Sunday,
July 10, 2005 - The Toledo Blade
Country
Concert '05: 25 years of down-home music, camping, and camaraderie
By
BRIAN DUGGER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The
entertainers
As Barhorst chats in his RV, Tim McGraw grabs a basketball
and shoots some hoops on the makeshift court he has assembled
in the artists' bus area behind the stage. The court is complete
with a three-point line and a regulation-size hoop. Behind
his bus is his electric-powered car, made by DaimlerChrysler,
that he lugs around to his concert sites.
While
he plays a little basketball, the one question that's hanging
over the crowd that will grow to 25,000 by Friday night is,
"Is Faith Hill here, and will she take the stage with
her husband?"
"Faith?
Hmm, I don't know. I didn't see her," George Canyon says
from his bus outside the site's second stage after returning
from talking to McGraw.
Later
this week, Canyon will be returning to his native Canada to
open five shows for McGraw. He's a star in his homeland, but
in the United States, he is best known for being the runner-up
in last year's season of Nashville Star. After 14 years of
kicking around trying to secure a record deal, the exposure
on the show landed him a contract with Universal South. In
Canada, he recently won the JUNO award for album of the year,
beating out fellow Canadians Shania Twain and Carolyn Dawn
Johnson.
The
taste of success in the last year has validated his wife's
faith in him. For years while Canyon was trying to get a toehold
in the music business, Jennifer Canyon worked three jobs to
make ends meet. As George talks, Jennifer is back at the couple's
home near Calgary training horses.
They
rarely get to see each other. George tours constantly, and
Jennifer tries to give the couple's children a normal life
back home.
"They're
just very busy," George says of Jennifer and their son,
Kale, 6, and daughter, Madison, 5. "She's continually
taking them to soccer or some other thing."
And
he has learned one thing that most loyal customers of Country
Concert already know - Hickory Hill Lakes campground is where
cell phone service goes to die.
"It
stinks. I can't talk to my wife. I usually talk to her 8 to
10 times a day," he says. "It's really hard being
on the road. The first thing my kids ask me now when they
see me is 'Are you going to be here in the morning when we
wake up?' That's tough, but I'm living a dream that I never
thought I'd have the chance to live."
Canyon
is just one of the 21 acts that will have played in Fort Loramie
by the time Montgomery Gentry finishes their show at 7 tonight.
As for Faith Hill, despite chants from the crowd imploring
her to come on stage, she never makes an appearance.
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