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Concert to be Dec. 8 at Park Theater

Country music performer Pam Tillis will be bringing her “Belles & Bows Country Hits & Christmas Favorites” tour to McMinnville’s Park Theater Friday Dec. 8.

Tillis, who has gone on to achieve six number one hits and 14 top 10 singles since her 1991 hit album “Put Yourself in My Place,” will be performing an acoustic show joined by her trio for the McMinnville show.

“It is a little down home, I’ll be honest,” Tillis said during a phone interview. “I really talk a lot and a lot of stories and interact with the audience. It is a lot different than the high-energy band show.”

Tillis said she will be joined by two other female musicians that make up her trio for show featuring both her hits as well as Christmas favorites.

“This particular evening is going to be acoustic and I just have these two young ladies that play with me and I brag on them like nobody’s business,” Tillis said. “They are just really wonderful musicians and they are really young and really talented.”

Tillis, who also performs with a full band, said there was some logic in putting together an all-female trio for her acoustic shows.

“A real good reason that I put together an all-female trio is, you know my hit records were so female-centric with the harmonies and I needed musicians that could cover all those high harmonies and also great players,” she said.

Tillis said that while the acoustic trio show is certainly not sleepy, it is a little more laid back than when she is backed by her full band.

“It is just apples and oranges,” she said. “I love having the full band thing that I do sometimes and then a completely different show with the acoustic. It keeps it from getting boring to be just doing the same thing all year.”

Some of Tillis’ biggest hits include “Maybe it was Memphis,” “Shake the Sugar Tree,” “Mi Vida Loca,” “When You Walk in the Room,” and “In Between Dances.”

“I am grateful that the song ‘Maybe it was Memphis’ came into my life,” she said. “It is just really cool that the songs have held up as well as they have. ‘Shake The Sugar Tree’ is still a crowd favorite, ‘Mi Vida Loca’ is still a crowd favorite and I still enjoy singing those songs.”

Tillis said she also enjoys playing some of her more recent songs as well to give the audience a taste of what she has been up to lately.

When it comes to Christmas music, Tillis has undertaken Christmas tours for at least 30 years, she said.

“I have kind of become a Christmas song fanatic because I just keep discovering new ones,’ Tillis said. “My band says don’t we have 142 other Christmas songs that we can play and I go yeah, but I just found this one that you are going to love.”

“It is just a little icing on my tour cake for the year,” she added.

Tillis said that while she has some fun projects in the works for the upcoming year, including some soon fashion collaborations, she has particularly enjoyed performing in 2023.

“I will be honest, I had some of the most fun times on stage this year that I have had in a long time,” she said. “I have just had kind of a new energy and I just look forward to kind of building on that. I have kind of got my band in a place where I really enjoy, I think they are as good as they have ever been, and my trio I feel the same way and I just kind of want to build on that.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.mcminnvilleparktheater.com.