The 7th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks was observed a little over a week ago. With good reason, whenever anyone mentions the WTC, the first thing that comes to mind will be the events of that awful day. We will always remember the victims and the heroic firemen, police and other emergency workers, many of whom became victims themselves.
Prior to 9/11, there were good days at the WTC. I recall those wonderful lunchtime country concerts held outside at the Austin Tobin Plaza of the WTC. From my office window, I could see the side of the stage. Although I missed quite a few concerts because of summertime family vacations or business, I still got to see many great performances.
Country Thursdays was sponsored by former country radio station Y-107 and some corporate sponsors like the NY lottery and Chrysler. (It's a shame that NYC has been without a country music radio station since May of 2002.) In addition to Country Thursday, the WTC also had Classical Mondays, Broadway Tuesdays, Jazz Wednesdays and R&B Fridays. I read somewhere that 2001 was the 15th year of concerts which were generally held from late June to the end of August. I don't remember them being around that long but my memory is not the greatest.
I got to see Suzy Bogguss, the Dixie Chicks, Terri Clark, Ty Herndon, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Phil Vassar, Big House, Trick Pony, Steve Wariner, Darryl Worley and probably others. Some of the acts I missed include Hal Ketchum, Lari White, Bryan White, Jo Dee Messina, Mark Wills, Keith Urban, Gary Allan, Chris Cagle, Toby Keith, Chely Wright, Tracy Byrd and Lila McCann. The following is a typical schedule I found on line at www.panynj.gov/pr/92-98.html that came out on June 27, 1998:
July 9 Hal Ketchum
July 16 Gary Allan and Mark Wills
July 23 Bryan White
July 30 Dixie Chicks and Gil Grand
August 6 Lari White
August 13 Big House and David Kersh
August 20 Steve Wariner and Suzy Bogguss
August 27 Chely Wright and Jo Dee Messina
I'd love to see the complete schedule for the entire fifteen years of the concert program. If you go to the website noted above, you can see what artists were scheduled to perform that year in the other music formats.
In addition to the lunchtime concerts they had Summer Oldies on Thursday evenings and a Salsa Dance Party on Friday evenings. I remember seeing Johnny Maestro of the Crests and later of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Boxtops, Drifters and Gary Lewis & the Playboys were also scheduled. I got to see the Tokens featuring Jay Siegel (loved "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") but I believe that was a noon time show.
Didn't we see Herman's Hermits?
Posted by: Kathleen | September 30, 2008 at 12:53 PM
Thanks Kath. We did see Herman's Hermits. I had totally forgotten.
Posted by: bob | September 30, 2008 at 04:00 PM