By Carol Blalock

Business trips are never easy, especially when traveling long distances for boring meetings and walking endless miles at a trade show. But every year I make the trip to attend the Industrial Fabrics Show. I’ve been to Orlando, Nashville, and next year will go to Las Vegas, all in search of the elusive million dollar client. This year, however, I was thrilled to attend the show because it was just a sidelight to the main reason to go to Charlotte, NC on October 25th and 26th…LINDA EDER would be performing the same weekend!!!

I spent the day anxiously awaiting the 8:00 pm starting time. I left my hotel (about 5 miles from the Ovens Auditorium) two hours early, leaving extra “getting lost time” so that I wouldn’t miss a single note. When I arrived, friendly ushers rummaged through my purse, an unfortunate result of post September 11th events.

The Ovens Auditorium was recently renovated and will undergo additional renovations early next year. The seating was very comfortable, and I was fortunate to find my seat in Row A, Seat 103. A hint for first time concertgoers: when you’re attending a concert by yourself, you can get awesome seat locations!

The evening began with the Charlotte Symphony and an evening of “Trick or Treat”…six pieces having to do with witches and goblins, including a selection from Peer Gynt. Albert-George Schram was conducting…a delightful, congenial host!

After a brief intermission, the announcer said the words we all love to hear, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Linda Eder!” Linda came out wearing a beautiful floor length black gown. The dress had a square neck and black sequined straps. The front panel of the dress was black and the side panels were a sheer material with the same sequins as the straps. She wore a simple diamond solitaire necklace, diamond stud earrings, and had on black satin criss-cross strap sandals. Her hair was slightly back with bangs.

Jeremy Roberts (piano), Clint de Ganon (drums), and Dave Finck (bass) accompanied her to Charlotte, and the song list was as follows:

1. Come Rain or Come Shine
2. Someone Like You
3. It’s No Secret Anymore
4. The Bells of St. Paul
5. On the Street Where You Live
6. What Kind of Fool Am I?
7. I’ll Be Seeing You
8. Havana
9. We’re All Alone
10. I Want More
11. Gold
12. Don’t Rain On My Parade
13. Vienna
14. I, Don Quixote (Man of La Mancha)
15. If I Had My Way

"Vienna" was a very special rendition indeed. Linda introduced the song by reading from a letter that she had received. The parents of a little girl named Brittany Maier, of Irmo, SC, had written to Linda to tell her how much she means to the Maier family. (See Brittany’s Story) Linda ended the evening with “I, Don Quixote,” and then in an encore, performed “If I Had My Way.”

What an unbelievably moving evening! A very emotional experience! BUT WAIT!!!! I got to attend the Saturday night show as well! I was originally supposed to leave Charlotte Saturday morning, but then my boss requested that I attend a Monday morning meeting in High Point. So gee, darn! I had to stay an extra night; I might as well see Linda again! Saturday night I was in the 13th row…still a great seat! Linda came out wearing a black lace dress with a nude sheath underneath it. She got many appreciative catcalls in response to the dress. One especially vocal fan yelled, “Looking Good!” To which Linda replied, “Like the dress? That’s why I wore it!” She got a big laugh. A little later, maybe the same fan gave her a huge “wolf whistle”, to which she said, “Do I know you?” To which he replied, “I Wish!”

Linda sang the same song list from Friday night (no complaints here!) She had a little problem with “I Want More.” She came in early on the second verse, and half the symphony followed her and half followed Jeremy. A few moments later, she stopped singing, burst out laughing, and said, “I just lost my place…I’ve only sung this song about a million times. Maybe this means I should stop singing it!” A few people yelled out, “No!” She just laughed and picked up where she left off.

Linda mentioned that work was going to begin on her new CD, BROADWAY MY WAY, in November…something for everyone to anticipate!!

During the concert, Linda mentioned how much she misses Jake when she’s traveling, especially now that he’s at such a fun age where he’s talking all the time. She said that he can’t pronounce everything correctly, and one day walked into the kitchen and asked for some “ass cream.” She didn’t bother correcting his pronunciation because, “You know what, we might as well call it ‘ass cream’ because that’s exactly where it goes!” She got a big laugh from everyone.

After the show, Linda came out the stage door to a crowd of about 50 people. As always, she was extremely gracious and kind, posing for pictures, signing autographs and answering questions. In fact, she waited patiently through three tries as someone’s camera wouldn’t cooperate and refused to focus. Later at the stage door, she said to me, “You saw both shows…I can’t believe I screwed up 'I Want More' both nights!”

I left Charlotte thinking that if I could incorporate a Linda Eder concert or two into every business trip, I’d be traveling as much as Linda does (and have tons of new clients to boot).

Thanks, Linda, for a wonderful weekend business trip to Charlotte!