#OTD #July4th 1988
Juice Newton & Exile performed concert sets outdoors before the annual fireworks outside the Coliseum in #RichmondVA. Juice had flown in from Buffalo, where the night before she'd performed before a paid crowd of over 13,000 with Eddie Rabbit at a minor league baseball park where they performed their hit 1985 duet "Both To Each Other (friends & Lovers".
In Richmond, after her free pre-fireworks set at the outdoor 6th Street Marketplace stage, the Times-Dispatch newspaper noted her "versatility and spunk" and said " The #VirginiaBeach native can belt out a ballad, hold a note, and sing with the emotion of our greatest stars".
Touring all over that summer from Alaska to Alabama, 1988 was a big comeback trail year for Newton, who had last placed five top ten singles on country charts in 1986 off the album "Old Flame". In 1988, Newton returned to the top ten of the country charts with "Tell Me True" from her #RCA album "Emotion" and had a popular duet single with Michael Johnson released that fall.
#Nashville based #Exile who opened the Richmond gig, eventually became #JuiceNewton's touring backup band, and in 2015 , they even played together again on July 4th in St. George Utah. Septuagenarian Newton has since retired from touring, and has not performed publicly since 2021.