Little Big Town in a Little Big Town (Davenport)

I really enjoyed Little Big Town when they opened a half dozen or so Keith Urban shows I attended a few summers ago. When I saw that they would be performing at a small Iowa theatre, I jumped at the opportunity to see them on their own tour. I originally hoped that my youngest - whose school is just 90 minutes away from the venue - would join me. But it turned out that her big sister had made plans to visit her that weekend and take her to the Hawks game, so mama was out of luck. So we changed up our plans - hubby agreed to come to Davenport with me and we would meet Annie and Sara and Sam for brunch the morning after their football game and victory pub crawl : ).

Jim and I stayed at the lovely refurbished historic Blackhawk Hotel just a couple doors down from the theatre. We had a nice Italian dinner at Antonella's, then (not being a country music fan) Jimmy headed to the Davenport Celtic Fest while I went to the Adler Theatre. Iowa born Jake McVey opened for LBT. He has a decent voice - here is his first single Carry On - but I was wishing that he would venture off his stool and show us a little more of his personality. I did appreciate it that he told us he was the only Iowan who had had a CMT Top 10 video and that he had successfully beat Keith Urban in one of CMT video challenges ( the KU fan club must have been sleeping that day! : ) Here he is singing Waylon's Luckenbach, Texas with a bit of an impersonation of Willie Nelson singing this song.

Little Big Town was full of energy and fun to watch, but gosh darn it a four person group is hard to videotape because they are so spread out on stage. So I only caught a few clips: Bring It On Home , a bit of Good as Gone, and then their cover of Lady Gaga's Born This Way .

In the morning two daughters and a beau came to Davenport to have breakfast with us. I searched Yelp and Urbanspoon for something a little interesting and found a homey local place called Riefe's. Loved the fresh homemade cinnamon sugar donut holes that they placed on the table before we even ordered! Tasted very much like the donuts my father used to make us.

Then Sara and Sam headed back to Chicago for a White Sox Game while Jim and I drove Annie back to Iowa City and helped her hang a bookshelf in her new apartment before we headed back home. A nice weekend - a little travel, good music and a little family time!