Penny Gilley Show, Tuesday filmings

Mary Jane Farmer | January 24, 2015

Bling on the backs of Johnny Lee’s and Penny Gilley’s shirts

Tuesday, Jan. 13, brought classic superstars B.J. Thomas and Johnny Lee to the Palace Theatre stage (in Grapevine, Texas) for another day of shooting upcoming episodes of RFD-TV’s The Penny Gilley Show. It also brought back the Rocky Gribble & The Texas All-Star Band, plus several others of incredible talent. Mikki Daniel, Abbey Cone, and Joe O’Conner. Those in the band were: band leader Rocky Gribble on lead guitar; J.D. Beckman on steel guitar; Ronny Ricks on drums; Bonnie Riley, fiddle; Curtis Jones on bass; David Walker, keyboards; and Jeanice Massey on background vocals.

Penny Gilley and her husband, Mike Stanglin, co-produce these RFD-TV shows. Stanglin said that this TV show band also goes on the road with Gilley for some of her road shows.

Grapevine Palace Arts, Convention and Event Center’s coordinator, Nadine Rodriguez, said that those in the band were all local artists from around Grapevine. She added that Gribble ran the Grapevine Opry for more than 25 years. Stanglin said that the steel player, J.D. Beckman, had driven from Minnesota for this gig.

And no event can be a success without the basic staff keeping it all running smoothly. Much of that was under Rodriguez‘ direction. “The people at the front desk were my event assistants. Prior to the event, my staff and I took numerous calls for tickets. Penny and her staff made all the arrangements for the taping. The Palace Arts Center supplied the venue and ticket staff.” Stanglin added that the CVB sponsors the project, along with Dr. Harry Anderson, a nutritionist well known to the RFD-TV audience for animal nutrition products. He recently formulated Total People Plus, multi-vitamins for humans and was on site. There are other show

Mikki Daniel and Penny Gilley

sponsors, Stanglin added.

Wonderful crowd again, too, all of whom seemed to appreciate the need for stops and start-overs on songs and narrations, and all of whom got into and enjoyed every aspect of the project.

B.J. Thomas delivered several of his top hits; Johnny Lee did the same, and added a song off his upcoming new CD; and another showstopper was local 18-year-old singer/songwriter Mikki Daniel, who also yodels America’s Sweetheart style.

All in all, smooth sailing for this day’s production.

For Johnny Lee photos, click here

For B.J. Thomas photos, click here

For Penny Gilley photos, click here

For photos of other musicians and activities, click here

For photos of Mikki Daniel, click here

The Penny Gilley Show project continued Wednesday; however, Scene In Town was unable to attend that third day. Watch RFD-TV for the airings of these great, classic country shows, which will begin in April.