Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Talk about dedicated fans.

And a dedicated husband of a dedicated fan.

An hour before Friday’s David Cook concert at the York Fair, new friends Lisa Hickman and Kristen Wolfe emerged from the backstage area, one checking the photos on her digital camera, the other checking the photos on her cell phone.

Kristen is 29 and from Fawn Grove; Lisa is 43 and from Middletown, Del.

What do they have in common?

Both arrived at the fairgrounds around 3:15 p.m. for Friday’s 8 p.m. show and stood way back behind the backstage area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the season seven Idol.

They did; he waved.

And then came the best part, they wound up backstage where they met David and his band. That’s where they snapped the photos.

Kristen was attending her third David Cook concert and says “she loved him from the very beginning of Idol and has been following him ever since.”

“He seems so genuine,” she said. “When he sings, you can tell he feels it in his heart.”

What was she hoping to hear Friday night? “Everything. He does everything incredibly.”

Lisa was at her third Cook concert, too. Of course, it’s all her daughter’s fault.

“My daughter picked him out of the lineup last year when Idol started and said, ‘I want him to win,'” she said. She wound up rooting for David as well, partly because of his music, partly because he seemed so “kind and genuine.”

She traveled three-and-a-half hours to York to see Friday’s show with her friend, Kelly Simmons, who bought the concert tickets for Lisa as a birthday present.

The present turned out even better than expected. Both Lisa and Kristen also got a hug from David backstage.

Lisa’s long drive from Delaware to see Mr. Cook paled in comparison to Ursula Szatkowski, 28, who made a six-hour trek from Connecticut for Friday’s show.

She estimated Friday marked her 10th Cook concert; she really hoped to finally meet one of his guitarists, a guy named Neal Tiemann.

And though Ursula said she prefers David’s older music, she was also hoping to hear “Avalanche.”

“It makes me melt,” she said.

And Ursula’s drive from Connecticut paled in comparison to the trip made by Mali Mendonca, who swore she traveled to York from Brazil just to see David’s show because “he’s the best.”

To prove her dedication, she has some of the lyrics from the song “Time of My Life” tattooed on her left wrist. She got to see David backstage too and described the experience as “awesome.”

As for the dedicated husband …

Back when tickets for David’s show went on sale in late May, Andy Warren made the trip to the York Fairgrounds at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Tickets didn’t go on sale until 9 a.m.

The surprise: That wasn’t even early enough to wind up at the front of the line. Some people had camped out overnight to get prime seats for Friday’s show.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he said. “I was still within the top (first) 10.”

“It was him and a lot of girls,” added his wife Erica, laughing.

The wait paid off. Andy and Erica — the big David Cook fan of the two — were parked in front-row seats for Friday’s show.

What made Erica such a big fan?

Well, there’s the music, of course. And the emotion David pours into his music, Erica said.

And then there’s this: David Cook is a self-admitted word nerd. That appealed to the 27-year-old from York since she and her husband, also 27, are both teachers at Southern Middle School.

Some of her students … well, her female students … were envious of those front-row seats, Erica admitted.

Andy’s something of a fan too, partly because David is the first rocker to win Idol.

“And there was something about his personality that made him seem like a real person.”

As for her husband’s early morning at the fairgrounds … Erica agreed it was very sweet since she was still home asleep.