Keith Urban Wows in Winnipeg!

I hadn’t planned on going to a Winnipeg concert primarily because I was woefully ignorant of the geography of the parts of Canada I had not visited on vacations and assumed that the cities I was unfamiliar with must be remote destinations. Shame on me! But when hubby told me he would be gone to Milwaukee for 4 days, I took another look at the location of Keith’s shows for the upcoming weekend and discovered Winnipeg was just 3 hours north of Fargo, N.D. and not all that distant from Iowa. Hubby was feeling guilty about his trip and used miles to get me an airline ticket and even reserved a hotel room just steps from the MTS Centre. I searched for a ticket, first on Monkeyville and Ebay, then on the broker sites. I found some floor row 8 seats for just a little above face value, but only sold as a pair. I went ahead and got them hoping I might find someone to purchase my extra. But with 2 shows already sold-out in Winnipeg I didn’t find anyone who needed a single. I just happened to joke with my daughter on Facebook “Betcha don’t know where Winnipeg is!” and lo and behold another Keith fan board friend replied that he certainly knew where it was since he lived there. I hadn’t made the connection between all his posts in the past and Winnipeg! Maybe he would join me for the concert!

Our plan was on-again, off-again. First he said he would be happy to use my ticket. Then he got a job offer for Saturday he couldn’t turn down. I meanwhile tried again - certainly someone could use a row 8 seat!!

I had to get up at 4:30 am Saturday to make it to my crack of dawn flight. It was a sunny day and my travel went smoothly. Bienvenue a Winnipeg (welcome to Winnipeg) was the sign that greeted me and I was “welcomed” in a number of ways. I found the city bus went from the airport right past my hotel for a mere $2.30 Canadian. The Radisson welcomed me by saying the hotel was so full that they would have to upgrade me to a “Club” room on their 27th floor, with access to the Club Lounge snacks, beverages, appetizer hour and breakfast! Sounded great to me - especially since I was hoping perhaps certain celebrities might possibly be using those exclusive floors in this hotel so close to the arena. The hotel clerk also said that “a gentleman had been looking for me” before I arrived (and I hadn’t even let Keith know where I would be staying! ; ) ). Actually I guessed it might have been Leonard stopping in to see if he could say hi before he went on his job, and I was sorry I had missed him.

I went out exploring the neighborhhood, circling the arena looking for the buses, thinking it might be motorcycle time, but didn’t realize the arena had inside, underground parking. Then I checked out a couple possible restaurants for a late lunch. I ended up at Moxie’s, a nice if a little pricy restaurant in the MTS Centre itself. I chose a wild salmon sandwich on naan, a special “London” gin and tonic complete with lime, mint and cucumbers and one of their “mini” desserts ---sticky toffee pudding served with toasted almonds and a little ice cream. I was very happy with my choices! I stopped at the MTS Box Office to see if they might buy back my extra ticket to re-sell, but no such luck -- which turned out to be lucky. When I returned to the Radisson the desk clerks said my “male-friend” had been back and again missed me but left the message he could go to the show after all!! He also left me a phone message (in his cute Canadian accent to my Iowa ears). Oh fun! I had a “date” for the evening.

I called Leonard and he offered to take me on a bit of a personal tour of Winnipeg since we still had a few hours before showtime. It was a perfect afternoon for visiting the Forks and the near-by shops, monuments and their impressive bridge. We walked along the rivers and through the grassy park We visited the grounds of the Legislature and saw the many polar bear sculptures behind it and drove through several of Winnipeg’s neighborhoods. It was great to have someone so knowledgeable show me so much during my brief visit to his hometown! Thanks Leonard!

The MTS Centre, a fairly new medium size arena, looked a little different than earlier venues. None of the big Verizon posters of Keith or Verizon green screen booth or free guitar competition. None of the Kingsford photo displays of Keith at a BBQ and no little BBQ video once we were inside the arena. They still had the text-messaging and sending photos to the arena screens (sponsored by Mozes?) Lady Antebellum was also offering a prize pack for text messages.

