Live music review: Mandy Barnett and Symphony of Southeast Texas delivered beautiful performance

I am not one for the symphony. I am just not sophisticated enough. I can appreciate the beauty, the symmetry, the obvious hard work to achieve the masterful levels of musicianship, but I cannot get lost in the glorious classic concerts any more than I can a massive, yawning festival. The historic Julie Rogers Theatre is home to the Symphony of Southeast Texas (SOST), hosting classical, pops, educational, holiday performances, as well as many specials throughout the year. On October 14,  the SOST welcomed Mandy Barnett, performing music from her Nashville Songbook. 

SOST (formerly the Beaumont Symphony) was founded in 1953, with a deep, rich 70-year history. The orchestra is made of up around 70 members from Texas to Louisiana. Chelsea Tipton II has been the music director/conductor there since 2009.

Barnett brought along her very professional four-piece band, dressed, and seated, and was backed beautifully by SOST. Arguably, historic country music classics are no great feet for a professional symphony, but there was no slumming here, just a class act by everyone on stage with perfect performances and crafted musicianship. Mandy Barnett’s vocals were astounding. 

I recollect the year 1999. Pre-smart phones, where people still watched music videos on television with curved glass screens, no one streamed anything except fishermen, America had impeached only its second president, and yet there was still an innocence forgotten.  While I didn’t watch much TV, I was taking in as much music as possible, and often let videos play while I was around the house. I had abandoned commercial radio a few years before, so this is how I learned of Mandy Burnett. Her song, “The Whispering Wind” was playing. I have no idea what I had been doing, but I know I stopped, moved to the TV, and sat down. The music was beautiful, she was beautiful, the song, the words, and oh how ever does she bend her voice around those notes, I asked myself.

I was hooked. This was a melancholy song which you did not hear much of by this time and is mostly absent in today’s popular music. It spoke to your soul, and betrayed emotions long buried under carefully hardened calluses placed across your heart you felt would protect you. It was as if Barnett just knew how I felt, and euphoniously lamented how she understood and knows. Her deep, full voice haunted the moment. 

This was a single from her 1999 album, I’ve Got a Right To Cry. I ran down to the record store (That is a place that sold music back in the dark ages before it all dropped out of computer-controlled clouds) and bought me a copy. I knew she was going to be huge. She is now successful, but not huge. The music industry, especially “country music” has abandoned sounds which made it what it was in hopes for growth in cross overs success lead by corporate greed. Along came plenty of pop acts, screeching vocals and bro bands who dominated the market. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone ranked “The Whispering Wind” among their “Top 100 Songs” of 1999. 

Barnett went on to record eleven more albums. All beautiful and true to the music she loves. She’s a Grand Ole Opry member. 

As usual, I was late to the party. Barnett gained attention in 1994 playing Patsy Cline in the musical “Always… Patsy Cline”, opening at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. She played this part four hundred times over twenty years. She has performed at the Grand Ole Opry over five hundred times. 

In 2021 she released Every Star Above, paying tribute to Billie Holiday’s “Lady In Satin”. This album was number one on iTunes almost instantly. 

Back to October 14… Built in 1928, the Julie Rogers Theatre is arguably one of the prettiest old theatres around. No matter what, you feel underdressed. While it was reinvented in 1982 and again in 2009, The experience of seeing a performance there is a step back in time with seating and viewing areas so full of space, art hanging on the walls, and the sculpted ornamentations rendering the building itself a work of art. There is not a bad seat in the house, and the acoustics are near perfect. 

The historic stage held over 70 musicians with Barnett front and center. The gifted singer isn’t one to tell too many stories but gives a quick education on many songs, leaving her rich, top-shelf voice communicate every emotion known to mankind. The sheer power of her vocal ability is astonishing. 

She sang old standards with a grace unmatched, and dare I say better and with more genuine emotion than many of the original singers. Linda Ronstadt, Conway Twitty, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, Tammy Wynette, and more were covered. Numerous standing ovations, and an unparalleled performances made it a night to remember. Barnett’s voice is a deep blend of power, seeming to rise from her feet and into the air, lifting the entire theatre right off the ground, with a smokey sweet, whiskey smoothness as warm as magic, healing, natural spa waters. 

I couldn’t help but notice how humble and at ease Burnett seemed. Even as her powerful voice filled the 1600 seat auditorium, there was an intimate quality as she held extended notes and closed a song down with a breathless whisper.

Photos courtesy of Mandy Barnett

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