3,000 at SPAC Delighted by Country/Western Music

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, September 3, 1970

Whether country/western music was your favorite, Hee Haw last night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center had to be. It was perfectly delightful, wholesome show, loaded with some talented, real “pros” in the business and the nearly 3,000 attending enjoyed one of the best of the entire season. In fact, this pure brand of c/w music was another “first” for SPAC in this realm.

Backed by two guitars, drums and electric vibes, many of the greatest names not only of the current TV show, “Hee Haw,” but of Grand Ole Opry and the whole c/w field for decades, appeared and none proved a more all-around talent than Roy Clark.

Here is a young man who sings well, plays a fabulous guitar, is a real good comic and has a sense of timing to rival anyone. When he played “Malaguena” and a lengthy spoof of “The Great Pretender” intermixed with everything from the guitar sounding like Irish bagpipes to Spanish melody, Roy Clark was as fine a guitarist as has ever appeared on the SPAC stage and could give some sorely needed lessons to many previously heard at SPAC.

This performer could truthfully carry an entire show, backed by musicians, on any stage in the country and would appeal to a wide range of audiences. And, too, he is the type of entertainer who should be seen in a live performance to be fully enjoyed. His comic version of “The Great Pretender” was the very funniest musical number in all the five years of SPAC.

Junior Samples and Grandpa Jones and wife, Ramona, who plays a mean fiddle, also were excellent, as was Ferlin Husky, a last-minute replacement for singer-guitarist Hank Thompson, who broke his arm in an auto accident.

Husky sang a dozen excellent tunes, many he has made personally famous. He, too, proved a good comic and did some very funny imitations of other c/w singers which drew strong applause from a knowledgeable audience of this type of entertainment.

Curtis Potter opened the show with several songs and Archie Campbell served as master of ceremonies.

Only distrubing note in the show—and this is not a part of the regular Hee Haw lineup—was somebody in a shiny crushed green velvet suit called Doug Kershaw. He no more belonged with this top-flight country/western troupe than Charlie Chan and finally had to be literally interrupted in a too long performance by Campbell or he would have hogged the stage all night. Too bad, sometimes, that the days of the vaudeville hook are gone.

Husky indicated he will have an ABC-TV special, “Hody,” on Sept. 26. Let’s hope SPAC management invites the Hee Haw regulars back again another season.

Tonight the stage is dark and tomorrow it will be Guess Who at 8:30 p.m.