Barbara Mandrell, July 8, 1981, UTEP Special Events Center, El Paso, TX

       There's no way of knowing for sure, of course, but I feel fairly confident that I may be one of only a handful of people to ever follow up a Judas Priest show with a Barbara Mandrell concert.  This was in 1981, when Barbara Mandrell was arguably at the peak of her popularity.  I wasn't then, and am not now a fan of her particular brand of country and western music, but I was, all those years ago, a fan of a certain red-headed girl from my high school named Virginia.  Virginia wanted very badly to see Barbara Mandrell in concert, and so, consequently, did I.

       My parents bought our tickets and drove us to the show at the UTEP Special Events Center---where the UTEP Miners played their basketball games.  They dropped us off at around seven-fifteen, forty-five minutes before the start of the show, and  we headed immediately to our seats, which were decently situated,  in front of the stage and a little more than half-way back.

      Mandrell took the stage looking beautiful---in an early eighties adult- contemporary  country and western sort of way---wearing a white sequined gown.  She was backed by a professional band and the crowd enthusiastically received the delivery of her hits, including "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed," "(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don't Want to be Right," "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool," "Woman to Woman," and "Crackers."

       I was prepared to begin the previous paragraph with a statement about how I didn't remember much from the concert, but the fact that I can recall so many songs is a genuine testament to Barbara Mandrell's ubiquitous presence on the popular music landscape of the late seventies and early eighties.  I have not heard these songs in over thirty years and I can still remember the chorus to each off the top of my head.  Not bad for a performer for whom I claim to have no interest.

       I called my parents after the show and they came and picked us up.  While we waited for them outside the Special Events Center, I'm pretty sure I got a kiss or two.  It was a fun night, though it remains to this day as one of the more unlikely shows for me to have seen.  Still, Barbara Mandrell was and is a legitimate star of Country and Western---she was inducted into the Country and Western Hall of Fame in 2009---and I don't have any regrets about catching her show when I did.