I’m envious of Kevin and Scott for Clint Black, Dan for AK+US, Leeann for Vince Gill, Erik for Linda Ronstadt, but most especially John L for Patty’s LSOL tour! Been a PL fan since “Chains” but I wish I was a more active fan back in the nineties, which I consider my lost Loveless decade.

And thanks John, now I got the lyrics to Yellow Brick Road running through my head!

First Country concert, Sara Evans and Brad Paisley’s Mud and Suds tour. Braved a New England blizzard for that one and would do it again. (and actully did, the following year there was ANOTHER blizzard in the same area Lowell Ma, for their second tour together.) Brad introduced Sara because the radio personalites could not make it through the storm. Then Govenor Romney declared a state of emergency and closed the roads when a lot of us were already in transit..Brad called us all crazy, thanked us for coming anyway and promised us a good time and renamed the concert “Mud and Suds and Snow.” He then read a list of Sara’s virtues from a piece of paper that he said Sara gave him in advance..Sara came out and thanked Brad and said he INSISTED on giving her all those compliments.

Sara opened with Rocking Horse from her Restless album, and I got chills. Brad and his band blew me away with blazing guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle riffs that easily matched anything I’d ever heard from Skynyrd’s Allen Collins or Gary Rossington, or from the Charlie Daniels Band for that matter.

During Brad’s set, he called Sara out and they did a very moving rendition of the song they wrote together, New Again.

The snow was really piling up outside and I was nervous about making it home in one piece, but I vowed I’d stay until Brad performed Whiskey Lullaby. I was a little dissapointed he didnt call Sara out again to sing Alison’s part, and used a full screen recording of AK to sing against instead. It worked pretty well though, and I am glad I stayed. Brad and Sara were both incredible, in their respective sets as well as for their duets during Brad’s set.

I’ve gone on to see Sara eight more times and Brad twice more, as well as numerous Alan Jackson and Patty Loveless concerts, and others as well. From them I have learned that Country concerts can be at least as exciting and entertaining as Rock concerts, and that Country artists are usually better vocalists, and that Country and Bluegrass bands are second to none for intrumental virtuosity.

with kellie pickler and taylor swift and jack ingram.

i fell in love with country music that day.