Country legend Randy Travis entertained an enthusiastic audience at the Flint Field House last Tuesday. Around 1,400 people attended the show filled with country classics, ballads, and inspirational music.
The night began with a solo acoustic performance by Victoria Banks.
Once Randy Travis hit the stage he spent the early part of the show playing hits like Diggin' Up Bones and King of the Road. The later part of the show concentrated on Travis's more recent inspirational work, including songs like Three Wooden Crosses and Rise and Shine.
Irish singer Eamonn McCrystal joined Travis on stage for a duo of songs, which the audience greeted warmly.
“It's been overwhelming, all the great support of the Canadian people. It's been fantastic,” McCrystal said.
McCrystal called from Minneapolis to reflect on the tour. In 2009 he was working for a television company in London. While on vacation at home in Northern Ireland he worked as a stage manager at Country Fest in Belfast. Randy Travis headlined the festival, where he met McCrystal and became Randy and Elizabeth Travis's driver for the remainder of the Ireland tour.
McCrystal recalled getting lost in Dublin and handing Elizabeth, Randy's manager and wife, a CD he recorded. Later that day she listened to the CD and asked McCrystal to help Randy with the singing of Danny Boy on the tour, which he noted is the second national anthem in Ireland.
The Irish singer signed a contract soon after in the fall of 2009 to record an album with Kyle Lehning, Travis's producer in Nashville. The release date is currently being worked out.
McCrystal started touring with Travis on the Canadian portion of the Around the Bend tour.
“Canada was absolutely fantastic,” McCrystal said. “The people's response was phenomenal.”
The tour took a day off in Bonnyville, providing the opportunity for the McCrystal to see some local sites. An entourage from the tour went for a movie in Cold Lake and visited the local KFC, he said. They also took the time to see some of the town on foot.
“We travel always at night time so you wake up in a different town every day. I don't even know what week it is never mind what town I'm in,” he joked.
He said his music “has to mean something to me. It has to have a story.” He hopes his music is uplifting and inspiring while providing a positive message. He said his new album, written by a team in Nashville, is reflective and offers stories of life.
In Bonnyville he sang one song from the new album, It's Going to Rain, and You Raise Me Up from the previous album Rest for Your Soul. Over 200 artists in 46 languages have recorded the latter track, but McCrystal was the first Irish artist to record it.
He said he didn't expect such an overwhelmingly positive response in Canada. He sold out of his CDs on the first night of the tour.
Luckily a production company in Edmonton agreed to reproduce the CDs for the remainder of the tour.
