On Monday, Dec. 16th, 1996 I got an email from my brother, Wyatt, that mentioned that Bob Bennett was going to be performing near his area on Saturday, Dec. 21st. I was not aware that this concert was going to take place. My brother lives about two and a half hours from me and so I decided to go.
At first, I thought, "Hmm, it would be really neat to surprise Bob! I could show up, find him before or after the concert and introduce myself. I wonder what his reaction would be."
By the next day, I had emailed Bob's friend, Erick Nelson, about what was going on. He recommended that I not attempt to surprise him. His concern was that Bob may show up just minutes before things start or have to leave right after and my plans to surprise him would have gotten messed up completely. He encouraged me to tell Bob that I was planning on going and that I wanted to meet him. So, I did. I contacted Bob and through some phone tag and email correspondance we got plans together.
I took a friend of mine, Nathan Jackson, that Saturday to go with me to northern Georgia. The trip was nice and we got to do some goofing around before the performance started. My friend and I were the first people to show up at the church after the sound engineer and a lady who was decorating the sanctuary. After time unfolded, I realized that there was no need to be concerned about getting to meet Bob, the setting was not a huge auditorium.
A few minutes of waiting, the concert promoter and another lady came in. My friend helped them set up a table for selling tickets/CDs/tapes. I introduced myself to the concert promoter and explained why I was there. After some wait, Bob showed up! The concert promoter and Bob talked and shook hands. Bob looked at my friend strangely (I guess he was trying to figure out who he was and what he was doing there). I then told Bob who I was. He immediately got excited. We shook hands and I watched as Bob did his sound check. After a while people started coming in -- slowly.
Bob sat near the front of the sactuary, playing his guitar and talking to people. It was really neat to see that he was so accessible to these people. Bob would tell people about various bits of trivia. I learned that the photo for the album Songs From Bright Avenue was taken in a photographers studio near Nashville. The photographer took the picture by keeping the shutter open for 90 seconds. Bob had to sit there perfectly still for that period of time. The photographer shined a light on the different parts of the room. This created the effect of some areas having more "white" than others. At another point during the chatting Bob jokingly said, "Bob will be out here shortly..."
Apparently the deal was that the first 100 people got a free CD (Songs From Bright Avenue). This was to help encourage attendance. If I had to guess, there was about 50 to 70 people there that night. Not a big crowd and I think in some ways Bob was a little dissappointed but at the same time Bob seemed to understand all of the reasons, too.
The songs that Bob sang during the performance were (not all of these are in the right order):
After the concert, Bob signed CDs and he asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with the group. So, my friend and I went (how could we refuse more time with Bob?). During the dinner many topics were discussed. Many of the related to the music industry and how it affects Bob. Also, a fairly good discussion about movies came out as well.
It was great to finally get to hear Bob perform a complete concert (I heard him perform a few songs at a Michael Card concert a few years before). Bob seemed interested in people and was glad to see me. And, of course, I was glad to see him.