Althea Parent
Cliff Erickson, singer and 12-string acoustic guitarist, was at Robson Ranch on Friday, April 8, and a fun time was had by all that attended. Cliff is truly an outstanding performer and entertained the crowd for two hours. He had audience participation throughout the night; the audience members yelling out artists and Cliff would sing a song by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Elvis, The Eagles, just to name a few. He also sang Billy Joel’s The Piano Man and played the piano. Cliff not only entertained the audience with his singing and guitar playing but also made the crowd laugh with his jokes.
During the show Cliff asked for men to assist him on stage so Jim Mitchell went on stage after the audience encouraged him. It wasn’t long before Jim asked his friend Gary McMahon to also assist himself and Cliff. Gary rushed to the stage, and they both showed off their singing abilities. The three of them sang Day Oh and did an excellent job. Then there was JB Spalding who asked if he could also sing. He joined Cliff and they sang Lion Sleeps Tonight. When that song was finished JB, who had a piece of paper in his hand, asked if he could sing a song himself so he sang Alice’s Restaurant, which he did quite well…he was definitely a hit with the audience. Of course Cliff couldn’t let the men steal the stage so we asked for a woman to assist him. After a lot of encouragement Connie DuBois joined Cliff. The two of them sang I’m leaving on a Jet Plane and Cliff kept Connie singing several verses of the song. Connie has a beautiful voice, and the crowd roared as she left the stage.
Cliff’s cousin, Steve Hudson, was also in the audience. Cliff told family stories, but Steve stole the show by singing two songs and then they had a yodel off. I think Steve definitely was the winner! Cliff finished with Proud To Be An American but sang two additional songs after a standing ovation.
Cliff comes to Texas once a year to visit his family and is looking forward to coming back to Robson Ranch next year. If you missed the show this year or would like to plan to attend the next year’s show, mark your calendar for Friday, April 7, 2017.