keepingfaith

I understand that and really don't know why these tours aren't listed on the OFC home page. I think they should be; however, the OFC board has threads for all the shows we've discovered so far. There's no OFC exclusive pre-sale for this, IMO, because it's "Clay and Ruben." I can explain it to myself in that Clay has enough respect for Ruben and his fans that he wouldn't feel comfortable giving his own fans an exclusive first shot at seats. He knows the bulk of seats will be filled by his own fans, but Clay's such a gentleman and Ruben is his good friend. The tickets that went on sale for Reno yesterday were functionally a Clay/Ruben fan pre-sale, IMO. Anyway, I'd feel differently if this were an official Clay Aiken full tour, and I anticipate getting the full Tried & True tour schedule on the OFC, with pre-sales for all.

I also am not surprised that the OFC doesn't have the schedule. This tour, in trying financial times, is probably going to expand due to demand, and there's no way to see into the future on that. But the faster these shows sell out, the more will get added along the way. I'm especially interested in where he'll be on Friday, July 30th.

This is so cool. NH is on a Tuesday night so the Cluben Tour isn't confined to weekends. There are outlines of regional clusters. I don't expect any major cities right now because I think the big venues will be for Clay's Tried and True tour with a big band. If he's doing casinos, anyone know of major casino/entertainment venues in the South? Offhand, I know of casinos in Lake Charles and Biloxi, but I can't allow myself to dream about Lake Charles. I'm delighted about casino shows since outdoor venues in the summertime in the South are a no-go for me. I can't count on the "beginner's luck" that was Frisco on the 4th of July to ever happen again. Temperatures in the 80's in Texas in July? Outrageous luck that was.

You don't want to meet me? sniff sniff I want to meet you! And .. treenuts and wandacleo and the many many fans I've yet to meet! ldyj, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, please scrape me off the ceiling please! couchie, it's about damn time I get to see you again!

Thelma and Louise Merrieeee and I will be in the house! Or floating around on top of it.

I can't find a picture of the showroom online, but I found the hotel:

I got a couple of tickets in Section C, 9 rows back. Now I've got to worry about how to GET to Reno. I so so so hate to fly, and this will be a 2-plane job, minimum, each way. I'd consider a road-trip vacation doing The Grand Canyon (which I've never seen), and Las Vegas (where I've never been), were it not for the stretch from Houston to El Paso - I've vowed never to suffer through that desolate drive ever AGAIN! Now a day of lazing around with the house to myself. The rest of the household is going to see the Black Eyed Peas at the Rodeo, with stops this afternoon at the Livestock Show and the Midway (the Pedophile Rodeo, IMO), and I opted out. Love the Peas, but not the Rodeo (except the food, especially the Mexican corn on the cob which is to DIE for). I haven't loved the Rodeo since back in the day when we had cowboy stars who not only entertained at the show, but rode in the parade -- and we got out of school for the parade. As a kid I was in heaven to see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with Pat Brady and Gabby Hayes. I remember when Gene Autry fell off his horse ... drunk, and I remember seeing The Rifleman Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford -- I was in love with Johnny Crawford until I saw that he was a foot shorter than me, and I was 10 or 11. I was the most self-conscious tall skinny girl in school, and they called me Olive Oyl. I wish there were ANY reasons to call me that now! Ah, memories.

If what I've read on the boards is true ... Clay's going out with Ruben this summer, and a full-blown big-band tour probably won't be until January 2011 and would be contingent on the success of Tried & True. IF that's the case, sounds to me like Clay will do smaller venues with Ruben where he can fly in on weekends, and major cities with big buses and larger venues out on his own. I'll take some of everything, please.

So far: Weekend 1 - The South (Asheville) Weekend 2 - The West (Reno) Weekend 3 - The Northeast (Chautaqua) I noticed Clay's ticket prices at $65-$40 in Reno. Also noticed the following on the Silver Legacy Casino website: Daughtry: $39-$29 Carrie Underwood: $55-$35 Frankie Valli: $85-$55 Johnny Mathis: $85-$60 Tony Bennett: $96-$51 The singers of classic songs are pulling in the better cash! Who knew?! Also, Ticketmaster has this listed as simply "Clay Aiken." Is Ruben a "special guest" I wonder?

Clay Aiken = Prune Juice? Yes! Proof it wasn't kool-aid we've we drinking, AHA!

