Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 14

B6 LIFESTYLE Decatur, Illinois Friday, July 21 1995 4 Voodoo Nights' will debut in Decatur Moultrie-Douglas County Fair IIP 'ilil priir By DAVID BURXE Staff Writer said, 'I sit out in the audience and say, "Would I pay $25 to see this?" If the answer is no, it's adios, throw it That's why he won't just be sitting there and performing although his sit-down performance did enthrall a crowd of 200 during a private party Tuesday night for backers of the concert and friends of the Lincoln. If the shows go to Hunter's liking, they may be turned into part of his next album. A digital audio tape recorder will be rolling both nights, he said. He's already released two albums for IRS Media, whose president is Miles Copeland, brother of former Police band member Stewart Copeland. "I met to talk to (Copeland), WHAT: Steve Hunter's "Voodoo Nights" WHERE: Lincoln Square Theatre, Decatur WHEN: 8 p.m.

Friday, Jury 28, and Saturday, Jury 29 TICKETS: $12 in advance from GB's Tapes and CDs, Old Book Barn, Just a Couple of Cards, Linda's Music, Sound-check Music and all Decatur radio stations; $15 at door. DECATUR If everything would have gone as planned, the number guitarist Steve Hunter is performing next week at the Lincoln Square Theatre would have been performed in 1980 at the Roxy nightclub in Los Angeles. "Then, we started looking at the budget," said Hunter, 47, who scrapped the project then but kept it in mind. "Voodoo Nights" is among the pieces Hunter a Decatur native who has performed with Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bette Midler and Meat Loaf, among others will premiere next week in a benefit for the Lincoln. "It started out as a blues revue," said Hunter, who's been I Daron Norwood John and Audrey Wiggins ttXfl 12 file photo RETURNING: Steve Hunter plays the Lincoln in March.

Ballad isn't quite all Norwood hoped By DAVID BURKE Staff Writer and he's ready to do it," Hunter said. "Maybe it'll be great and be a good tape. I'd like to put one or two on the next album. "And it'll say, 'Live from the Lincoln Theatre, Decatur, PrtTOTOUCH: Win tickets to "Voodoo Nights." Answer four questions about Steve Hunter, his movie scores and the artists with whom he has performed. Three sets of tickets will be given away, and those playing must call by noon Wednesday, July 26.

If you answer correctly, we'll get your phone number. Call 475-7000, Category 2000. back in his hometown for a week. "I wanted to see a show like the old-time revues. There was a vibe about that kind of show." He had planned "everything from Havana to blues and jazz." Hunter's show is broken down into two sets.

The first features five horn players, one keyboard player, a bass, drummer and another guitar. All but one song is instrumental. The second set is all blues, from Delta blues to a Stevie Ray Vaughan style. Anywhere from three to nine band members will join him. "Every song, you don't know what's going to happen," he said.

Two songs will be full production numbers. "Voodoo Nights" will feature a New Orleans-Cajun style dance, and a '40s-style production number will accompany a medley of "Town Without Pity" and the "Perry Mason" theme. Both are choreographed by Katherine Penning, a Millikin University student who's also an intern with the Lincoln Theatre. Rather than just a concert, Hunter opted for a full theater performance, something he learned in years of playing with Alice Cooper's band. "One time I asked him, 'How do you know it's going to Hunter recalled.

"He Movie Review and is in the process of writing and recording songs for a third CD. "We were real proud of our second CD, but we have to back up and look at it," he said. "We need to look at where things are in country and where I fit in." His record label is pushing him for more of a traditional country sound, Norwood said. "I'm ready to go with whatever they want me to do," he said. "The sound will be a little bit more like my first CD, which was more straightforward country." Once the 29-year-old Texan regroups, he says he'll be ready to go, with some new producers adding to the mix he hopes will turn into stardom.

