I'm a few days late, but welcome to 2007. I rang in the new year down in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl. And while Nebraska didn't provide any magic hangover cures and and the Big D felt a lot like a ghost town, I did get the chance to visit Billy Bob's for the first time.
At least while I was there, downtown Dallas seemed to be populated exclusively by winos, but I'm not going to judge a city based on my two-day experience. The Fort Worth stockyards, however, were much more to my liking, even if the "World's Largest Honky Tonk" felt a bit like an amusement park.
Sure Billy Bob's boasts a full-sized stage, music venue, bull ring and dance floor (complete with a "disco saddle" hanging above it) on the premises, along with walls full of photos of the country elite. But it also has skee ball, video games, and, at least on New Year's, one bartender per bar, an all-ages policy and Jack Ingram.
I didn't really care who was playing, I figured New Year's at Billy Bob's would be a cover-filled, fun-first set. It could've been Justin Timberlake playing and I still would've expected to hear some Cash (and probably would've gotten it.) Jack had other ideas, playing his country-lite rock all night save for the requisite "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight, followed by Waylon's "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way."
I'm absolutely certain Hank did not do it your way, Jack.
In hopes of salvaging some sort of country experience from the whole ordeal, I picked up a recording of DAC's concert there in 2002. Even that wasn't great, Coe was at the height of his Kid Rock obsession at the time and he chose to ruin "Longhaired Redneck" with a little rhyme from "The Real Slim Shady" but it sure as hell beat anything Ingram was doing. Check out the clip below...
...and Happy New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment