HISTORIC RAYMOND THEATRE
RAYMOND, WA
NOVEMBER 2, 2008
DELTA BAPTIST CHURCH
TSAWWASSEN
DELTA, BC
My stars and garters, it has been six months since my last Anthony
concert. Raymond, Washington is a small logging town about 2 hours
southeast of Seattle near the coast. As a historic note, Raymond is the
town were the grunge band, Nirvana, played their first gig. Having said
that, it hosted Anthony Kearns for 2 sold-out afternoon concerts in the
historic Raymond Theater, circa 1928. The 350 seats were full for
both days. At the beginning of the concert, Anthony said they had
themselves FedEx'd to make sure they could get there in 1 day. Patrick
made the observation that, when they got there, instead of the "World
Renown Artists" that were expected, they looked more like something
the cat dragged in. They looked lovely to me and sounded ever better.
The concert program was exactly as reported in Richmond and
Washington, IL concerts. We only attended the Saturday concert
(had to rest up for the trip to Delta, BC), but was told Anthony sang 2
songs with the Raymond Community Choir on Sunday.
Monday afternoon, we made out way up to Canada to the Delta Baptist
Church for a benefit for the Delta Police Bagpipe Band. The church
was filled to the brim. It is very gratifying to see, and hear, that the
audiences are far more familiar with Anthony and Patrick than in
the early days. The concert began with the 'mini' bagpipe band of 15
of the 50-man/woman troop, marching in all their splendor and piping
for us. These piper travel and play the world over. It was quite a treat
to see and hear them. Then came Anthony and Patrick to a very
appreciative audience. They changed the program a bit. Before the
interval, they added Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, which I had never
heard him sing solo. He sang it putting a sean nos style to it, very,
very nice. Then, he sang Courtin' in the Kitchen and invited us to join
in the chorus, which of course we did. After the interval, we were
treated with some little Irish dancers before Anthony and Patrick
came back for the second half of the program. I am always a little
melacholy during the second half of the program knowing the night is
winding down. They did rearrange the end a bit, singing Danny
Boy as a final song and coming back for Granada. Then as a second
encore, he sang Because You're Mine. They did have a meet and
greet afterward though they had to drive back to Seattle that night,
a 3-hour trip, to catch a flight out of SeaTac. I didn't ask when the
flight was, I only hope they had time to take a breath before they
got on the plane. They had 3 burly police pipers standing guard
behind the table so I was a bit hesitant to ask for a picture, but
Anthony said, "Of course," so we made the most of that and got
pictures all around.
by Fay Loux
Fay with Anthony & Patrick