Our 8th row seats were excellent with nothing but 4 feet of empty space between us and the end of the right-hand runway. Lady Antebellum were fun and I think Leonard had a little thing going on with Hilary : )! I enjoyed their inclusion of a bit of “You Shook Me” into their “Good Time” hit (see video). During the break before Keith a large crowd gathered up front around the catwalk and stage edge. I told Leonard Keith would start out the evening at the end of the catwalk. He looked at the fans gathering at the end of the walk and said “You can go up there.” And then again “You’ve got floor seats - you can go up there.” And so I did! I found a spot very close to the of the catwalk and just reveled in my wonderful view of Keith’s first 3 songs from that spot. Last night he had a lot of that sweet but devilish bad boy look about him and looked so fine moving that guitar around. I couldn’t believe my good luck and videoed like crazy - but then was crushed later to find NO record of those first 3 songs- not even a photo- when I downloaded my camera at midnight. I can’t imagine what went wrong but my camera files jump from Lady Antebellum to Blacktop. What a shame.

Keith was in a subdued dark gray with red and blue lines plaid last night, with black jeans, From a distance you might have thought he was all in black. His hair was swingy but seemed a little more styled in the back (and I did spend some time behind him and had a great view)(see clips). (Then again I didn’t spend that much time looking at the back of his head - LOL!)

During Blacktop I was distracted by flashes of skin at Keith’s waistline and the opened buttons of his shirt and even more gaping than usual (see clip) between buttons. He was feeling playful and did some of his voice changes and threw in some “Oh Mama!’s” and “Mercy!”. (I kind of echoed him softyly “Have mercy on us Keith!” because he was using all of his moves unrelentingly! Phew! I had left my catwalk spot and gone back over towards our seats in anticipation of Keith coming down the right runway during Blacktop and coming off the runway in Better Half. He didn’t disappoint !(although heads blocked some of my view of his Blacktop solo) (see clip)! When he headed out into the audience during Better Half I met him at the end of the ramp and gave his not-yet-sweaty bulging right bicep a nice rub (Leonard commented that he wasn’t interested in touching Keith - LOL).

I knew the satellite stage area was guarded and surrounded by big metal barriers (they had not let me cross the area to get to the bathrooms even before the show began) so I didn’t know whether I should bother following Keith back there. But I couldn’t resist, although I took the center aisle rather than following right behind Keith’s security. The small stage area was packed with fans - not a chance of getting to the front side of the stage. But I was relatively close to the back side and was perfectly happy to enjoy THE backside : )!! Bootylicious! Keith does make an effort to turn periodically on that stage rather than only facing the rear of the arena, so I did get to see his smiling, laughing, strumming, plucking side every so often as well. He rewarded our singing during Once in a Lifetime with a big ol’ “Oh yeah - I hear you!” . Keith dedicated Making Memories to Nic and changed up Only You Can Love Me a bit with “I’d have never had this feeling that I’m feeling playing to all of you tonight in Winnipeg!”

Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me was terrific as usual, and I didn’t realize that Keith’s backbend at the end was just a teaser preview for an even more impressive one later in the evening at the end of You Look Good in My Shirt, where he went as low as conceivably possible, then collapsed on his back and wiggled backwards on the floor, while continuing to play the closing his guitar!! (see clip)

In Sweet Thing Keith changed up the lyrics a bit to:

I held open the car door for you
Then you climbed inside and slid on over
To the other side.. i thought “I like your style!”

and, a little later, “Come on and meet me mama!”

Remember the “man in the yellow hat” in Curious George. Well my camera-work was foiled several times by the “man in the black hat” (and another with a big head). Please remove your Stetsons during the concert gents!! You’ll stay cooler and won’t block the view of all those behind you!

Oh my. Keith not only served some autographed tennis balls way back into the arena and up into the risers tonight - he did so looking quite fetching in a bright red sweatband and wristbands! He really looked like a handsome Bjorn Borg at his best.

