GEORGETOWN, P.E.I. — A vibrant celebration showcasing a mixture of classic country legends to tomorrow’s contemporary chart-toppers is coming to Georgetown.
“Opry Gold’’, a radio broadcast in 1925 is now a live entertainment show, and will be playing at the Kings Playhouse on Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Canadian songbird Leisa Way and her Wayward Wind Band have brought Canada many great shows, such as last year’s “Across the Pond (The British Invasion)’’. This band has toured Canada with other shows, including “Sweet Dreams (Patsy Cline)’’, “Rhinestone Cowgirl (Dolly Parton)’’ and its acclaimed “Canada 150’’ show that toured to 44 cities across the country, including nine cities in the Maritimes.
This new concert, “Opry Gold’’, raises the roof with the hottest country hits from the last decades, highlighting Opry legends, with Way’s usual trademark humour that makes her shows so popular — and telling the stories of the songs.
“Opry Gold’’ takes the audience on a journey back through time when Nashville’s radio station WSM became the first all-country music station, featuring stars like Bill Monroe and Roy Acuff through the rise of stars like Parton, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Cline, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, to today’s country stars like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and the Zac Brown Band.
“Opry Gold’’ is a labour of love for Way, the show’s creator, who grew up in northern Ontario and spent six years in the Maritimes starring as “Anne’’ in “Anne of Green Gables’’ at the Charlottetown Festival, as well as working for Neptune Theatre and Theatre New Brunswick.
As a child, Way remembers tuning into shows like Tommy Hunter and Ronnie Prophet, shows that her musical arranger and pianist, Bruce Ley, happened to be the piano player on.
Her band includes Ley, Fred Smith on guitars/banjo (who has shared stages with Gill, The Supremes and Chuck Berry), Broadway performer and bassist Bobby Prochaska (“The Buddy Holly Story’’), fiddler Nathan Smith (“The Barrel Boys’’) whose family is from Nova Scotia and Toronto big band player Don Reid on drums.
For tickets, call 1-888-346-5666 or go to kingsplayhouse.com.
