Kevin Montgomery and The Road Trippers with Carter Wood

17th June 2003 ~ Ceol Castle, Birmingham, England

Another fantastic night out to see Kevin Montgomery & The Road Trippers! After a late start due to motorway traffic, Carter Wood started the evening off nicely with a selection of songs from her album, 'Unspoken'. For her last number, the band joined Carter on stage before Kevin played a few acoustic songs, including Cherokee City from his new album, 2:30am. The room was set out differently to last time. There were now tables with candles on, which gave the room a cosy atmosphere. I was lucky enough to meet up with Pat and her husband from a Mavericks E-mailing list' I'm a member of, so we sat together for the show.

The Road Trippers set began with 'Another Long' story', the title track of Kevin's last album. For the first time on this tour, Al Perkins played 'pedal steel' guitar. They joked that the instruments are hard to come by in England and that they travelled somewhere specially to get one on their way to Birmingham! Also on this tour, they were joined by a new guitarist called, Mike McAdam. He has played with many performers, including Steve Earle! Robert even said that he was nearly The Mavericks' guitarist in the early 90's!!

Both Robert and Mike had solo spots in the middle of the show - Both songs from their new albums! Robert's new album is called, 'Audrey in a Dream' and he played a song called, 'Carolina'. The album is currently only available at the shows from the Birmingham show onwards. In fact - Apparently, the CDs had only arrived that day from America!

Other favourites of the night included, 'Tennessee Girl' (The Pedal-Steel song!), 'Flower of My Heart', 'Cajun Song' and 'Bo Diddley/Not Fade Away'! Even though they started late, the audience didn't lose out one bit! They had about 3 encores and everyone was loving it and having a great time! Think the band were enjoying themselves too! - So much so, after some fooling around, Robert ended up emptying Kevin's beer glass out the back door! Not too mention the amusing 'sound effects' thanks to the legendary Al. Oh, and I can't forget the impromptu version of, 'Tequila'!!

At the end of the night, Kevin finished with, 'Fear Nothing' - With a little help from Carter and Robert on backing vocals. Afterwards, we had a chance for CDs to be signed, meet the band and have photo opportunities.

I bought a new camera a few days before the show, so it was the first real test for it. Still lots of things to learn about it, but you can see some of the results in the gallery. I tried to include the best ones!!

Thanks everyone for a great night! - Special thanks to Pat for asking Kevin if we could have the playlist to put on the net!!:-)