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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2003)
It’s Happening at Chinook Winds in May ... Mel and Pam Tillis to Perform by Teresa Simmons Comedy on the Coast Set for Holiday Weekend “It seems like just yesterday that I Mel Tillis has recorded more than left Florida headin’for Nashville, Tenn., 60 albums. He’s had 36 top 10 singles, in my '49 Mercury with a busted wind with nine going to No. 1, including Comedy on the Coast is set for May shield, a pregnant wife, and $29 in my Good Woman Blues and Southern Rain. 23-25, featuring a trio of comedians in pocket. 2002 marks my 46"' year in the A recent recording, Old Dogs with a 90-minute show. Cork Proctor will music business. If I lost it all tomorrow, Bobby Bare, Wayion Jennings, and open, with Gary Mule Deer as the I guess I could say it only cost me $29 Jerry Reed, was released in 1998. headliner and Jeff Wayne as the and it ’s been one heck of a ride! ” Mel Tillis featured act. Little did Mel know that daughter Tickets still are available for the Mel Pamela Yvonne Tillis would one day Cork Proctor sees the world a little and Pam Tillis concerts on May 30-31. make her own mark in country music differently than the rest of us. Perhaps history. Pam Tillis has been a formidable it’s because the energetic 70-year-old Mel Tillis started performing in the force in country music since her first comedian is dyslexic. Or maybe it’s early '50s with The Westerners while Arista single hit the charts in 1990. because his mind fires like a machine serving as a baker in the U.S. Air Force, gun that never runs out of bullets. She’s had 14 top five hits, including six stationed in Okinawa. In 1956, Webb that hit No. 1, and five of her albums have Pierce recorded a song written by Mel been certified gold or platinum. Tillis entitled I’m Tired, and it launched A first-rate songwriter, Pam Tillis his musical career. has had her compositions recorded by In 1957, Nashville was home to only artists as varied as Chaka Khan, Juice a dozen or so songwriters at best. Mel Newton, and Conway Twitty. Tillis became one of Nashville’s most She’s written many of her own successful songwriters in the late ’50s songs, including the No. 1 hit Mi Vida and ’60s, penning such hits as Detroit Loca, It ’s Lonely Out There, In Between City; Heart Over Mind; Ruby, Don’t Dances and Spilled Perfume. Take Your Love to Town; and Strange. Pam Tillis one of the first women In 1976, Mel Tillis was inducted in Nashville to produce her own album, into the Nashville Songwriters Inter and she received the CMA “Female national Hall of Fame and was named Vocalist of the Year’’ Award in 1994. the Country Music Association’s (CMA) She was inducted into the Grand Entertainer of the Year. Ole Opry in 2000 and currently can be Cork Proctor In September 1999, BMI named seen in a high-profile ad campaign for Mel Tillis the Songwriter of the Decade Easy Spirit’s “Spirit of Country” in Proctor didn’t try stand-up comedy for two decades. Most recently, he Vogue, In Style, and Redbook. until he was 40. But getting a late start received the Golden Voice Entertainer Shows are at 9 p.m. on May 30 and is nothing new for him. He joined the Award for 2001 and the 2001 Golden 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on May 31. Tickets Peace Corps at 66. Last summer, he R.O.P.E. Songwriter Award are $25-$45, depending on seat location. attended an auctioneering school and he’s going to start welding school soon to pursue an interest in sculpting. He also has a grant from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas to interview old-time entertainers for the school’s archives. The entertainment career of come dian and musician Gary Mule Deer spans 30 years, including more than 300 television appearances and nearly every major concert stage in the country. Early in his career. Mule Deer and his roommate, Steve Martin, began writing what became the basis of their comedy acts for years to come. Martin became a writer-performer on The Smothers Brothers Show and Mule Deer spent a few years with Epic Records. He's appeared in Annie Hall and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, and on more than 100 television shows. Mule Deer began entertaining at major casinos in Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City with top country and pop stars, including Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Reba McEntire, Ray Charles, Brooks and Dunn, and with Johnny Mathis for the last four years. He’s a regular performer on The Nashville Network. He had a regular spot on Hee Haw in 1991, where he introduced two new characters, the Right Reverend G.C. Mule Deer and Cactus Jack, Bad Cowboy Poet. Jeff Wayne has been described as having a face borrowed from Fred Flintstone and an attitude like Al Bundy with a brain. He's opened for Sheena Easton, B.B. King, and Jerry Lee Lewis. On television, he scored with Comic Relief, Showtime’s Full Frontal Comedy, Arsenio, ABC's Comedy Festival, Nashville Now, Evening at the Improv, Comedy on the Road, and many others. Wayne just completed his fifth tour of Europe. He’s built a loyal following in England, Holland, Germany, Swit zerland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The act is intended to leave ample room for improvisation and spon taneity. Wayne has two CDs out and is preparing his third. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; the show begins at 8 p.m. A no-host bar will be available. Tickets, priced at $12, are available at the box office. May 2003 □ Siletz News □ 27
