I giddily let all of my classes know that I was heading off to Nashville last Friday night. But I began to doubt that I was actually heading to Nashville when I arrived at the airport and found out that weather or something had backed up planes at O’Hare Airport in Chicago and my flight was going to be at least an hour and a half late - too late for my Nashville connection. But I pushed them a little and they re-routed me through Dallas. Bit out of the way between Iowa and Nashville but at least I finally made it to Music City at midnight.
After spending the day exploring and shopping, I got ready for an early meet-up of some of my favorite Keith-loving ladies (and a few gents as it turned out). It was so great to see friends met at previous shows, meet friends I only knew from online, take lots of photos and share our excitement about the evening ahead. Thanks to Twiggy for organizing the gathering - how lucky we were that she has “connections” and so thoughtfully made some special requests for her buddies visiting her hometown. And how lucky we were to have Tammy use her special artistic talents to make us all very special mementos of the evening. I loved Tammy and Kelsey’s “Keith” pants and wished I had the figure to wear something like that - LOL. We were all excited about their upcoming BSE and loved the book Kelsey had made to give to Keith. Thank you to everyone in our little (or not so little) “fan family” - it was such a treat to spend some time with you all!! May we have many more times together!
I had never been to the Sommet Center before - a nice medium size arena. I had bought a single row 26 seat in the center floor from another member of the fan club. I was quite happy with my view during Sugarland. I am liking them more every time I see them and I danced up a storm during their set, tipsy not on alcohol but just on the joy of having a wonderful time. But what was a fine distance for Sugarland felt too far away for Keith, so during the break I decided to see if Security was letting floor folks move forward. First I tried walking up the right aisle but the female guard there was very strictly checking every ticket and only letting those in the first 10 rows or so approach the stage. She sent me back towards row 26. So then I tried the center aisle. No security guard there, but they had set up the rows of chairs in such a way that they blocked access to the front. I finally found a place to slip between chairs to where there were many empty seats. I was hoping that some of those seats had been abandoned by those now standing by the edge of the stage and would not be used for the rest of the show. Happily that turned out to be the case! So I was just 3 or 4 people away from the end of the catwalk - a perfect spot (except for the drunken woman next to me who fell on me several times).
Keith was in a brown-on-white plaid shirt tonight and brownish jeans, with hair soft and shiny and from my up-front position my eyes just drank him in all evening. I hardly ever record whole songs because it eats up camera memory so fast, but tonight I did record a couple, beginning with Hit the Ground (in part to bring back to my classes to show them where I went). Unfortunately that meant I was out of memory by the end of Raining on Sunday ! : ( Oh well - just had to let my eyes do the recording from that point on! : )
In Days Go By Keith gave out a big “Nashville!! Here we go!! Are we feeling good?” punctuated by one of his “Whooo!”’s. In Blacktop he sang “I’m Nashville bound” (although I’m not sure we’d find “where the blacktop ends” in Nashville proper?). I loved it when he came dashing down the left-hand ramp to play the bridge (see clip)! When Keith chatted with the audience he seemed happy that they “made it home finally!” and said that he had never played to a crowd this large at the Sommet Center.
(A little later in the evening he actually sang a little song about some of the special benefits of playing Nashville - so fun!) He laughed a lot throughout the show - don’t you love seeing that?
Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me is one of my favorites and I got a great clip of the beginning of that song, but then the drunken woman next to me knocked my camera out of my hands and nearly toppled us both when she lost her balance. I had to prop her up several times during the evening - sheesh!! Bet she won’t remember a thing about the show.
Have you ever noticed the little signals Keith sometimes gives to the band or the stage crew? They are usually really brief, often in the middle of a song, and I am always curious about what each one means. He did one last night at the very end of my first Sweet Thing clip - any guesses as to its meaning? OMG - look at those moves in the second Sweet Thing segment!! My oh my is right!!!
