there
and to know that I was about to go where Waylon and Willie, Merle Haggard
and the great Marty Robbins had been brought a new kind of emotion. No time
to stand around in awe, though; we went right into sound checks and camera
angles and signing all the paperwork.  The ACL production staff was super!
We were allowed complete artistic freedom in what we wanted to do.  Terry
Lickona, the producer, had told me months ago, "We didn't get where we are
by telling the performers what to do,"  and his staff proved it.
Shortly after 4:00, less than 4 hours to showtime, Kristofferson walked in.
He had taken the Red-eye into Austin from an L.A. performance the night
before, and had managed about 4 hours sleep in the last 24.  It took him
one round of introductions and about 5 minutes to become an Army chopper
pilot again.  He was marvelous!  The big star, the music legend, perhaps
this generation's greatest songwriter, fit himself into OUR group, rather
than expecting us to play to him.  If I hadn't been a fan before, I sure
as hell would have been one after.  We had two hours left before make-up
call, and spent it going over as many of the songs as we could, but shut
down the session with about one-third still unrehearsed.  We need not have
worried.

By 7:00 we were dressed, made-up, and ready to go.  The studio arrangement
is such that the performers and audience all enter through the same door,
so we started socializing with the customers when the doors opened.  The
local Budweiser distributor provides free beer for the ACL audience, so
being sociable was no problem. It amounted to a mini-reunion before the show.
The ACL promotion staff had done a marvelous job of contacting as many vet
groups as possible to offer tickets, and well over half of the capacity
crowd of 450 responded when Kris asked later if there were any vets in the
audience.  Groups I saw represented included the Special Forces Association,
VVA, DAV, Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, and the Ravens.  There
were soldiers, Marines, a sailor hat or two, an entire section of ex-Red Cross
vets and at least two nurses. I didn't see any VVAW's identifiable as such,
but I do know that they were contacted, and feel sure that some were there.
All in all, our war was represented in the audience fully as well as it was
represented on the stage.

SHOWTIME!  Lights!  Cameras!  Action!  I will not attempt to describe how
the show went.  I can't.  You had to be there.  I will say that the unanimous
feeling among all of us was that the biorhythms were right.  Whether it was
the audience, the presence of KK, the adrenaline rush, the ambiance, or just
that we knew our chance was here, not one of us could have done it any better
than we did on Sunday night.  Austin City Limits got one hell of a show.
Call that bragging if you want to.  I don't toot my horn that much, but it
would be the epitome of false modesty to deny that everybody nailed it that
night.  Here's the run-down:

Kris Kristofferson:     Show introduction and song.
                        "Shipwrecked in the 80's"

Saul Broudy:            "Saigon Warrior"
                        "Chu Yen"

Toby Hughes:            "Ho Chi Minh Trail"
                        "Sher-Babes"

Bill Ellis:             "Grunt"
                        "Freedom Bird"

Chip Dockery:           "I've Been Everywhere" (with Dick Jonas)
                        "2061 Days"

Dick Jonas:             "Battle Hymn of the River Rats"
                        "Will There Be a Tomorrow?"  (with Kathy Jonas, Sherry
                                                      Hughes, and Lisa Ellis)

Emily Strange:          "In-Coming" (with Lisa Harmon)

Chuck Rosenberg:        "Ba Moui Ba"
                        "Dai Uy Joe"

Bull Durham:            "Jolly Green"
                        "Crack Went the Rifle"

Kris:                   "Vietnam Blues"

Saul:                   "Green Flight Pay"

Toby:                   "Reunion"

Bill:                   "Firefight"

Chip:                   "Troops in Contact"

Dick:                   "Gas Hole"

Emily:                  "America Called"

Chuck:                  "Walking the Light Green"

Bull:                   "Da Nang Lullaby"

Kris:                   "Anthem '84"

Entire Group:           "Laid Around and Played Around Vietnam Too Long"


Not all of that will be on the final version, TV time constraints being what
they are, but no one can ever take away from us that we did it.  The playback
party lasted until sun-up on Monday morning.  My final conscious thought at
about 0645 was "I gotta get some steak and eggs;  I can't keep this shit up
on milk and cookies."

Had a wonderful time, wish you had been there.


Peace,

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
                           |
Sharkbait                  |    "The goin' up was worth the comin' down."
thughes@lonestar.utsa.edu  |                      - Kris Kristofferson
                           |
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*