The superstars who never performed onstage

ELIZABETHTOWN – They say that in every life a little rain must fall and when you multiply it by the thousands who were at the Travis Tritt/Pryor Baird concerts Saturday night, it may explain the torrential downpours that preceded the entertainers.

Saturday night world-known star Travis Tritt who is a grammy-award winning country musician and also a member of the Grand Ole Opry along with appearing in several movies came to E-Town brought his band with him and was booked as the top entertainer of the evening.

Pryor Baird who appeared and was very successful in season 14 of The Voice came along as the warmup entertainer for Tritt. Baird has a hit song called “Beauty In The Broken” which he performed in January at his Grand Ole Opry debut.

Although those are some huge stars that appeared in the Elizabethtown sky, the superstars and the story of the night were the ones braving the rain and waiting out the storm.

The concert was held at the Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery in an outdoor venue. Organizers began to get nervous a few days in advance as the weather was calling for some extreme popup showers. The outlook was spot on and the rain first hit as cars began arriving to the venue.

Although the doors didn’t open officially until 5:30, people had already been lining up on Aviation Parkway and some who scoffed at the weather reports were being drenched without umbrellas. Others that had umbrellas were getting wet also as the rain was hard, fast and continuous.

When the doors finally opened, very soggy people began searching for seats that had puddles on the seats. Others who had reserved the grassy area and who brought their own chairs didn’t have a dry thought in their heads.

People began to check the weather radar and rumors began to circulate that by 7 the storm would let up. Event organizers were watching for lightning strikes which, if they would have been present, it would have had to be a mandatory 30-minute delay.

At 6 p.m. when Baird was supposed to appear onstage, all the equipment there and in the sound tent was still covered and the rain was beating off the stage and bouncing like kids on trampolines.

People were seeking shelter under available areas under tents, umbrellas and rain ponchos. Although it was miserable weather even for ducks, people kept a sense of humor even though most had lost a sense of sanity by waiting out the storm.

Word got out at 6:45 that they were planning to begin the concert at 7:30 which would be a 60-minute delay, providing of course that there was no lightning within 10 miles of the venue. In the span of 30 minutes, the sky turned to a light overcast and the rain had pretty much subsided.

It left the grounds looking like Minnesota resembling a land of 10,000 lakes. The grassy area in front of the stage became soft and muddy – and the pit crew worked with blowers, squeegees, rags and towels to remove every bit of moisture.

At 7:15 Baird appeared onstage with his guitar and wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans. He wasn’t starting, but just reassuring the crowd with his presence that the performers had in fact not left the building and that a show was soon to follow.

People’s grimacing faces and squinting eyes in the rain turned to smiles and laughter and one could only wonder if it was the 90 minutes of extra alcohol sales or a renewed joy that the concert would not be canceled.

As promised, Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery owner and creator Alex Munroe was onstage at 7:30 welcoming the massive cheering crowds and telling them that in fact, in moments – the show they had been waiting for would come to pass. He called for the Star-Spangled Banner to be sung – again to cheering crowds and within moments, the multiple sounds of solo guitarist Baird had begun.

By the time Tritt hit the stage, the crowd formed a type of mosh pit in the muddy grass and Tritt was in rare form please those who knew his work and those new to it. Both Baird and Tritt fit in to the small town – becoming small-town boys once again. They didn’t phone it in – They performed.

And that’s what you get when you can find the smaller – more intimate venues and the performers seem to actually bond with their audience. And with what the audience had been through and how they navigated the adversity – there was a sense of admiration that this southeastern North Carolina crowd was different. Perhaps forged in a fire that the performers themselves knew something about – getting to a place in their careers where they were in the spotlight.

Other than the traffic jams going home, there was a not a bad word said about the night. It was a total success in the small town of Elizabethtown, North Carolina.

The “Bairdites” and “Trittites” were not the only superstars making the best of a bad situation and grinning and bearing it. The attitude of the venue workers, the Elizabethtown police, NC highway patrol, and the Bladen County Sheriff’s Department, the Elizabethtown Fire Department, the local EMTs kept things calm and organized. The vendors served up some warm grub and girthy drinks and made everyone feel as if they’d hung the moon.

Jason Aldean was not one of the performers, but “Try that in a small town” was exactly what was on the minds of those in attendance thanking God this whole ordeal was in the venue in E-Town. People encouraging one another, buying each other drinks, making each other laugh and treating strangers like they were family. And showing the performers how much they cared about the music and how they so needed in this upside-down world right now that it would be their songs that could bring the medicine.

Thousands of soggy bottom people dancing their muddy shoes off, clapping until their hands hurt and singing along until their voices went hoarse. Now that’s a performance by local superstars.