"It's kind of like a football team," Norwood said. "You change the quarterback or you change the coach or any one of the players, and it's going to make a difference in how the team plays. You find the right combination, they start to play together and you've eventually got a winning team. "What I'm doing right now is dropping back five to punt." Daron Norwood is in a quandry. He'll play his newest single, "My Girl Friday," at concerts, and crowds rise to their feet.

Radio station programmers tell him how hot the song is. Yet, neither of those good signs have translated into success for the song a ballad the divorced Norwood co-wrote about having custody of his daughter on weekends on industry-magazine charts. "Regionally, it did fine. And I can almost guess that at the end of the show that it'll work real well," Norwood said in a phone interview from Green Bay, Wis. "It's hard right now, because there are a lot of artists, a lot of people out there.

But I feel great, and I'm ready to roll the dice again." Norwood will perform at the Moultrie-Douglas County Fair in Arthur on Saturday night. "My Girl Friday" comes from his second album, "Ready, Willing and Able," which also included the song "Bad Dog, No Biscuit." He said he won't be releasing any more singles off the album Tree Willy 2' no whale of a tale ACE HYDRO-CLEAN RESIDENTIAL Clean all types of siding Remove paint and graffiti Remove loose, flaking pai.it Mobiles homes, boat hulls COMMERCIAL Clean degrease drive-thrus Clean sidewalks Clean dumpster grease pits Clean all concrete bricks CALL DON ASAY By DESMOND RYAN Knight-Ridder Writer Two years ago, "Free Willy" turned into one of the sleeper hits of the summer. If nothing else, this formula family fare proved that when you run FREE ESTIMATES INSURED SALE The boys' natural mother has just died, but "Free Willy 2" is not the kind of film that can teach children about coping with loss or reach them on anything but the most superficial level. The running time is filled out with lots of swimming and diving. About halfway through, when the screenwriter who was still awake decided that something ought to happen, the tanker with the dangerous single hull and single-minded captain hits a reef.

Thanks to villains that make the guys on the Exxon Valdez look like environmentalists, "Free Willy" turns into the Big Spill, and Willy and his pals are soon slimed in oily gunk that threatens their survival. Being a human actor in a movie like "Free Willy 2" is a thankless proposition. The whales recruited for the picture are stunning and awesome creatures that make you forget everything else, which is not such a bad thing. Kids who aren't too demanding will find "Free Willy 2" passable entertainment, but don't go expecting a whale of a time. out of boy-meets-dog, boy-meets-horse and boy-meets-wolf with little left but the grim prospect of boy-meets-armadillo, an exercise in whale bonding is a promising alternative.

Now comes "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home," a movie with all the vitality of a beached whale. Jason James Richter returns as Jesse, the emotionally troubled kid who liberated the emo WIDE SELECTION OF INDOOR John and Audrey Wiggins make their daddy proud AND OUTDOOR MODELS ON DISPLAY Richter He's back i Movable 3 The Best is Spas By JIM PATTERSON Associated Press Writer tionally troubled Willy in "Free Willy." His contented summer vacation with his foster parents is disrupted by the arrival of his half brother, who is, of course, emotionally troubled and ripe for whale therapy. THE TUD nOOfJ SatosServiceln statist kmSupplies 2540 N. M.L. King Jr.

Decatur erms Don't Have To Be Kinky A The law follows Lollapalooza jf Today perms can do anything Knight-Ridder News Service WHAT: Moultrie-Douglas County Fair WHERE: Arthur TODAY: John Audrey Wiggins, 8 p.m. SATURDAY: Daron Norwood, 8 p.m. TICKETS: Everyone over age 6, $8 a person. There's also a $2 entry fee to the fairgrounds. $55 Cut Perm till 80795 $35 concert in Seattle, Wash.