Some pretty guitar picking (see clip)preceded the emphasized rhythmic strumming before Raining on Sunday. Keith held the last note of the first verse extra long. During the chorus, after “We'll hide under the covers all afternoon” he threw in a “I believe we will” with a rather devilish smile and tone.

Keith made use of his deep voice and a little growling in I Told You So and in the last verse added some extra emphasis:

Please just come back home

No don't say that you're sorry

And I won't say I told you so

And I won't say I told you so

BUT DAMN! I told you so!

I have to say that I believe Keith and I “shared a moment” in ITYS and perhaps a couple other moments during the evening. It seems that truly making eye contact or getting some acknowledgement is a pretty rare thing even with all the shows I have been to. After all, he has some 15,000 faces beaming at him each night (well maybe not that many that he can actually see...). But during ITYS (second ITYS clip) I’m sure he smiled right at me right beneath him, tucked between the stage and confetti cannon and waved a little hello! And I thought I saw that glimmer of recognition during a couple other songs as well. I don’t know if he might finally remember my funny face after my long urban-journey or whether it was surprise that just this evening he had been face to face with me at the catwalk, at the right edge of the stage AND at the satellite stage. Whatever - there’s nothing like that “smiling right at you” look!

I thoroughly enjoyed Keith bringing Lady Antebellum back out to harmonize on Seven Bridges Road. They set up a little differently than last time - Lady A all shared one mic, with Hilary in the middle and Keith had a second mic to himself. Maybe being close to Keith last time was a little too distracting for Hilary to do her best?! I don’t know which group best accompanied Keith on this song - Sugarland, Little Big Town, or Lady A? What do you think?

I’m trying to think what song it is, towards the end of the show, when Keith tosses the hand-held mike he has been using off the stage to one of his crew?? Is it Somebody Like You? Better Life? I forget, but Saturday night I think his aim might have been off a little. I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but when he tossed the microphone we all heard a big “clunk”.I don’t think it was the sound of the mic being dropped because I saw the crew member running backstage with the mic in hand. So maybe the microphone knocked some fan’s camera out of her hands. Or maybe a fan dropped her camera in an attempt to catch the mic? Whatever it was, Keith felt bad about it and as soon as he got back to his regular microphone stand he started mouthing “I’m sorry” and doing that lovable, apologetic tapping of his chest that he does. I guess he still didn’t feel like he made amends for whatever happened because he then went down the ramp and hugged the affected fan. I’ll have to try and get in the way of that flying microphone in the future!

Keith surprised us all (and damn, my memory card had long before given me its “memory full” message) by beginning the encore with the first two lines of the chorus of “All By Myself”, (“I don’t wanna be - all by myself) which I always think of as a Bee Gees song, and then went into Tonight I Wanna Cry. Love those little surprises!

As Keith and the guys were slapping hands and saying final goodbyes after the encore, someone lifted a tiny little girl in a frilly pink outfit up onto the stage and she approached Keith holding a cap for him to autograph. He knelt by her and gently took the cap and obliged. I would so like to see him interacting with Sunday. He has such a wonderful way with kids that are complete strangers - I can’t hardly imagine his tenderness with his own baby girl!

So Winnipeg was a special Keith Urban Road Trip for several reasons. I played my YouTube clips before each of my classes today. Wish that they could understand the lengthy euphoric pleasure each show produces - from the excited anticipation, to the heady realization of the actual concert, and then the floaty afterglow for days, which can be somewhat renewed whenever I re-live the experience through videos, recordings, photos, reading or just plain ol’ daydreams!

6 of my Keith Urban - Winnipeg clips are already up on YouTube (iowalw):

Where the Blacktop Ends
The Other Side of Keith Urban (OIAL)
Behind Keith Urban's Satellite Stage (Part 2)
Making Memories of Us
You'll Think of Me
Keith and Lady Antebellum - Seven Bridges Road

But here are some additional ones:

Country music's "Bjorn Borg" : )

My "Moment" With Keith

The remaining are "Tiny Tidbits for the Truly Addicted" : )

Keith coming off stage - I let go of my camera to give his arm a rub.

