Turns out this was the farewell season for the Warwick Musical Theater up there in the Ocean State. They were packing it in after 30 years. And who better to pack the theater in than every country singer's big sister, Kathy Mattea.

To my surprise this was an all-acoustic show (translation: no pedal steel). I did notice, however, that Kathy had her acoustic plugged into a Peavey Nashville 400 Black Widow. The girl knows her amps.

The WMT is a theater in the round and as such it fosters a pretty intimate relationship between the artist and the audience. For the most part the audience handled this well; in some cases the audience was, IMHO, abusive. One woman kept screaming "Where've You Been" after each song that Kathy sang. As if Kathy had ever considered leaving that song out of her set. The two women seated beside me were lying in wait for Kathy to mention her graduation from West Virginia University. As soon as she did, these two "fans" SCREAMED "Go 'Eers." Apparently they also went to WVU.

The program included just about all of Kathy's great hits with the notable exception of "Asking us to Dance." Each of the three previous times I saw her in concert. Kathy said that she didn't intend to include that song but was so moved by the setting that she changed her mind. And she sang it. I guess the setting wasn't right this time around.

Despite some fans' "requests," she didn't perform "Harley," but instead offered another song by the same writer (her whacked out husband, Jon Vetner). I can't remember the name of the song, but the entire song was done in abbreviations. One lyric I do remember concerned an S.O.B. with a Ph. D.

Concert lasted two hours and despite the heat and unbelievable humidity, Kathy put on a great show. She was scheduled to perform with Steve Wariner the following day in Westbury and the day after that with Vince Gill. Wish I could have seen those shows.