CMA Fest

2009 was my 4th CMA Fest. And it was by far the best yet.
I bought a ticket for the nightly concert on Thursday. Me and Kelly went together. After parking up on 7th Ave and taking a nice walk over the bridge to LP Field, we had to waste time before the show started.
When it finally got going, Brooks & Dunn made my life. Not only did they sing "My Maria", they sang my all-time favorite song "Rock My World Little Country Girl." "Cowgirls Don't Cry" with Reba was also epic.
After they finished their set, Reba came out. As expected, she was amazing.....for three songs. After finishing "Strange", she was interrupted to announce bad weather.
We had to evacuate to the concourse because there were severe storms in the area. There is nothing that hurts more than sitting on a concrete floor for almost three hours. Oh yes, a three hour delay. At least me and Kelly came up with a game. We counted 7. Haha! We stuck it out because we had yet to see Brad Paisley or Dierks Bentley. Had they already performed, I may have left. Around 12:30 am, the music got back underway.
Darius Rucker came out and rocked. Hootie!
Then came Dierks, who is HOT. I mean really hot. He's even better live.
Brad Paisley came next. He is an entertainer, and it's awesome. He can do some amazing things with a guitar. He can do a song that will have you laughing, and then touch your heart with a song like "Then." He and Dierks did "Alcohol" together. I LOVE that song.
Then came the bad news that Rascal Flatts had left early. Due to the storm delay and them having a show in Tulsa the next day, they had to hit the road. A lot of people were upset, but I can honestly say I didn't care much. I hate their new song and have seen them enough to know what to expect. It was a night full of amazing music and some awesome stories came out of it. Getting home at 4am was awesome too. lol

The best part of the night was the guy siting next to Kelly. He ended up having an extra ticket to Sunday's show....which he gave to me. I got a FREE ticket to see Kenny Chesney. Oh yea! Good things happen to good people I guess.

Now for Sunday, I had the same walk as Thursday, but was going it alone. I sat next to the same nice people and ended up chatting with the guy's granddaughter the whole time.
Things kicked off with Joan and Roxy from Army Wives introducing Jack Ingram. The only song I like by him is "Love You", which he sang, and it was awesome.
There were too many acts that I can't keep the order straight, but I think Montgomery Gentry came next. I'm pretty sure Troy had on eyeliner, which was not cute. He used to be hot, but now, not so much. Their set was good. "Gone" was awesome and really got the crowd going.
Miranda Lambert was next. Me and the girl next to me were jamming out. I absolutely love her. She's got the whole angry girl music thing down, and it rocks. Wish she had sang "More Like Her" though, but oh well.
Oh! Heidi Newfield did an acoustic performance which was pretty good. I like the harder version of "Johnny and June" but it was still good.
John Rich did a few songs. Now, I'm not a huge fan of his, but "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" always gets a crowd going. He also brought out Cowboy Troy, whom I LOVE.
Let's see...Oh! Taylor Swift was next. And I swear, I've never heard so many screaming kids. It was really cute to see them get all excited. She was a lot better this time than when I saw her opening for Rascal Flatts in the fall. She did an AMAZING arrangement with "You're Not Sorry", which I already loved. She mixed it up with "What Goes Around" by Justin Timberlake. I don't think a lot of the people there liked it, but I was very impressed.
The special guest for the night was Sugarland. Talk about awesome. Jennifer Nettles is amazing. When she sang "Stay" it got me teared up, as usual. "Settlin' " live is even better than on the album. I was really glad I finally got to see them live though because I've wanted to for awhile now.
Now, the moment I had waited all night for had arrived. Kenny Chesney That man is a true entertainer. "Beer In Mexico," "Summertime," "Went Out Last Night." Best opening three songs of a set EVER. I was rockin' and had hardly no voice left. He played 7 or 8 songs I think. He just wanted to play and you could tell because he kept saying "We just wanna hang out with y'all." And I had no problem with that at all. I think his tractor is mucho sexy!
Once again, I thanked the guy that had given me the ticket. He absolutely made my life. It's nice to know that there are still really decent people out there. I hope he, his wife, and their granddaughter enjoyed the rest of their trip. I got home Sunday night around 2am. Needless to say, it was a weekend of great music with some great people, plus we had some fun up in Clarksville in the pool, watching hockey, eating amazing beer dip, getting sunburnt,a dn seeing Star Trek again. I've got some pretty good friends. And I'm pretty glad Ciara had to take a driving class and got to come hang out for the weekend.