Darwell Barn Burner
Darwell, AB.
Saturday 18th August 2007
by Robyn

Hal arrived literally in the middle of nowhere at 1 30pm in a black and tan SUV, with the Staggering Prophets neatly tucked away in the back,  Hal's window rolled down, arm hanging out, donning a black felt hat with a stylish eagle feather for decoration.

No-one but security was allowed near the outdoor stage... and for the record it was 13 degrees, cloudy, humid and threatening to rain, a whole lotta difference in temperature from where they came from,  (Oregon I believe), but we are not sure if they had a trip to Nashville first! 

Seemingly in no hurry, taking his time, at 2 50pm Hal made his way on to the stage to do his sound check, where we stood way back and listened and watched. They did 'In front of the Alamo', which we call just 'Alamo', ‘cos LeAnn Rimes was nowhere in sight (and yes we are stubborn and difficult). And then Millionaire's Wife was the second song of sound check.  Then we heard Hal say "we gotta get some food", so they piled into the SUV (Tsjitske told me I can't call it a van!) and drove down the dirt road in a cloud of misty rain.  We took that time to wander around the small town of Darwell (literally, 1 store, 1 restaurant, 1 intersection town).
 
We made our way back before 5pm to the gate, and waited for the nice security to get their act together and open up the grounds. Tsjitske had ticket number 1 and me ( Robyn) had number 2.  Finally we got our blanket settled in front of the goat wire fence at front of stage, only to be told we had to move back a few inches.  Sometimes Tsjitske is very happy that she hears only the important stuff (like Hal's voice) and omits the overactive security people. Although we shall agree we were glad that they were looking after Hal.

We sat through two opening acts, the first was ok, the second was too much amp power and not enough voice..  our underwire in our bras is still vibrating as they hang in the bathroom on their own.. no word of a lie!  Even people near us agreed that it was a relief that it was over. But as a reward of sitting through that, Keith and Nico came on stage to check their equipment, and that meant Hal would be along soon... and indeed seeing Hal arrive surrounded by 7 security personnel was sweet justice.  And this was at 9pm or thereabouts. Anyone would think with all that security Hal is important! Oops did I just get slapped?? 
 
Starting with a bang and a bullet, here comes Mick Hanley's Past the Point of Rescue, followed by these songs:

Awaiting Redemption
I Know Where Love Lives
Unforgiven
5 O'Clock world
The Maker
Millionaire's Wife
Alamo (still refusing to call it the US name)
Hearts Are Gonna roll
Travellin’ Teardrop Blues
Sure Love
Continental Farewell (bumming a cigarette, for a prop mind you, yeah right!)
I Miss My Mary
Hang in there Superman (lovely cape)
The Sparrow (He first asks if he could do another new song.. I said ‘Yes you may’, so he did)
Tonight We Just Might Fall in Love
Stay Forever

encore songs:
Small Town Saturday Night (and yes it was appropriate)
Long Way Down.
 
 The show ended shortly after 11pm. We saw that people were lining up at autograph tent, so I asked if Hal was coming out, they said someone was asking, then they came back and said he will be here about 10 minutes.  After some confusion that Hal was or wasn't signing we were very delighted that he did have the time before making his way to airport, to meet some folks!

We waited for our turn with pounding hearts, shaking from the cold perhaps!   First Tsjitske got her moment.. then me.. the camera's battery was done so just got to give Hal a hug and  message about how we enjoyed the show.. and that we would see him in Texas come October, and he was happy to know we could make our way to Texas .  We did good, ‘cos we weren't escorted off the ground! LOL. Not that we would've been..! With the needle pointing slightly to happy we made our way back home.. like 240 kms!!  Small mileage to pay for a high mileage talent! 

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