The Widow Cobain faces an Aug. 14 arraignment. Meanwhile, David Yow, lead singer of Jesus Lizard, was arrested at Tuesday's concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, after dropping trou and inviting his listeners to do likewise in what he called Lollapalooza 95 may not have Si-nead O'Connor, but it has legal action. Courtney Love was ordered Wednesday to appear in a Washington state court to answer charges that she slugged Kathleen Hanna of the band Bikini Kill backstage at the opening July 4 Call Kim or Ginger Today for Details 423-7772 be Main Place Hair Salon 1101 W. Main Parking behind LSB Two years later, John C.

con rggs si dJ Hir ussr yjKw- 17 31 NASHVILLE, Tenn. The story of a singing bus driver and the children for whom he sacrificed his career might make a great country song some day. And John Wiggins, half of country music's only major label brother-sister duet, has the credentials to write it. His name is on four songs on John and Audrey Wiggins' debut on Mercury Records and the story is theirs. "It was almost like a sacrifice," said Audrey Wiggins of the death of 56-year-old John C.

Wiggins nearly two years ago, "because our father was so instrumental in our music." Their father's adventures on the road with Ernest Tubb became gospel to John and Audrey as they were growing up. They heard over and over the stories of their father opening shows for the Texas Troubadour and ferrying the band from stop to stop in their tour bus. One day in the mid-1960s, John C. returned to his home in Waynesboro, N.C., and found that his 5-year-old, John, didn't seem to know him. "He had been on a 52-day run with Ernest Tubb," recalled the younger John.

"I don't remember this, but he said he pulled up and got out of the bus and hollered at me, and he said I ran from him. And he said that's when he knew it was time to leave it." The story of the sacrifice and lesson it imparted was clear: "If you really want to give your career 100 percent of yourself, just stay single," Audrey said. "Not to sound negative, but he chose raising his kids over his career." And so 32-year-old John and 27-year-old Audrey remain single. They first moved to Nashville together with singer Clinton Gregory in 1987 after Audrey graduated from high school. In the meantime, John briefly attended college and trained as a welder.

John C. encouraged them all the way, thinking so far ahead that he was already warning John and Audrey about the inevitable fall after stardom hits. John worked variously at a celebrity car museum, did welding jobs and drove a bus for rock guitarist Henry Lee Summer. Audrey worked at a country music wax museum. They performed a showcase that nobody attended.

It was clear they were getting nowhere. After two years, John and Audrey retreated to North Carolina but not because they were giving up. "We decided to move home and work real hard and practice and polish up on everything," Audrey said. "Clinton got a record deal with Step One Records and started doing really good," John said. "Well, the people who knew us were like, 'Clinton's doing good, what are 11 ri 1 11 1 1 Mmnm vinced his son that his songwriting had improved enough to give it another try.

This time John and Audrey did things differently. They preferred living in the country but decided that being out of town had held them back. "We moved right here to the heart of Music Row, and that's when things started happening for us," Audrey said. Charlie Andrews, a music industry attorney for producers Joe Scaife and Jim Cotton (Billy Ray Cyrus), was a neighbor. "I was afraid to listen to their tape because they were such good neighbors," Andrews said.

"I didn't want to hurt their feelings if it wasn't any good." But Andrews heard the music whether he wanted to or not, since it came through the walls. He introduced them to Scaife and Cotton, who persuaded Mercury, Cyrus' record label, to take on the Wigginses. The album they produced mixed John's more traditional material with what he calls songs that "cover the spectrum of what country music is." "We are very careful about the selection of songs," John said. "We don't do any duets that we sing to each other, you know, like the old Conway and Loretta stuff. You just can't do that as brother and sister." Everything was falling into place when John C.

died in a car accident in January 1993. "You know," Audrey said, "he found out we had the record deal, and he did hear a few songs on the album. But it was so weird, it was like right when our music took off, we lost our daddy. It was almost like the Lord will give you something big and then he'll take something big away from you. "But losing him just made us want it even more so." John and Audrey say their second album may include a tribute to the singing bus driver.

"I've been thinkin' a lot about that," John said. "I'd want it to be something positive and not something sad." Save 18 to 57 on one hot item after another! UJfmiUJ'HBl IK;.