Rare Amanda Marshall performance steals the show at Oxford Stomp

It’s been 18 years since Amanda Marshall has hit the stage in Western Canada and the crowd at Calgary’s Oxford Stomp Music Festival spent every moment she had on it showing their appreciation for her return!

With her signature curls still intact, if not a little longer than we remember, she apologized for not being able to come out in a cowboy hat, but in her defense, she joked about just how BIG the hat would need to be to get it over all her hair.

 

It was a virtual cheering, screaming sing-a-long for the entire set … playing nothing but her hits, which is quite impressive given she only released 3 albums to the public.  According to Marshall, her single Dark Horse was quite heavily rotated in shopping malls and grocery stores across Calgary, so she fully expected the crowd to be able to sing with her … either the sound crew turned down her microphone for some parts or the crowd really did end up singing louder than her!

 

 

She covered the expanded stage from end to end and at one point actually laid down on her back to try to reach down to touch the hand of a fan in the crowd from the 10 foot high stage.  The stage was so tall that there weren’t many people up against the barricade, opting to stand further back to be able to see more of the performance as a whole.

 

Her extended high notes for songs like “Believe in You” had her bending so far back someone in the crowd may have mentioned something along the lines of  “dat gurl would win every limbo contest”.

 

 

 

 

She ended the set with a 2 song encore … the crowd actually started cheering louder when her drummer came out and threw some sticks out into the crowd, fearing she really was done for the day … but those that were keeping a tally of songs started shouting “Let it Raaaaaain” which hadn’t been performed and was quite literally the last song.

 

 

While the public hasn’t seen much of her since her since her third album was released in 2001, she’s ever so slowly sliding back in the “music scene” and the “public eye” with a few appearances at music festivals over the past couple of years, most of which have been in the East Coast.  If you want to follow her online, you can’t!  She has absolutely no social media presence with the exception of a fan run Facebook page … not even a website.

 

Her summer touring schedule consisted of the Thunder Bay Blues festival last week and yesterday’s show in Calgary.

 

 

She HAS mentioned in recent interviews that she’s been writing AND recording ( an ENTIRE ALBUM ) while she’s stayed out of the public eye and that the record IS being released.  It’s interesting to note that, usually, when an artist leaves the stage, they say “see you next time” … I’m quite sure Amanda Marshall said “see you next year” !!!