Alabama

Alabama
The Closer You Get Tour

		Randy Owen performing on stage at the WVU Coliseum.
SHOW DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1983 • 8pm
It's been 40 years since a trio of young cousins left Fort Payne, Alabama, to spend the summer playing in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, bar called The Bowery. It took Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook six long years of tip jars and word of mouth to earn the major label deal they'd been dreaming of, but then seemingly no time at all to change the face of country music. When Alabama first performed at the WVU Coliseum in 1983 before a capacity crowd of just more than 13,000 fans (they would headline four more concerts at the Coliseum in the ensuing years), they were the reigning Country Music Association Entertainers of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year and Instrumental Group of the Year. The average ticket price was $11.50. There was no opening act and the band stuck around after the show to sign autographs.
		Vintage 1983 Tour T-shirt