THE backbend

Keith Urban: Terrific in Tacoma!

After my last class on Friday I hightailed it to the airport to catch my westbound flight to Seattle. Hubby was off at another business meeting, but his travel is sometimes a blessing- because  of his frequent flyer miles my flight was free!  Since all my daughters were also away (at school) I was extra happy to have a KURT scheduled rather than being lonesome at home. I wish I could have managed to get to Friday night’s Portland show, but the airline schedules wouldn’t allow it, But the Seattle region is a great place to visit so I knew that I would have more than enough to do during my time there. For the first time that I remember my flight actually arrived a half hour early! (Will wonders never cease!) Got my cheap little rental car and the first order of business was finding some of that great Pacific seafood for dinner. I picked a spot in suburban Seattle (a community called Des Moines, oddly enough) and depended on my “Never Lost” GPS to guide me there. (BTW - that’s a bit of a misnomer - I have been lost with my Never Lost many times, but at least it helps me “find” my way eventually ; )). To my delight the “Salty’s” restaurant I picked turned out to be at the water’s edge and a beautiful sunset was in progress for my entertainment. “Red skies at night” foretold the next day’s delights. After raw oysters, Dungeness crab chowder and fresh Alaskan cod I was content and ready to go the last 16 miles to Tacoma.

The Best Western Tacoma Dome was almost on top of Saturday night’s venue. Since the guys were playing Portland Friday evening, the Dome was dark and quiet when I arrived and the tour bus parking lot visible from the hotel’s glass elevators was empty. But by dawn (I was on Midwestern time) the lot was chock-full - the boys were back in town!!

Tacoma’s show was scheduled a little later than usual - 8 PM - so I could spend the sunny warm day seeing the sights. A Seattle resident I sat next to on the plane had strongly recommended taking a ferry across Puget Sound, which sounded great to me. I had actually planned on parking my car and just riding the ferry to and from Bainbridge Island, but after following the street signs pointing to the ferry dock, I found myself sort of trapped in the line of cars loading onto the ferry, So my rental car got to take the trip as well! With it parked on the lower deck, I went up to the sundeck to enjoy the glorious picture postcard views of the Seattle skyline as we pulled out of port, and later the picturesque shores of the island. We also could see majestic Mount Hood off the port side (hope I got my direction right). Since I ended up traveling with my vehicle I only ferried one-way, then took the one bridge off the opposite side of the island to explore the Bremerton region. I found a delightful brewery in Silverdale and had a late alfresco lunch of Porter and mustard glazed wild salmon, raspberry walnut salad, and one of their specially brewed Bavarian style wheat beers. Life was good! I had planned to stop at the zoo too, but decided a nap sounded good since Keith would be playing from about 11 PM to 1 AM according to my Midwestern set internal clock!

I had checked out the local country stations and knew that 2 would be having pre-parties next to the Dome and giving away ticket upgrades and backstage passes. KMPS was also nice enough to set up a table with markers and small poster boards so anyone could make a concert sign. No reason to pass by any chances to get lucky - so I signed up at both booths, made a poster,  and lingered outside the Dome until all the prizes had been awarded.  My Keith-Karma was just a wee bit off tonight - the gal just 2 raffle tickets ahead of me at KMPS’s drawing won backstage passes to meet Keith!! Gosh - if I had just walked a tiny bit faster to their booth.......

I guess Keith does not have quite as strong a following in the Northwest, or maybe 3 fairly close shows (Portland, Tacoma, Spokane) was a bit too much for this area, because this is the first arena that I have been to that totally did not use their upper level seats. In fact they had the second level seats covered with black tarps so that you couldn’t see the empty chairs. I guess that means the fans present were all in better, lower level risers, but it still surprised me to see all that un-used capacity. I haven’t heard what the crowd was like in Portland.

