And On to Country Fest in Cadott, WI!

Sunday morning I headed back north and west to Cadott  which is near Eau Claire, WI. I had never heard of that town before, but apparently Country Fest has been taking place there for 25 years.

I had kept an eye out for a ticket to Country Fest for a long time since it was on my way home from Country USA. Last week I had just about resigned myself to going the general admissions route when a single VIP reserved seat appeared on Stub Hub for basically the face value of that seat!! It was towards the back of VIP, but I snapped it up anyway.

Each of the different country festivals I have been to over the years has a slightly different personality. Country Fest was distinct from Country USA in several ways. It appeared to be a somewhat smaller fest and was taking place in a more idyllic setting: on a natural grassy gentle hill with wooded areas of the Chippewa Valley in the background. With my VIP ticket there was no charge for parking and they gave me a spot in the first row of the lot. Unlike Country USA there was no charge for alcoholic beverage bracelets - in fact there were no bracelets at all (and no carding as far as I could tell!). They had put more money into permanent buildings and fixtures, so the VIP region surrounding the stage was paved and had permanent fences surrounding it, and had comfortable and spacious fixed wooden bench seating complete with cupholders instead of temporary plastic chairs..The video screens were a little smaller than Country USA but the Fest did have one of those moving 'crowd cams' so that parts of the audience would periodically show up on the video screens. The VIP area also had a large real restroom building, a buffet building for the free VIP lunches and dinners, and a VIP bratwurst shed (this is Wisconsin after all) that served free bratwursts all hours that the fest was open! But Country Fest did not just treat their VIP ticket holders well - there was also a built-in, fenced permanent "photo line aisle"that actually that allowed even the General Admission crowd to come all the way down to the stage to snap their shots (kind of like CMA fest) right at the end of the nice ~15 foot catwalk jutting out from the stage!

I listened to sets by Lee Brice and then Kelly Pickler. It got fairly warm in the late afternoon but then again cooled off sharply after sunset - definitely jacket weather! The toughest part of the day was sitting through the act that preceded Keith. Not only because I was anxious to see Keith, but also because that act was Big and Rich. I don't mind John Rich on his own, but - I'm sorry - I cannot tolerate Kenny Big. Big and Rich had about 15 minutes of decent music (their biggest hits) but I thought I was going to die sitting through most of the rest of their loud, disorganized drivel. I swear it seems like they were just bantering to no end but to fill their hour time slot. I wandered around - bathroom, brat, etc and they were still at it : (. One tiny bit of their "filler" that I did enjoy was when they decided, for some reason,  to lead the audience in a Keith Urban cheer!?? ("When we yell Keith, you yell Urban" repeated several times over, and then they said that Keith had always been an inspiration to them!! (not surprising that Keith inspires others but I was surprised to hear this from Big and Rich)). I breathed a sigh of relief when they finally left the stage - but, oh no,  despite a rather quiet audience response they came back for an encore.I'm afraid I think that Big and Rich should break up again.

Finally we were anxiously sitting through the break watching the crew set up the stage for Keith and the band. I had been moving around most of the day - sitting here and there. But now that all the seats were filling I figured I had to go back to my appointed spot. I then discovered with surprise that I was sitting next to a Keith fan friend! Tim and I keep crossing paths in our Urban roadtrips. In a festival of thousands what are the chances that we would end up buying ticketsfor seats next to each other!?

Tonight Keith was wearing one of his short-sleeved form-fitting brown plaid shirts from a tour ago and blue jeans and he seemed positively joyful and oh so playful all night. Although most of the setlist was the same as in Oshkosh, there were a few little changes along the way:

You Gonna Fly and 1 chorus of Boondocks was followed by  Put You in a Song, with one of Keith's "tropical bird trills" to punctuate the end. Then came Raining on Sunday  Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B1YsvurDfs  Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4e5UMFLLA

Before going into Long Hot Summer Keith commented that this was "Just a big ol' sing-along" so that everyone should join in on the songs they knew. Next up was Stupid Boy.

Tonight Making Memories was added to the set http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4e5UMFLLA  and was performed oh-so-tenderly. Afterwards Keith yelled to us "That was some seriously good singing Cadott!"

