Beech Tree News Network

Thursday night, January 31, my dad and I went to SKYPAC to see Sawyer Brown, who are celebrating their 37th year as a group.  They appeared on the scene in 1983 via Star Search.  Star Search was American Idol when I was growing up.  “Smokin’ in the Rockies, Rockin’ in the Smokies” was the song they performed that night. And yes, they performed that song Thursday night.  They’ve released 23 albums in their 37 years.  And they’re not done yet!

Their SKYPAC show was the first show of their 2019 tour.  Lead singer Mark Miller can still dance as good as he could back in the day.  I realized this was my second time seeing the group.  It’s also one of my two longest stints between seeing an artist.  I saw them in 2001 at the Everly Brothers (later Central City) Music Festival.  That was my second-longest time between seeing an artist.  The first being Ray Stevens( first was ’93, second was 2015).

Lead singer Mark Miller can still dance as well and as wildly as he could twenty years ago.  These guys brought out the majority of their classics as well as some hidden gems and some covers.  Of course there were the obligatory songs that made you tear up.  Two they did, “The Walk” and “All These Years”, get me every time.  After they played “All These Years”, Mark said “Listen to y’all.  I’ve never heard anybody cheer so hard for a song about adultery.  Also funny was when bandmember Hobie Hubbard said “I always wanted to know, during the song…. Did the guy just stand there while everything was going on with his wife and this other guy”? Fair question.  Ha!

Along with dozens of their classics, they played some covers.  The band started in on “Life’s Been Good” by Joe Walsh.  Hobie sang that one. Their guitarist Bobby Randall played and sang the Steve Miller Band classic “Rock’n Me”. They also did “Learning to Fly”.  They sprinkled these in with their own classics such as “Betty’s Bein’ Bad, “Dirt Road”, “Cafe On The Corner” and “Hard To Say”.  

A lot of Butler County was at the concert.  That just goes to show that good music is universal.