I agree with you that we all understand why this is a different situation, and that it feels weird because something is missing that we feel we should be experiencing NOW, but we intellectually realize that fulfillment is delayed. However, it does.not.compute. Feels like a whole new world now, for Clay and the fans too. Hope we have to get used to this with many more PBS Specials in the coming years. It stands to reason that many many more people watch PBS programming than pledge, and those multitudes only need go to Amazon and order what they've seen for a fraction of the cost. Or iTunes to download the music. When the David Foster: Hit Man show was being played so extensively, Amazon was selling the very same CD and DVD. In my experience, though I'm certainly no inside expert, I have always been able to get the identical CDs and DVDs for street prices that PBS offers during a pledge drive. These items are, after all, offered as a "premium" for membership, not the cost of membership, because the cost of membership is a donation. And people who have pledged for one program, aren't normally going to be spending a bundle on another, unless they are feeling exceedingly philanthropic. So, going at this in reverse, I've also purchased a good number of CDs and DVDs at retail and later saw those very concerts on PBS; and it was easy to determine that the retail item was identical to the pledge item. The televised portion always functions as THE HOOK and portions are deliberately edited out of the broadcast so viewers will feel compelled to actually purchase the DVD and not merely DVR/tape the show for free. We all want the total package, don't we? There's so much to be excited about. I checked at OFC and my renewal is June 11. I've finally caught up after joining on June 2, 2006, and I've been on that exact renewal date ever since. Original members have had renewal extensions each year, IIRC. Beginning this year, I'll be on the same schedule, YIPPEE! A June renewal indicates to me that we'll be getting Tried & True merchandise with our memberships. And hopefully the Clay Store will be stocked with 2010 goodies ere long. OMG, this man is going to clean me out this year, but what a happy way to go broke.

Awwww, I love his foot action when he sings. I hope we can get one of these without watermarks ...

One thing -- those were all pretty much teen-popular tunes back in the day. The biggest surprise for me ... It's Only Make Believe by Conway Twitty. I have a very mossy memory of seeing Conway Twitty sing that song on the old Dick Clark Saturday night show from NY. And I remember Jackie Wilson being on the same show. I have a weird memory.

YAY! merrieeee survived!!! Okay, I know I'm a trivial bore about music, always have been. But I really like the mix of songs that appear to have made it onto the new album. Some of them are very recognizable classics, and some more obscure, which won't matter at all since Clay from all accounts is singing brand new arrangements of these tunes: Mack the Knife – Bobby Darin 1960 You're Just Too Good to be True - Frankie Valli 1967 It's Impossible - Perry Como 1970 You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield 1966 Eso Beso (That Kiss) - Paul Anka 1962 Who's Sorry Now - Connie Francis 1958 I'll Take Romance - Matt Monro 1966 Misty - Johnny Mathis 1959 What Kind of Fool Am I - Sammy Davis, Jr. 1962 Crying - Roy Orbison 1961 In My Life - The Beatles 1965 It’s Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty 1958 There's a Kind of Hush - Herman’s Hermits 1967 Unchained Melody - Various, 50's and 60's Moon River - Henry Mancini 1961 (the chorus version that won the Academy Award) and Jerry Butler 1961 (the one played on pop radio) Ooooo, maybe I'll call a radio jock and say: "Play Misty For Me" ... in a few months. I'm assuming that Suspicious Minds and Buttercup are not on the album since that's what I heard, but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised. Or, maybe they aren't going to be on the album per se but will be bonus downloads for full album purchase - one for iTunes and one for Rhapsody. Both are 60's songs - 1969 for Suspicious Minds, and 1968 for Buttercup (The Foundations). Which, by the way, opens up the idea of a single. I've noticed that Decca tends to release a single in advance of album release, and has been known to give up a free iTunes download of the week, although I don't think for a minute that they'll be giving away Clay for free. Those who have heard all the songs, is there a single hiding in there? I was thinking that if it were UM, that would be quite a story.

I have a question for one of our attendees, pretty please. About Clay's new sound, does it have a good beat and can you dance to it? And slow dancing counts!

