ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR DAUPHIN COUNTRYFEST
Perogy-eating contest overshadowed by strong music
JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF
Bikini tops, dirty feet, painful- looking sunburns and of course, gallons and gallons of beer: Dauphin MB’s biggest annual party was once again a success as Countryfest 2006 drew thousands of people from all over Canada to the “City of Sunshine” to enjoy a weekend full of country music and good times for all.
This year, July long weekend was graced with great weather, talented country (and some alternative) musicians and enthusiastic campers. Acts such as the Road Hammers, The Cruzeros, and Fred Eaglesmith performed on the hilltop stage while Terri Clark (Friday), Montgomery Gentry (Saturday) and LeAnn Rimes (Sunday) headlined the nightly line-ups on the main stage.
Events on Thursday, June 29 included Johnny Reid and Brad Johner on the hilltop stage with the MTS Battle of the Bands taking place on the alternative stage. However, the excitement wasn’t really there until Friday night when Lisa Brokop kicked off the main acts, taking the stage in casual capris and a bright yellow tank top (the airline lost her luggage). Cheery as ever, she and her amazing voice still came through with a great show.
Aaron Pritchett followed Brokop, promoting his latest album, Big Wheel. The crowd bombarded the OBO security guards in front of the stage as Pritchett sang, “Hold My Beer.” Terri Clark finished off the night with her many well-known singles (“Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” “You’re Easy On the Eyes,” “Girls Lie Too,” and more) with a very “country” show that left the crowd wanting more.
On Saturday Joe Nichols (singer of “Tequila Makes Your Clothes Fall Off”) continued the country-sounding main stage acts, but something different happened when Montgomery Gentry took the stage. Although the band has been around for quite awhile and have a traditional “’90s” country sound, they seemed to shy away from it during their performance at Countryfest, preferring to play things much heavier than anything to be heard on their albums. Big and Rich were a big hit at last year’s Countryfest as they took country music to a whole new level with “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”; Montgomery Gentry seemed to be trying this same angle, though it probably hindered their show more than helped it.
Sunday night, promoting their second Greatest Hits album, Diamond Rio took a little bit of a slower pace but didn’t disappoint their true fans with their country classic songs, “The Middle” and “That’s What I Get For Loving You.”
LeeAnn Rimes finished the festival dressed about as “Hillary Duff” as a person can get. She pleased the crowd with country love-songs such as “Blue” and of course “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” from the soundtrack that made Coyote Ugly . . . well, Coyote Ugly. Rimes ended off the festival’s main-stage shows with a rockin’ (there’s just no better word to describe it) cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” which pleased both the older generation as well as the younger, because everyone can appreciate a great classic rock song. Sadly, however, it was not a very country way to end the main shows.
Of course, all of the headliners (and opening acts alike) were full of the usual country music singer cliché lines such as “back in Nashville” or “I grew up listing to real country music like Merle Haggard . . . ” or, finally, “This song really touched me when I first heard it.” Note: When they first heard it . . . not when they first wrote it. But what would country music be without the clichés?
Other weekend activities included a karaoke booth, perogy-eating contests and extreme freestyle Motocross. As always, the social hall was booming all weekend long and the shops and vendors were as busy as ever trying to supply thousands of people with food, drinks, and official Countryfest merchandise.
