Fogelberg and Mississippi

From the Clarion Ledger:

Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg was struggling to be noticed in the early 1970s. He had grown accustomed to playing before audiences of fewer than 100 people. That changed one night in 1972 at a concert in Jackson. "He calls me up right before he's about to go on stage and says, 'You're not going to believe this, but I'm in Mississippi and there are 2,000 people here to see me play,' " recalls Norbert Putnam, a former Grenada resident and Fogelberg's first producer. "Apparently some disc jockey at an FM station in Jackson liked Dan and started playing his records during the late-night hours, and he cultivated a following down there. "It didn't take long for word to get back to New York, and Columbia Records started really spending money promoting Dan."

In a 2002 interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Fogelberg thanked his Mississippi fans: "Jackson was the first place my debut album, Home Free, broke out 30 years ago. My favorite memory was walking out on stage there. I've never headlined a large place before because I was always an opening act. So when I came out and everybody stood and started giving me a standing ovation, I turned to my road manager and said 'They must think I'm somebody else.' "

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