Dreaming about the DVD. The PBS show may be chopped up for pledge breaks and edited to put the highlights within a 2-hour timeframe, but the DVD will have it all. The Moody Blues famous Red Rocks concert was edited for PBS, but the DVD had it all. The Clapton-Winwood concert at Madison Square Garden on "Great Performances" last year didn't include four or five songs that were on the DVD. So, not only am I excited about the PBS special, but I'm doubly excited about the DVD. I was so excited last night that I spent time watching PBS, desperate for ANY connection to the night. Pledge drive is going on here and the Celtic programming - Women and Thunder - seem to always be on. Actually, I couldn't take much, because, because, well, because that stuff feels contrived to me, like Pussycat Dolls meets Riverdance. The Celtic and Eastern music of Loreena McKennitt is more my style. Anyway, here's what PBS Houston was offering for Celtic Woman: $60 for the CD $100 for the DVD $150 for the CD and DVD $250 for the CD and 2 tickets to the Celtic Woman concert in the Toyota Center in April. Okay, knock me over with a feather ... Celtic Woman in the Toyota Center? They're way more popular than I thought, and apparently it's PBS that's responsible for much of their popularity. I say that because that's the only place I've ever seen or even heard of them. But then, there's that sheltered life I lead ... But to the point, it augurs extremely well for Clay. And it's wonderful that Simon Renshaw is stepping up and out for Clay now. YAY! Oh, and for the record, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! And speaking of EEEEEEEEEEEE, where's my girl merrieeee? Oh yeah, only MOVING!!! I can't wait to see Clay with you this year, merrieeee!

Thanks everyone so much for the recaps. I'm having those for breakfast this morning and they taste like fresh peaches and cream. Slurp.

From Yahoo tonight:

And, There's a Kind of Hush, by Herman' Hermits? KA's favorite when I talked to her was Unchanged Melody. She said I'm gonna die when I hear it. And she loved the blond hair! Sang Crying with Linda Eder. Sang Breaking Up Is Hard to Do ... and Ruben walked out for the duet. Got a huge reception. She LOVED Suspicious Minds. She LOVED all of it. Clay sounded fabulous. Deep voice Clay was there too.

Just talked to KAndre. Can you handle I Like Big Butts, big band style?

And ....

Madly in love with the spoilers!!! And I know every one of those songs. A couple I never dreamed he'd sing, but JUST WOW! And the message I'm reading into one of them is just delicious.

If I heard Clay correctly in one of the interviews, he said he will sing every song on the new album, and a few others. I'm hoping those others include "This is the Night," which would be SO appropriate. I'd love absolutely anything from OMWH, but most especially Where I Draw the Line, Something About Us, Everything I Don't Need ... and, if David Foster is there, The Real Me! I'm TOO excited about this thing. Sat through one suckie meeting today with one more to go, and I felt bitter that I had to miss this for those people!!! But then I thought about my paycheck and changed my attitude. :medium-smiley-075: I was reading around and people are talking about dancers, and I swear someone speculated about The Girl from Ipanema. Didn't we have that discussion here a couple of weeks back? And we all agreed to NO F'N WAY?! I can't imagine that song would ever spring from Clay's lips, but it gave me a giggle when it was mentioned. I probably won't get free of work tonight until the show is nearly over, but I'm ready for news just as soon as the first fan talks. I'm not one who would willingly stay in the dark about anything ... and especially anything about Clay! Keeping blinders on is something I might think about in the abstract, but in reality I doubt they'd ever make it over my eyes. I don't think I even recall the meaning of "virgin" anything. And I want intricate details, like Where's Waldo?, and is he having a good time too!?

From that News & Observer article: I'm glad UM has finally been recorded and will be an official Clay Aiken song. And, I'm wondering if the special guests tonight could be the aforementioned David Sanborn and Vince Gill? Now I'll be pondering the Johnny Mathis song he included, and hoping it's Twelfth of Never. I remember being about 9 or something and the neighborhood cutest guy, about 17 at the time, telling me that "Twelfth of Never" was the most romantic song in the world as he listened to it on his turquoise transistor radio. I remember that I just had to have a turquoise transistor too! Perfect. And since he named Perry Como in the WRAL interview, I'm taking that as confirmation that "It's Impossible" in on the LP. Sa-WOOOON. And lastly, that hair. I have no idea how he's going to be styled tonight, but I know that he wasn't giving it up in those video interviews. But one thing is certain, no sideburns, and for me that's a BIG plus.

And you'll disappear at noon, right .....? I am so looking forward to being hollered at by you, KA. Have a party!