Tacoma had the small stage located about 2/3’s back on the floor with a large fenced in area of what I presume was “General Admission” beyond it. It appeared that the fans standing there wore special wristbands, so it didn’t look promising for others on the floor getting close to the back stage.

It was a treat to have Little BIg Town opening for Keith. I always thoroughly enjoy them, although I must confess that I’m not familiar with their most recent music. And, unfortunately, it seemed that they got a rather lukewarm response from the audience. Seats were only half full when they began their set and they weren’t able to get the crowd on their feet and singing until their final, always popular Boondocks song. They thanked Keith for having them out on tour with him and told us that they would be out in the audience just like us watching his awesome show.

Tonight Keith was in brown on white plaid and grayish jeans, with his hair just as flippable as can be. And boy he gave us a lot of that ol’ time flippage tonight!! : )

Another thing a bit different about the Tacoma Dome venue - although Keith made his usual statement to the audience about “This is your night,,,sing, dance, stand on your chair,..” etc. and told Security to let the audience be, the Dome Security stayed pretty much in full force all night and were still chasing folks in the aisles back to their seats during the encore songs! I had an seat in row 16 on the left hand center aisle,so I could actually see better when they kept things clear, but their toughness was quite a contrast to some of the ‘looser’ venues.

Once that curtain dropped and Keith emerged rocking Hit the Ground everyone was up on their feet and loudly welcoming him and the band. Keith looked happy to be there and after “So if you gotta go baby I won’t stop you, and I won’t hang around and miss you” he let out a big “I’ll tell you why!!” before the punchline of the song (see clip).

Brian is growing a beard! It is past the scruff stage and pretty long in places. I think I will miss his baby face - he has a bit of a Jesus look now!

Keith’s Stupid Boy guitar solo was just stupendous. Although I love to watch him play all of his solos, SB is my personal favorite. I was ticked when some guy walked right in front of me just before it ended, but I caught most of it.

Then it was time for Better Half. I was debating whether or not to try to go back to the small stage since it looked so sturdily fenced in. As a result I only have a tiny clip of BH but put it up anyway because I love the “tap his chest for emphasis” gesture and grin and his little head waggle. The audience is really singing along but my camera is facing Keith, not the crowd, so it doesn’t pick up some of the audience participation (altho a little bit later I was wishing it would pick up even less when the gals around me were screaming, rather than singing, the lyrics!). I finally decided - what the heck- and headed back to the rear stage. Oodles of security (8-10) were hanging around that fenced area, warily watching the crowd, so I stayed off to the right side (where Keith would be approaching) hoping none of the guards would march me back to my seat. As Keith got close the crowd went crazy as usual and security had to open the fence to allow the star to enter. Well apparently where I standing was right in the way of Keith and his accompanying security, and his “frontman” pushed me right into the stage enclosure to make a path for Keith!! So I was “in” and just a couple people away from the stage, Then a huge crowd of women surged in, screaming at the top of their lungs, and creating a crazy swaying mass of bodies pressed tightly together. And some of these gals were serious about trying to get as close as possible - it was the first time I wondered whether it might come to fistacuffs. One right in front of me asked me why I was pushing her, but I was just a bit of flotsam being moved by the waves of people behind me! The floor there was covered with a slippery puddle of beer making it even more challenging.  Even Keith commented on the crazy crowd at his feet. I can survive the crowding, but it makes me mad when they then drown out Keith not with singing but screaming and random loud conversations (see clip). One woman gave Keith the largest white rose I have ever seen. Nice idea but Keith unfortunately put it on his microphone stand. The bloom was so big it almost entirely hid Keith’s face while he sang Making Memories! : (  (Ladies - rosebuds only in the future please!) He dedicated MMOU to Nic but I didn’t catch sight of her if she was there.

Back on the mainstage Keith really hammed it up during Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me, flipping his hair wildly this way and that, tossing picks right and left off his mic stand, and and exaggerating his body movements as he moved across the stage. i believe someone upfront tossed a pair of panties at him (ignored), Of course Keith changed the lyrics to “She’s singing a Little Big Town song to me - “It’s a Real Fine Line””. As I filmed Sweet Thing someone right in front of the catwalk kept waving a rolled up poster - I wondered if she might bop Keith with it to get his attention!

