Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993 TAG: 9304030284
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TWITTY NO LONGER BIG DRAWING CARD
How much are George Jones and Vince Gill worth?More than 3,000 people.
That was the attendance difference between Conway Twitty's concert at the Salem Civic Center a year ago, with Jones and Gill on the bill, and his concert there Friday night without them.
Twitty has his fans - people who come see him every year no matter who is sharing the ticket. He has his own unique style, too. And he gives his loyalists what they want.
That isn't enough for him to pack concert halls, however.
Not even with the help of Vern Gosdin and Joe Diffie filling in admirably for Jones and Gill was the country veteran able to draw a comparable crowd. Friday night's show was attended by 3,359.
A year ago, Twitty and company brought in 6,613.
Maybe Twitty just walks through it nowadays. Maybe his middle-of-the-road country has been passed by with a more sophisticated country.
Maybe it's his tired stage dramatics. Twitty often looks like he's about to blow a gasket when he reaches a song's climax. Maybe it's the awful covers. Why he keeps trying to sing "The Rose" is a mystery.
Maybe it's just his voice.
Twitty has a voice that a ghost would love because it can creak like a rusty door hinge and rattle like a chain being dragged across an attic floor. And Friday, for 75 minutes, he was in vintage form.
More than 3,000 people. Maybe there is a message here.
Second on the bill was Diffie, who may have started a new country concert trend when he spotted a boy in the audience holding a toy guitar and invited the young musician on stage.
Caleb Rivers, 3, of Roanoke, joined Diffie for two songs and stole the show with his toe-tapping and pretend guitar picking. "A future superstar in country music," Diffie said.
Alone, Diffie managed some of memorable moments of his own. He delivered a solid 50 minutes of catchy country-rock that offered no show-stoppers, but kept things lively. Particularly jumpy was "New Way to Light Up an Old Flame," "Next Thing Smokin' " and a cover of Jones' "White Lightning."
Opening the show was Vern Gosdin, whom they don't call "The Voice" for nothing. Outside of Jones, Gosdin is about as authentic as they come. He sings country music they way it is supposed to be sung: lonesome and sad.
His between-song humor wasn't as endearing. Some of it worked, but more typical was: "Montana, where the men are men and the sheep are worried."
The cornball aside, Gosdin still was the show's best performer and his "Chiseled in Stone" was arguably the highlight of the night.