After a week’s cruise around the islands in Hawaii, we tried to sleep on the six hour overnight flight to Seattle, but didn’t get much. During Valentine’s Day, we flew to Denver from Seattle and got back to Tulsa at 4:25 pm on Feb. 14th. I jumped in the shower when we got home and got ready in one hour to attend the David Phelps Valentine’s Day concert at 7 pm! I arrived a little after 7 pm, parking in a no parking zone and praying not to miss one note! I took my second row seat, just as Mark Frie, the Director of the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center was introducing David! He also mentioned that David would be back for a Christmas concert on Dec. 19th! Liz called to me down the row, “You sure are cutting it close!”
David wore a black double-breasted coat, a black shirt with horizontal stripes on the front panel and inside his collar, pin-striped pants and pointed boots. The first song David sang at 7:10 was I Want to Know What Love Is!! David sings this song so perfectly! Wow! Virtuoso was the second song! I was busy taking pictures. All of a sudden I heard a voice say, “No photography! No photography!” I was shocked, as I did not know the policy at the PAC and assumed that I could take pictures without a flash, as I have done at all of David’s past concerts. If That Isn’t Love was just before the introductions. David said he was happy to Andrea back again & I was too! Also, Sherri, Jack, Chris Kimmerer on drums, Danny on bass and Charles on guitar were all present. After Arms Open Wide, David mentioned that they hadn’t sung this song for quite awhile. He told a story about someone had commented that they loved all the lyrics to his songs and asked him what “Nah, nah, nah” meant!!??
David said, “With love, there is loss. It is nice to know we can be comforted in the arms of an angel.” He sang Angel sitting on a stool unbuttoning his coat. He said that they would sing songs that they hadn’t done live before. Angel was one of them. He dedicated I Just Call You Mine to Lori. Everyone loved his version of this song! I told him, after the concert, that I heard this song by Martina McBride in the grocery store one day, and just thought, “David does this song sooo much better!” Andrea said she had the same experience and called David immediately to tell him how Martina McBride murdered this song! We both agreed that we usually like Martina McBride’s songs.
Liz was on her cell phone when David asked her, “What is that?” She told him it was her cell phone. He said, “You just couldn’t wait could you?” I knew he was teasing her because he had known her for years. “Sometimes a video gets put on Youtube, before we get back on the bus!” He proceeded to tell us the story about a guy who he embarrassed when he brought him on stage. He had been video taping the show. Products were next with Jack showing all the CDs, etc. David sat at the piano and sang a bluesy slow version of He Looked Beyond My Fault and then Your Love, which I had not heard live before! He told the story behind this song. Sherri backed him beautifully, as always! David buttoned his coat before he stood up in front of the microphone to sing Nessun Dorma. He started this song and I heard a knowing gasp from the audience. Standing ovation for this one! Then it was intermission time, only 15 minutes.
David was starting to sing Second Fiddle, as we got back to our seats. Unchained Melody also was well known from the start as signified by all the women sighing! Beautiful! This was a first to hear this one live too! David sat down at the piano again and sang and played The Love of God. Angel Band was done with Sherri on David’s right and Jack on his left, sitting on a stool center stage. David talked about Agape love and read from First Corinthians Chapter 13:1-8 from the New International Version of the Bible, ending with “Love never fails.” He sang Legacy of Love. He said he hated to say goodbye, but he would be back for a Christmas concert.
The last song was End of the Beginning. The camera police were no where in sight, so I took a few pictures. We gave David another standing ovation when he sang, “Three days later, he rooooose!” We were all still standing, calling out for more, and applauding, when the band and David came out to sing My Child is Coming Home for the encore! A woman next to me said something about pictures in the middle of this song, so I tried to tell her I would talk to her after the concert. Then she screamed at me that she couldn’t understand how I could break the rules and take pictures at a Christian concert! Of course, she left just as soon as she could. Wasn’t this concert about love? Oh well, I’m sure she’s never broken any rules! I had to laugh, as my husband is always telling everyone that I make sure not to break any rules! I guess when it comes to David I tend to bend the rules a little…LOL! At least I didn’t get a parking ticket!
We talked with Andrea and her grandmother, Cece, and also got some family pictures with David, some of her son Christian. Andrea’s husband’s name is Scott. We talked with Sherri. I asked her which label David was signed with now and she told me it was the Gaither label. As we waited for a picture with David, he came right up and asked me if I wanted to take a picture now, or if he could take a picture with a group now. I told him to go ahead, I’d wait. I said, “I see you brought your winter jacket” as I felt the bottom of the jacket, which wasn’t very heavy at all. I told him I thought he’d be hot in it.
After Liz took pictures of Charles with David, my friend, Linda took my picture with David. I told him that I had just got back from Hawaii and had tried out the Pride of America cruise for him. He asked me how it was and “Why didn’t you wait until August?” I told him it was better to go in February, when it was cold and snowy here! My husband & I planned this cruise almost a year ago and February is our anniversary.
I also told David I loved all the songs he sang from The Voice! I knew this would be a Voice concert! (I would have loved to hear Moonlight Sonata – one he did not sing.) Before long a man came to break David away from the phans, so we gave him hugs goodbye. It was a great concert, of course, and a great reunion with phriends, David and the band!
Pix on Flickr at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruthdaniel 
by Love Light Laughter » Sat Mar 13, 2010 pm31 8:25 pm 
For me, the more detail means the more you pheel like you're right there, so a big THANK YOU!!! phrom me.....and everybody else who's needin' themselves some David. 
, I'm so sorry about the Photo Po-po!! REALLY. We really coulda used many, many more pics..........if only they'da letcha. And that lady later!!! [**sigh**] Sheeesh!! She's one of the ones who's in need of "The Stooopid Prayer." Hopefully at your next concert neither the po-po NOR the poopoo lady will be close by. 
