>>PREVIEW
MEMORIES OF HANK AND PATSY
Opens January 30
Lunchbox Theatre
Bow Valley Square
You probably don’t remember the moment you started to enjoy country music. But one day you heard Hank Williams admitting he was lonesome enough to cry, or Patsy Cline realizing just how crazy it is to love when that love will never be reciprocated again, and instead of simply humming along, you were reminded of someone specific and suddenly every word made perfect sense.
Marie Bottrell began singing country at the age of 11 when her older brother’s band swept through Canadian Legions and wedding gigs in her hometown of London, Ontario. It wasn’t until years later, after three albums and life’s inevitable breakups, that the co-star of Lunchbox’s upcoming production of Memories of Hank and Patsy really understood what Cline was talking about. Now 46, Bottrell is bringing years of country style and personal heartache to the stage as Cline herself, playing alongside Aaron Solomon as the incomparable Hank Williams.
Created by Chris McCharge and Colin Stewart, Memories of Hank & Patsy is a musical revue that uses historical narration to tie together the songs of the two legendary country stars. Backed by a live band, the production aims to capture the feeling of a Grand Ole Opry show, featuring classics like "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Crazy" – songs that still endure at least as much because of their familiarity as their abiding truth.
In fact, though she plays both the narrator and Cline, it is the truth of these songs that continues to draw Bottrell back to the character of Patsy Cline and to her audience.
"I’ve had nights where I felt like I don’t know why the audience is not responding back and I realize I’m just singing the words, I’ve lost my connection to the lyrics," she says. "(You have to) lose yourself in that lyric again."
As a touring singer herself, Bottrell empathizes with the truth of an artist as classic as Cline. Forty years before the advent of music videos or even the idea of a mainstream country music television station, artists had to endure more than just the often ridiculous marketing polish of contemporary country artists. Successful country stars may have to change their image at their label’s insistence, but it certainly beats having to change a tire.
"You had to get in your van and travel across Canada and the States, get lung cancer to get your name out there," says Bottrell, alluding to smoke-filled entertainment venues.
If the honesty of the genre’s original stars has been lost somewhere in the polish and overproduction of new country music, there is at least hope that the recent resurgence and posthumous success of artists like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams will keep spreading the good word of classic country to a new generation of the soon-to-be-heartbroken. In the meantime, Lunchbox’s 50-minute musical revue will keep toes tapping in the aisles. Honestly.
"If you believe what you’re saying and you’re having fun, the audience can’t help but have a fun time," says Bottrell. |
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