Country Music

Well, you just never know how a day is going to go. We had our weekend days booked as solid as solid can be, but sometimes other things come up. For instance, a friend might text and say, "I have Alan Jackson tickets, can you go to the show?" And I might say, "Would love to, but we have family in town tonight." And I might mention the opportunity to my husband a couple hours later, and he might say, "Call her right now!!! You are going." And I might say, "But that's so rude to your family; I already told her, no, anyway." But, maybe that same friend couldn't find anybody last minute, so she might call an hour before the show to ask again. At that point, my husband might shout in the background, "Ha! I told you you were going!" And my friend might ask, "Who is yelling?" :)

It worked out that I was able to go to the show with my friend. It worked out that I also got to spend a little time with Buck's Colorado family. It turns out that they were going to be mad at me and stop visiting if they thought I turned down fun things to do just be cause they were going to be in town, lol! So much pressure from every side!

My thoughts on the show:
1. Alan has a TON of hit songs. To play them all back-to-back at a concert, I estimate it would take approximately three hours--non stop.

2. Alan is not as spry as he once was. He seemed a little stiff in his movements, and took a lot of breaks during extended musical interludes (he's only 61). But also seemed, low-key and personable. Lots of storytime with Alan; I thought it was cool to hear some of the behind-the-scenes inspirations for the songs he wrote.




3. His musicians are OUTSTANDING! I liked how they would spotlight one, and just let them fiddle, bass, piano, or drum their guts out (figuratively speaking).

4. He played "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" in September--hello, emotional deluge! It was so pretty how everyone held up their cell phone lights like stars in the arena (it really creates a surprising amount of light from such small circles, there's probably a Bible devotional illustration in there somewhere ;)



5. For his "Where I Come From" song, his tour bus (or maybe an Uber) drove around our vicinity and took dashcam video of all the important places that concert-attending people might recognize--restaurants, sports team logos, local attractions, even some construction :) Then he mixed in video of where he comes from. I just thought that was kind of cool and creative, to personalize the song in such a way. Also, the lyrics mention chicken, so I had to get a picture of that!



My first country music concert was with my bro-in-law-to-be at the state fair. Now, that was a great time! The indoor venue was cool, the tix were free (so nice of my friend and her family!), and the music was good, but that outdoor concert thing is special in its own way. Maybe next year we'll go country at the fair :)