Amarillo College alumni Susan Gibson will return to the wide open spaces she once called home Saturday.
Gibson wrote one of the songs that helped the Dixie Chicks become famous.
"I love going back up there. Not to be cheesy, but that's where the wide open spaces are. Amarillo has the most beautiful sunsets," Gibson said.
Gibson will perform the song "Wide Open Spaces" with the Palo Duro Metro Chorus as they present "Under Panhandle Skies" at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. Then Gibson's band will play a set.
"I'm looking forward to the gig," she said.
Natalie Stephenson has been involved with the Palo Duro Metro Chorus for 32 years. She also looks forward to the performance.
"Susan's a delight to sing with," Stephenson said. "She's very down-to-earth, very gracious and so easy to get along with and to perform with. We get to be her backup on 'Wide Open Spaces,' and we're so excited."
Stephenson said the Palo Duro Metro Chorus does an annual show in the fall.
"We've been working for this ever since last spring," she said.
Other performers at the event will include Keith Reimer from McLean, a double quartet called B-8, a quartet called Star Struck and a gentleman's quartet called Dynomite.
Tickets to the event are available from Panhandle Tickets and at United Supermarkets. They also may be obtained at Randy's Music Mart in Amarillo and the WT Event Center in Canyon. Ten percent of the net revenue from the performance will be donated to Hospice Care of the Southwest.
Gibson moved to Amarillo when she was in the eighth grade and attended Bonham Middle School. She graduated from Amarillo High School in 1990. She spent two years at West Texas A&M University and two semesters at AC. In the fall of 1993, Gibson packed her things and headed to forestry school in Montana.
During her time at AC, Gibson accidentally took a Greek class."I thought it was conversational Greek, but it wasn't. It was translating Bible Greek. It was very interesting," she said.
Eventually, Gibson was satisfied that she had signed up for the class. What she learned still is benefiting her today, she said.
"I make my living with words," she said. "It was important to me as a writer to choose how I use these words. That class really helped me give conscious thought to choose my words carefully. I think that's an important lesson for any kind of writer."
Gibson said AC was a good bridge for her to get ready to move to Montana.
"A lot of the friends I have in Amarillo, I met at AC," she said.
Her first Christmas home from Montana, Gibson scribbled a few words down in a notebook, never imagining that the pen strokes she was making would make her house payment one day.
"I distinctly remember writing the lyrics to 'Wide Open Spaces,'" she said. "I absent-mindedly left the notebook on my mom's kitchen table."
A few weeks later, Gibson's mother mailed her a care package of the things she had left in Amarillo on her stay. The notebook was among the items. Once Gibson re-read the lyrics that she had jotted down, she put them to some music she had been strumming out on her guitar.
"My mom's care package was a gentle reminder that I wouldn't have got to go out on my own near as much if it wasn't for that care package," she said.
A band she played with in Amarillo for six years, the Groobies, also started Gibson on her road to success. Lloyd Maines, father to Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines, produced the Groobies' records.
"When we recorded our first record, called Wayside, it had 'Wide Open Spaces' on there and he gave it to Natalie because she had just started singing with the Dixie Chicks," Gibson said.
Once the Dixie Chicks got their hands on the song and played it for a few live audiences, they knew it was a success. They chose it to be one of 12 to go on their first album.
Gibson now lives on a quiet piece of land in Wayside, between San Antonio and Austin.
"I was looking to move closer to the Austin area, because there's a lot of music around here," she said.
Gibson now finds herself in a network of musicians.
"The musicians are its own community, and we share what we know about what we know," she said. "It's kind of like a family."
Gibson is not married and lives with her dog and two cats.
"I feel like I'm about as settled down as I'm going to get," she said. "I love playing - I sure love to play."
Gibson has advice for everyone pursuing a dream.
"It fell together like shuffling a deck of cards," she said. "It's so out of my hands. Do what you would do, and wait for the rest of the world to catch onto you."