Keith not only introduced the band members but praised their “superb talents”.

As he brought out Jerry Keith reminisced about how The Ranch played this very Dome back in 1997, opening for Sawyer Brown!

And who was that somewhat familiar woman who came up to me while I was filming Keith and knowingly asked whether it would be on YouTube tomorrow?

Although Tacoma got a little rhythmical foreplay before Raining on Sunday, Keith didn’t improvise a song. He totally shredded that guitar during the climactic ROS ending!! Right after ROS Keith and one of his stagehands came out - Keith with a big tennis racket and the stagehand with 3 yellow balls. He handed the balls one at a time to Keith who made a show of signing the ball and then lobbing it way to the back of the arena. They repeated the process for the remaining balls and the audience was loving it. I didn’t catch any balls but I did catch Keith’s last serve on film!

Keith followed that fun with the announcement that they were going to change things up tonight because he so enjoyed being on the road with Little Big Town and wanted to bring them out so they could all do a number together (loud cheering from the audience). They sounded just wonderful together on Seven Bridges Road!! I had a tough time trying to keep all 5 of them in my camera shots between heads, but got a reasonably good recording. I was tickled when, as LBT left the stage, Keith yelled out “Let’s give a big round of applause for Little Big Town Y’ALL! ”  “y’all” - so cute.

It happened so fast and I wasn’t prepared for Keith’s little Elvis impersonation - using a deep Elvis voice and an extra “baby” in one line of I Told You So. Keith’s camera crew WAS ready though - so we got to see Keith lifting the left side of his upper lip into a perfect Elvis smirk on the video walls!

Shoot! Too many things to capture on video - I was out of memory on the Panasonic by midway through You’ll Think of Me! Woe is me.

Keith turned to the right side to go out in the crowd during You Look Good in My Shirt. I was hoping for just that and had walked over to that aisle, hoping it would be the “side of the night”. Got my strokes in both as he went out to the risers and as he returned. I’m sure the screaming audience drowned out my appreciative but soft “Love you Mr. Urban” as he went back to stage. Once on stage he headed to the catwalk and played the closing of YLGIMS laying flat on his back on the catwalk!! Remember when he and Chris R. pretty routinely played on their backs during shows?? He was definitely giving his all last night.

Speaking of giving his all, I thought he was getting a little bit hoarse by night’s end. Tacoma was the third show in a row, with Spokane yet to go. Protect that honeyed voice of yours Keith!  He was gracious as always with his thank yous and a lot of the crew came out throwing picks and having fun (Keith said their antics get crazier each night), There was an exceptional amount of hand-shaking and slapping this evening - Keith seemed deeply grateful.

Although I’m not usually one to go to the buses, in this case I had to pass the lot to get to my hotel. I waited (with about 15 others) a short while at the driveway, hoping we might get a wave from Keith as his bus pulled out. Well we saw it pull away - but not down our driveway. There must have been a second exit on the opposite side of the lot. So Keith was on the road to Spokane before I could even cross the street to my hotel.

Thanks for the great memories Keith!

PS Maybe the Tacoma Dome security was tough because they get lots of rowdy crowds there. The Tacoma Dome Best Western Hotel is the only hotel I have ever been to that made us get our hands stamped before we went out and we had to show that stamp to get back in the hotel. They had guards posted at the entrances and in the elevators, and made sure no more than 7 passengers got on an elevator at a time!

Days Go By

Sweet Thing

Til Summer Comes Around

Raining on Sunday Solo

Keith and Little Big Town - Seven Bridges Road

Keith Urban Super at the Sommet!!

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

Stupid Boy - Part 1 

Superb Stupid Boy Guitar Solo

Til Summer Comes Around Part 1

Til Summer Comes Around

A Little Improvising Before Raining on Sunday