Published October 04, 2008 11:41 pm - ANDERSON — Mixing old hits with tunes from her latest album, country music star Trisha Yearwood played for a packed audience at Hoosier Park Racing and Casino on Saturday.
11:39 p.m.: Yearwood plays to full Hoosier Park house
By Shawn McGrath, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — Mixing old hits with tunes from her latest album, country music star Trisha Yearwood played for a packed audience at Hoosier Park Racing and Casino on Saturday.
“Where’s Garth?” Yearwood asked rhetorically, referring to her husband, Garth Brooks, after the question was yelled from the audience. “Thanks for asking. No one ever asks that ...
“Hopefully, doing laundry.”
Yearwood, dressed casually in blue jeans and a long-sleeved, black T-shirt adorned with a red-and-white, heart-shaped yin and yang symbol in the middle, started her set with “Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love,” the first single off her latest album of the same name.
Yearwood, 44, then launched into “XXX’s and OOO’s,” urging audience members to clap their hands to stay warm in the cool night air.
“We are so happy to be here on this beautiful fall evening,” Yearwood said. “If you get too cold, dance around, you know.”
Before singing “The Song Remembers When,” Yearwood said it was her favorite song to record during her career, which began in earnest in 1991. She joked with audience, telling them she had recorded more than 140 songs — all but three of them ballads. But she promised to play all of her uptempo tunes during the concert.
Arguably Yearwood’s most famous song, and her first No. 1 single, “She’s in Love with the Boy,” came about halfway through her set. She dedicated the song to country music legend Porter Wagoner, who died Oct. 28, 2007, at 80. Yearwood closed her set about an hour and 15 minutes after it began, ending with the ballad “How Do I Live.”
Tammy Knox, Hoosier Park’s director of marketing and publicity, couldn’t provide a final attendance count. She said 5,500 chairs were set up in “The Yard,” the area between the casino and the race track, and the show appeared to be very close to a sellout.
“We like her,” Lynda Norrick, 46, Anderson, said with a shrug before the show started about why she came out for the concert. “Her songs, Garth.”
“And,” said Marvin Coppess, 47, Norrick’s brother-in-law, “she’s beautiful!”
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The ‘Devil’ and Temptations
The Charlie Daniels Band will be the next concert at Hoosier Park Racing and Casino. The band, famous for its song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” will play shows at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Terrace Showroom. Tickets are $42.50 and available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Shelby’s Gifts, inside the casino, or by calling (800) 526-7223.
The Temptations will be the casino’s December concert. The soul band will perform Saturday, Dec. 13. Ticket prices have not yet been announced.