Enthusiastic Crowd of 1,500 Greets Ray Charles at SPAC

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, September 22, 1969

Ray Charles’ appearance Saturday night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center must be cited for bravery as well as for sheer entertainment delight. The bravery accolades must go not only to the onstage performers but to the 1,500 shivering people in the audience, who ended up being probably the most enthusiastic audience of the past season at SPAC. Or maybe the wild applause and general animation of the audience was really all an effort to keep warm in the cold, windy outdoors.

There seems little doubt SPAC officials will never again attempt a late autumn festival weekend as they did this year. The damp chill of September in the SPAC amphitheatre setting is just too much for performers and public alike and gambling on Indian Summer balminess is far from a sure thing—even in Saratoga.

Ray Charles was making his second appearance to SPAC and proved again what a dynamic, versatile, magnetic performer he is. Backed by an excellent 14-piece Ray Charles Orchestra, augmented by three gals and a boy dance team and the melodic Raelets, he offered a well-balanced enjoyable show, marred only by the freezing temperatures.

Charles fans were not disappointed; he did all the favorites, ranging from “Georgia” and “Marie” to “Born to Lose,” “Crying Time Again,” “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby,” not to mention standards like “l Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and even “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

To prove just how wonderful Charles was, the small but appreciative audience gave him a prolonged standing ovation. Although Mr. Charles is blind, it was obvious he could sense this gesture of the audience and certainly the singers and bandsmen did, too, so the night was far from a disaster for those attending and those performing.

Yesterday afternoon, the festival weekend and SPAC closed officially for 1969 with a Country Music Jamboree featuring 12 acts. Included were the New Arkansas Travelers, Anderson Family, Lenny LaGoy and the Texas Longhorns, Jackie and Willie Judd, Roy Herrick and the Hilltones, Bob Hill, Billy D. Hunter, the Loner, Tommy Gene and the Kings of Country, Jerry Madore and New Prairie Ramblers, Laing Brothers, Spring Valley Boys.