The stage was littered with perfectly wrapped presents, four Christmas trees and two white rocking chairs. The evening began with a video of Keenan lip-syncing to “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and it made the audience laugh. When Lorrie appeared, she had on a sparkling white dress with her blonde hair pinned up. There were six musicians on stage with her. The performance began with “Emmanuel” and “Sleigh Ride.” The majority of the show was Christmas songs.
Throughout every song, there was some type of video playing on the large screens. The videos ranged from a journey through the snowy woods to early music videos and photos of Lorrie. She greeted the audience and proceeded to sing a medley of her hit songs such as “Sunday Morning”, “A Picture Of Me (Without You)” and “Watch Me.” She asked if anybody would remember them on RCA records. Lorrie talked about her past and how her father was part of Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and she always wanted to sing on that stage. In 1984, her dream came true as she sang her own songs on that very stage. Lorrie was able to sing the duet “Blue Snowfall.” “Thanks to technology,” she said as she sang along with a recording. “Grown Up Christmas List” featured Lorrie singing whilst sitting on top of the only instrument accompanying her, the piano. She described the song as things that she wants for the world now that she’s older and an adult.
During “Hard Candy Christmas,” Lorrie utilized the rocking chair on stage while sitting with a wireless red dazzled microphone. In efforts to persuade the audience to meet her after the show and buy an album, she said “If you don’t like it you can just give it to someone else for Christmas,” humorously joking about herself. In my opinion, one of the highlights of the evening was her rendition of The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things” as a video of a couple danced around on the video screens. She was telling a story of when they were filming the video for this song. It was a catered event and many homeless people showed up. About a $1,000 in food was given away and Lorrie said that we should give to the less fortunate. It was really sweet.
Lorrie introduced her band and told a story about when she was signing autographs with Pam Tillis and a little old lady came up to Pam and said she looked like an Angel while she told Lorrie “I thought you were dead!” It was really funny. Another highlight of the evening was the rendition of Ave Maria. Lorrie put on a long headdress. It was very captivating as it is a very challenging song to sing. Lorrie Morgan sure did accomplish her goal to put everyone in the audience into the Christmas mood and certainly spread joy with her renditions of many Christmas songs.
Setlist:
Emmanuel
Sleigh Ride
Sunday Morning/A Picture Of Me (Without You)/Watch Me
Blue Snowfall
Grown Up Christmas List
Hard Candy Christmas
Favorite Things
Carol Of The Bells
Silver Bells
Little Altar Boy
Tender Tennessee Christmas
Ave Maria
Red
Encore:
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Photos by Gus Griesinger. We would like to thank Greg Bechkos from the Seneca Niagara Casino for the credentials to review the show.
