Fall River, MA (08/10/00)
by Matt I.
Even though I'd been swallowed up by the power of 12-year-old Billy Gilman's
song "One Voice" during the summer of 2000, felt the emotion in the song and his
voice as it unified those that listened to its message, I had no preconceptions
of Billy as a performer until I saw him on stage in Fall River, Massachusetts on
Thursday night, August 10.
It was "Country Night" at the annual Fall River Celebrates America festival,
and Billy Gilman was the evening's headline act. Oh, I have no doubt that the
musicians and bands that preceded him have great talent--I saw them perform too.
But everyone was there to see this little kid that had touched each of them in one
way or another with his one voice. Thousands of screaming visitors of all ages
crowded in around the stage by 9:30 p.m. Billy was ten minutes late in arriving,
forcing a mantra ("Bill-Lee! Bill-Lee! Bill-Lee!") to spread quickly among the
spectators. At twenty-before-ten Billy stepped out onto the stage and the camera
bulbs went off and the video cameras rolled. He was in his element completely,
never losing a note, belting out his more raucous tunes, and offering "One Voice"
to the crowd in a manner so disarming that I can't see how anyone could not have
been moved.
I had seen Billy go before the cameras during some of his TV appearances,
seen him flub a line or even momentarily lose a note beneath the lights and the
scrutiny of the closed set. He is, after all, still learning the ropes and
pressures of showbizness. But at Fall River he was at home in front of the
throngs; he worked them, he entertained them. "I hear y'all in the back -- give
me a big hoot-and-holler!" he demanded of his fans far away in the dark, seemingly
beyond the lights. He kept everyone involved in the show.
Billy is quick to tell reporters that, frankly, he's sick of singing "One
Voice," the song that made him a national sensation. He loves to sing, and he's
done this one a jillion times. But he sings it, and sings it well, whenever he's
asked, and that night in Fall River he finally made some sort of peace with the
socially perceptive tune that launched his professional career. A month after
the concert Billy co-hosted "Country Countdown USA," a Top 30 country countdown
radio show from Nashville, and had this to say of the crowd at Fall River's impact
on him:
"--I started to sing it, and I heard the people sing it, and so it just made
me feel all good inside, and I started to feel like, wow, everything that I have
done and have worked--and how many dues I've paid--it's paying off, 'cause
everybody was singing the song and it just made me feel so good."
Billy was lightning on stage that night. He kept the crowd interested
between songs with his youthful banter and his kindness and frequently told those
cheering him on how much he loved them. He gave a nod to the Clark Family
Experience who had performed before him, and for the show's encore brought them
back out to end on a rousing version of "Roly Poly." The crowd went nuts.
Shortly thereafter Billy was signing autographs and was just as kind in person as
on stage, taking a moment to say a couple words to each of his fans. Billy
accepted no comment from a fan without his characteristic and bombastic "Thank
you!"
Later, waiting for the bus that would take me back to the parking lot a few
miles uptown, Billy Gilman sped by on his tour bus, waving feverishly to the
thirty or forty of us still left on the closed park grounds from a window in which
he was lighted in blue fluorescence. That's something only a few got to see and
something Billy didn't have to do. He loves his fans. He loves his art. ("The
past two months have been an experience and a half," he said.) And his fans love
partaking of the phenomenon that is Billy Gilman. That night in Fall River will
be with me for a long time yet.
© 2000 Matt I., All Rights Reserved (09/12/00)
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