Keith made up for teasing me with his YLGIMS microphone placed right in front of me in Oshkosh and then not coming out there : Tonight the microphone for his first trip into the audience in Cadott was placed at the rear of the VIP right near my seat. I noticed it as soon as the band began to play that pre-I'm In music and  I was up and claiming my spot before anyone else knew what was happening. Again the rush of excited fans threatened to knock us right off our feet, but having Keith's big hulking body guard standing right next to me, sturdy as a Sequoia, helped keep me upright. And yes Keith did make it to the microphone tonight, so I was tickled pink. It was so wonderful to have him up close rather than watching him on the video screens! Afterwards Keith just about jumped down on me as he left his little stage to return up front.- I was "forced" to steady myself by putting my arm around his waist! : ) (Vitamin "K"!) My oh my notice those biceps! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnPCyUPxF4

Then came Days Go By, followed by Georgia Woods. Tonight Keith introduced Georgia Woods as "a song about falling in love" and asked if anyone up on the hill was falling in love tonight  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3pfPb9fYN0

After Sweet Thing we were treated to some extended lovely guitar play, echoing through the valley, then an echo round of sing-along and finally some major flippage  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijjRYWkaF8

Kiss a Girl, with its singoff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEuprj-2qK4
Tonight Keith managed to get all Wisconsinites for his competition. The first gal was from LaCrosse, WI, the second from Cumberland, WI and the final fellow was from New Richmond, WI. Like last night, the guy (who hammed it up) won the support of the audience.

Keith took his stool out to the end of the catwalk for Without You, then went on to
Somebody Like You (personalizing with "It sure feels good to be here on this beautiful night in Cadott, Wisconsin" ).  Keith again had fun (and cracked himself up) singing the chorus from Call Me Maybe, definitely enjoying himself up on stage. (I only caught the last line or 2 of this on my camera so I uploaded it to my blog rather than YouTube).

Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me included some show-offy guitar jousting with Jerry beforehand and some extra flourish during the guitar opening of the song, and was followed by the band member introductions. Tonight Keith claimed Danny played a particularly long list of instruments and preceded Brian's introduction with "Let's kick it into 6th gear!!"

Tonight Keith DID make it out into the audience for You Look Good in My Shirt and gave away a guitar there as well.  And then another surprise! I started to depart after Keith and the band left the stage following You Look Good in My Shirt, when suddenly Keith was out on stage again!! Yes! He said that they had told them they had to get off stage and he had told them "Go to hell!" : ) So we got an encore of Better Life! Not only that - to the delight of the audience Keith jumped off the front of the stage and sang the song from down amongst the first few rows of seats! (see below) (At that point, I too was down in the first row, but he was close to center stage and I was way off to the right with many exuberant fans between us) 

With that warm fuzzy concert glow I made my way to the hotel my hubby had reserved for me in Eau Claire. In the morning I headed back towards the Twin Cities. Daughter Annie and I lunched at a sidewalk cafe before I turned south towards Iowa and started the long wait for another Urban roadtrip.

A tiny bit of Keith singing  Call Me Maybe

 Down into the audience for the encore!

My Urban Journey to Country USA

During his last tour Keith Urban treated his fan club members royally, giving us early access to the very best seats in each venue. It was wonderful and we got spoiled rotten sitting in the first few rows or  standing at the stage edge at each venue. But there is no "tour" this summer - mostly just a very few large summer festivals where Keith does not have the ability to provide prime seats to his fans. So those of us desperate for some Urban time have to put up with distant seats unless we happen across one of the rare VIP regulars at these shows wanting to sell their tickets this year.

I'm not one to cope with the crowd in the "General Admission" area of festivals, but when I saw that Country USA had some "Reserved Seats" available I bought one ticket even though it was in about the 40th row back : (.  They did not have "single day reserved seats" so my ticket was good for the full 4 day festival. I was not interested in the first day's performers, so decided to go just for the last 3 days. Keith, of course, was the headliner who would close this year's festival.

I broke up my trip to Oshkosh, WI by stopping overnight in Minneapolis where my youngest daughter has just relocated to for an internship there. We had a great dinner together and I was so pleased to see her cute little apartment and to visit the Minnesota Center for Book Arts where she is working.

