Report

When at the end of the weekend USA MEETS GERMANY we had packed up the whole stuff in our cars, we looked at each other and said: "Extremely hard, but extremely wonderfull."

On Friday Febr. 28th 2003 sixteen american guests came to Germany during their European tour organized by Western Heart Promotion. Immediately after their arrival, we heard that one of the musicians (Tom Cunningham) had been bitten by a cat and stood in the Berlin Charité suffering from severe blood poison. Thank God he feels better now (the doctors had already discussed to amputate his arm). In spite of this accident the welcome was very heartly. All the artists sitting in the Little Opry Saloon immediately felt like beeing home.

At 7.00 pm the show should have started and our blood pressure was rising minute by minute. For DJ Woelckchen and DJ Tex it was the first time doing a moderation in German as well as in English. There were also numerous technical problems like guitar amplifyers, different voltage and missing cables to be solved.

At 7.00 pm all guests walked into the saloon awaiting the show to start. Even if there were some soundproblems: The event was a great success. Artists like Hart & Soul, Pamela Anton, Robin Right, Troy Lee Combs, Stevie Cee, David Cline, Keith Magel, Andy Rivers, Bill Dawg Moore, Butch Carrie and Ted Snyder showed (either by half playback or with musicians) how simple it can be to present great country music. They presented different kinds of country styles like cowboy yodel, Texas swing and new country music, quick danceable songs as well as soft ballads.

All the guests as well as the artists were fascinated about this evening, which you could see especially at the promotion stand.

After organizing a sight seeing tour through Berlin with parts of the crew on Saturday (the Americans loved to see locations like the old Checkpoint Charlie as well as the Ku'damm), the second show on Saturday night was waiting. This event was sold out, too.

A big thanks to Bronco, who made it possible to solve the Friday sound problems by organizing a new pa. DJ Marvin and DJ Tyxi worked at the light on stage. This evening became a great success, too.

On Sunday there was a farewell matinee in the Little Opry Saloon visited by some musicians from Berlin and Brandenburg and a reporter of the Berlin magazine Countryfreund. It's a pity that only a few of the invited guests took the chance to listen to the American artists. Especially the daily newspapers missed a chance to show the reality of the country scene to their readers.

It was hart to say farewell at Sunday evening, but the manager of Western Heart Promotion, Gary Bradshaw, promised, that this surely wouldn't have been their last trip to the Little Opry Saloon. Some of the artists already imagined to visit Schönow after one of their performances in Europe. You find more details concerning the artists on our homepage.

Country Music Entertainment, Western Heart Promotion and Country Special Radio Berlin say a big "thank you" to all helping hands who made this great weekend come true.