Just as Keith has always said about Nashville, the community, the Nashville audience was quite respectful as he made his way back to the small stage - mostly giving smiles and loving pats to his shoulders, so that Keith, in turn, could easily play, smile and greet fans without being too swamped. He made his special announcement after singing Once in a Lifetime and Making Memories on that stage. Despite all the media build up about the announcement Keith was his usual low key and modest self - obviously excited about the event but not at all self-important or boastful or “look what I’m doing” like some artists might be. I enjoyed his adlibbing at at the end of Only You Can Love Me “And I’d have never had this feeling playing the Sommet Center tonight Babe!”
As usual the band introductions and the performances of each of the guys was great. Boy is Brian’s hair getting long - pretty soon he could have a ponytail! Still cute as can be though : ) Jerry tickled me by playing a few bars of the intro to the Ranch song Walkin’ the Country as he was being introduced!
Keith’s improvised song before Raining on Sunday was a hoot tonight. He began all serious-faced, playing a lovely melody, and then went into his “Are you feeling alright?”’s and “Do you feel as good as you look?”’s, but then went on to sing “It’s Saturday night and we’re playing at the Sommet right here in Tennessee.” “ Love the fact when I walk off stage I can get in my car and drive home and be in my bed by probably about 11:30!” “Can’t do that in any other city!’ “Unless I bought a house in every city that we play in!” (and he had to laugh at himself then)(see clip)
Apparently I missed catching some posting about this concert over at Monkeyville, because a large number of fans upfront came prepared with small 8 x 11 signs showing where they had traveled from to come to the show - an incredible number of states and Canadian provinces. I was sorry I didn’t have an “Iowa” sign to add to the mix. They were a lively group surrounding the catwalk, having a great time participating with Keith - yelling out a loud “Space, space, space, space” (as Keith used to do) after the first line of “I Told You So”! Keith, in turn, treated us to one of his fun deep silly voiced “Just come on home!”’s. I later noticed that the “catwalk monkeys” must have gotten to know the tall ponytailed videographer who works the end of the catwalk all night, because they each gave him a hug when the show ended! : )
Being just feet away I so especially enjoyed the passionate You’ll Think of Me this evening and had goosebumps all over with the final “I hope when you see my face it gives you hell, it gives you hell.” Mr. Urban, when I see your face it gives me joy, it gives me joy!!
Not too much introductory guitar play before You Look Good in my Shirt Tonight”. Too bad Tammy’s huge sign “You’d look good in your shirt in Section 114” (did I get that right?) did not pull Keith up into that section where so many friends sat. Instead he headed way back to one of the far riser sections and lead a sing-a-long to the delight of the audience from there.
Even though I still miss having a piano around, I just loved the touching acoustic Tonight I Wanna Cry and had tears of gratefulness in my eyes. Keith, too, was grateful, saying “Nashville thank you for an amazing awesome night!” Apparently tonight some male fan shouted out an “I love you” to Keith and Keith responded with his “I love you too” and followed it with “I know thats weird, but its late” and “things get crazy here sometimes.” Hee hee.
He gave a special shout out to “the barbeque gang” - the lucky winners of the special private backyard barbeque with Keith, which also took place today (and it really was in someone’s back yard!). The crew came out in full force during Keith’s thank yous, making him laugh again at their antics. Tonight I was close enough to catch a bit of the spray from Keith’s “water spout” trick. What a little kid he is when something like that catches his fancy!
Keith and the band were generous with their handslaps, picks and even a few autographs. I was happy when Chris R. gave me a red pick. It is different from the one’s I’ve seen before though - smaller and red with Jazz III printed on it - anyone know what that means? Could it be a banjo pick, different from a guitar pick?
I wandered back to my hotel in a euphoric haze, exhausted but oh so happy but too tired to go online. At the next morning in the airport something fun and funny happened. I was sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight to Chicago, looking at my videos from the show and noticed two women across the aisle who seemed to keep looking at me. After a while one finally came over and asked “Are you Linda?”. Surprised I say “Yes I am, but how did you know?” She said that she and her friend had gone to the show too and now were returning home to Canada, and that they recognized me from my reviews! : )
Ah, the friendly world of Keith fans!
Hit the Ground Running (which I uploaded to YouTube)
A Fun Bit of Where the Blacktop Ends
Til Summer Comes Around Part 1
A Little Improvising Before Raining on Sunday
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