The next day I battled my way through some of the summer roadwork happening everywhere and found my way to Oshkosh. I headed to the festival around five looking forward to seeing Phil Vassar and Sugarland that evening. When I arrived I decided Country USA won the "Most Ways to Scam Money Out of the Audience" prize. You had to pay $2 to even get an "alcoholic beverages bracelet" and pay $5 to WALK onto the festival grounds! Apparently too many people were unwilling to pay the high parking rates and deal with the parking lot congestion, so they had to start charging those who got rides or walked to the festival or parked elsewhere!!!

A good part of the festival ground are gravel covered - good, I suppose, when it rains, but not too pretty or too comfortable for sandal-wearers. I was happy to see that "Reserved Seats" included "deluxe bathrooms" rather than the general festival portapotties - that alone made it worth the price! I enjoyed Phil Vassar's music. I've seen him several times over the years and it seems like some of his music is moving more and more in the direction of Billy Joel's sound. He spent a good amount of time standing at the piano, jamming out melodies Billy style. I wish I had caught Phil's great rendition of Piano Man on tape but I was too busy singing along! I'll post a couple of his songs shortly.

Sugarland was fun as always and got a great response from the crowd. They too have joined the ranks of performers who give away a guitar during their performance. I was up and dancing to all of their songs - both because I loved the music and also because I had come unprepared for the dramatic drop in temperature after sunset in Wisconsin. In only my sundress I had to dance to keep warm once it hit 60! (Iowa had been staying quite warm at night). I'll add a couple of their tunes shortly too.

I left a bit before the end of Sugarland's set hoping to get a head start on the post-concert traffic congestion. No such luck! Apparently many had the same idea and the traffic leaving Country USA was perhaps the worst and the most aggressive that I had ever driven in, even though I had ponied up the $20 they charged for supposedly "Premium Parking". It was terrible and not well handled on the festival grounds - so terrible that I reconsidered whether I could put up with it 3 days in a row! (I confess I did decide to skip Brad Paisley's show the next night in favor of other local attractions for just that reason.)

So let's jump to the long-awaited last day of Country USA when Keith was scheduled. Although I kept an eye out for motorcycles riding around the Oshkosh area early in the day on Saturday, I later heard that Keith had not flown in from Nashville until later in the afternoon. I skipped the early afternoon performers and arrived at the festival about 5:00. I stopped at the ticket booth on my way in to ask about any last minute one day VIP tickets (no go), but then did pay the "Y100 Country Club" fee to be able to enter the tent where the local radio station did their preshow interviews of the performers. I listened to the sets performed by Tracy Lawrence and then Clay Walker, but didn't bother to go to the "country club" for their radio chats. I was waiting for the last interview of the day! I knew that it was probably the closest I would get to Mr. Urban at this venue.

There was quite a crowd in the Y100 tent at about 9:30, but I wiggled my way into a not-terrible position. They had a low stage with a sofa and chairs set up for the interview. They gave away a meet and greet opportunity but unfortunately I had been unaware of the contest. Finally it was time for Keith's entrance. Handsome in his black tee and blackish jeans and looking, as he often does, a bit uncomfortable in this interview setting, he was - of course- quite gracious. Keith acknowledged the pleasure of a weekend in Wisconsin and pleased the crowd with a comment about the Packers. But his funniest comment of the brief interview came after Y100 brought up a young kid from the audience and gave him backstage passes to the meet and greet that was to follow the interview. Keith piped in "Could I get some too? (backstage passes)" : )  I was a bit behind him so unfortunately did not have a full frontal view, but here is what I caught of the interview: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=3Y5ovKiYM6o

The breaks between performers at these festivals are quite long, but the wait before Keith felt the longest (it really wasn't longer but deprivation makes one impatient!). Then suddenly, without preamble, he was there - blasting out You Gonna Fly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmJ1KtpzlCg --- yay!! He followed this song with just the chorus of Boondocks since they did not have their own video screen on stage to show the rest of the accompanying Little Big Town Clip.  We had to rely on the venue's video screens to the right and left of the stage. Even though I dashed up from my 40th row position to the very front of the "Reserved Seating"at the start of the show, I was still behind some 25 rows of VIP seats. Keith was still way too far away. So my view and my videos of the show are all from the video screens - what can you do? Pardon the graininess of the clips.

Jerry, Brian and Danny are all lightly bearded while Chris is clean shaven and with a very short haircut. Brian has abandoned his James Dean type pompadour for a longer hairstyle. Danny's hair is blonder, longer and more Keith-like than ever. Jerry wore his Mr. Clean tee.

