Tanya Tucker Concert at the Ritz Theater

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Concert Photos

The Ritz Theater - Talladega, AL

December 11, 2009

No copyin' of photos without permission -- Photos and review by Dee M. (FL)

A Very Tucker Christmas at the Ritz

The One and only Christmas show for 2009 was a double-header at the Ritz Theater in Talladega on a Saturday night. Tanya enlisted some help from Layla, Presley and niece Cali to make it a family-kind-of-event. The stage had a Christmas theme with a Tanya logo in lights suspended overhead in a wreath. Somebody gets an A+ for creativity.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear songs from ‘My Turn’ playing when I walked into the old, historic theater. You would think that would be a no-brainer, but I have been to several concerts where other artists’ music was being played before the show.

Anyhow, Tanya’s band started out both shows with a couple of Christmas tunes and then played Tanya’s intro – you know the one: Trouble. She came strutting out on stage with a very cool leather jacket and lots of bling. (Tanya if you get tired of that jacket, a redhead in FL will put it to use). The more Tanya got into ‘Trouble’ the more a couple of the guys in the audience hooted and hollered and the more Tanya got into the performance of that song. Always nice to see the audience connect.

Tanya said the first show was a little late getting started due to rehearsals. Apparently she was still getting dressed while the band was finishing up Frosty – imagine that with Tucker Time being what it is and all. At any rate, I am sure rehearsals in conjunction with two shows made for a very long day.

Definitely some new faces with Tanya’s 7 piece band and let me tell ya what – they sing mahvelous and they sound mahvelous.

About half the show was the normal set of songs and the second half was Christmas-y. Both shows started with Trouble and ended with Delta Dawn with different songs in between. My personal favorites: Oh What It Did To Me, Little Things, Down To My Last Teardrop (band really sounded good on this one) and Love Me Like You Used To.

Two Sparrows continues to be a crowd favorite with a well-deserved standing O after the song.

Oh yeah, another great tune for the night was Tanya singing ‘Love’s Gonne Live Here’ with rhythm/acoustic guitar player Jeff. He makes a really good duet partner for Miss T.

The Christmas part of the show included individual performances and also group sing-a-long tunes. Presley sang an original Christmas tune that I think was written by Jerry Laseter (I got confused a little on that) – very nicely done. I hear so many of the up and coming performers, and even some that have ‘arrived’, that just can’t stay on pitch. Not the case at all with Presley – go girl! I guess I should mention that Tanya was having a hard time with being a stage mom – she was making sure the ‘ears’ were in right and doing a little live coaching on stage.

Cali did an excellent cover of ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’ aka the ‘Christmas Song’. She seems to get better each time I see her perform.

Tanya brought out Layla for her first song and let us know that she is all of 10 years old – as in a year older than when Tanya first went to Nashville (that really puts everything into perspective). Tanya reminded us of that statistic and then joked with Layla, “You’re already a year behind.” Layla sang Rudolph and also sang a Billy Joe Shaver song as well as Delta Dawn with Tanya. She really shines when she gets a hold of a song like “I’m Gonna Live Forever” cause she puts her little Tucker attitude all over it. Very impressive. All three of the girls are impressive.

The biggest highlight of the Christmas part of the show was Tanya singing “Blue Christmas” with the Elvis attitude and the Tucker girls singing p-e-r-f-e-c-t background do-wop style vocals. Elvis had his Imperials, well Tanya had her Tupremes (the Tucker version of Supremes). The bgvs were so true to the original it totally caught me off-guard – I was the one in the front laughing ‘cause it tickled my funny bone… in a good way.

Probably the other highlight of the night was the group sing-a-long and spontaneity on “Here Comes Santa Claus”.

It was a fun night – getting to see Tanya and family sing and play together on stage is a treat I hope we all get to look forward to every year for several years to come. Add a few more cities to next year’s Christmas calendar and count me in.

Rock on Tanya, Cali, Presley and Layla – thanks for sharing part of your Christmas with us. I am glad I got to attend.

Dee M.