Then came Put You in a Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnrpejAwGw with some very fancy fingerwork on the guitar and a special "I'm in love with Wisconsin" incorporated into the song.

Then a stunning, goosebump raising, Raining on Sunday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gDZ3mOi3T0 , with Keith chiming out to the audience (as he did often that night) "Ah you sound SO good!" (You too Keith!!) We all "Whoo!"ed at the end and Keith "whooed" right back at us. He then turned his attention to different segments of the audience before breaking into Long Hot Summer.

Next up was Stupid Boy and it was so good to hear my very favorite guitar solo again http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=gr_OFABWEIE
. Sigh.

When the cheers and applause died down my heart beat sped up a bit as I heard the beat of the "coming off the stage music"!! I peered around the audience trying to see where he was headed. Unfortunately I could see, from the ripple of hysteria running through the crowd, that he was on the opposite side, quite a ways away, so again I depended on the video screens to catch a view of him out there singing I'm In. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_IGAstO59s
But Keith did run by my section on his way back to stage, but he was on the other side of the VIP fence, just out of reach for hand slaps. When he got up front he yelled "Hell yes Oshkosh!! You guys are crazy out there! That's why we love you!" And the, holding up his right hand, he added "I must have high-fived a quarterback because my hand is actually red!'

Then he went into his Georgia Woods story introduction, slightly amended for Wisconsin. "You probably have equivalent woods up here. Some place where you can get away from it all, turn off your cell phone, get off the grid....." Here's the guitar solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85iH9NFvLt0

Next was Sweet Thing, followed by Kiss a Girl. As he asked the audience if they were in a singing mood tonight, Keith paid a bit of tribute to nearby cities: "We've got some people from Appleton here tonight. And there are some people from Milwaukee here tonight. And there are some from Green Bay here tonight." But as much as he hopes to have some "hometown" folks among those he brings up for the KAG sing-off http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=VRS7g_H492Q
 he always has audience members who have traveled far and wide to be there. So the first gal he selected for the sing-off ended up being from Michigan - but Keith then joked that she had just been telling him that "Man I wish I had been born in Wisconsin!" hee hee. The next gal was from Sheboygan but faltered on the lyrics, trying to give away the mike halfway through. The final guy, although apparently tipsy (Keith asked him to try to remain vertical), did the best job and won the audience's support in the round of applause vote.

Then Keith slowed down a bit for a beautiful Without You http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=qnmoiR0OZ-I

The leave it to Keith to add something surprising. As he was about to go into WWWBM, he threw in a couple lines from Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, pausing a bit to have the audience join in (like he used to do with Blister in the Sun)! Too quick for me to catch on tape unfortunately, but fun.

He followed Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=29SKx7GBlvY with" Do you feel it kicking in Wisconsin? On this beautiful night, when you don't have to get up for work in the morning? And even if you did, you probably wouldn't. That bed is going to feel so good about 4 am......"  followed by the
introductions of Jerry, Danny and Brian, with their little solos.

Then, finally, the song that triggered both highs and lows: You Look Good in My Shirt. When I heard the familiar intro I immediately thought "Maybe he'll come off stage again." Not seconds later two of Keith's stagehands set up a little trunk serving as a stage and microphone not four feet in front of me!!! I was thrilled and claimed my trunk-side position- followed by a crowd of what felt like a hundred others smashing us into a swaying mass. Everyone in "Reserved Seating" was SO excited and unbelieving.
But then for some reason Keith never came out! : (  Was the crowd too big? Could he not get down off that end of the stage? Did he suddenly get the cue that their contracted ending time had arrived?? I don't know, but he stayed on stage, baffling even his stagehands,  and did a somewhat more abbreviated than usual YLGIMS. And then the final low: the show was over.  I'm sure he didn't intend to tease us out in Reserved Seating, but there were a lot of disappointed faces in the crowd around the microphone.

I dilly dallied, wasting time, knowing the traffic jam wouldn't be going anywhere anyway. I almost lost my car because by the time I got to the parking lot the rows of cars had dissolved into a snarl of cars pulling out every which way. Once I found it, I sat back and ate a few crackers and dip while I waited for the traffic to clear. Happy and mellow, my Keith addiction temporarily satisfied, and knowing I had another night of Keith to look forward the next day in another town and another festival!