When I arrived in Knoxville my hotel tried to convince me that I really should walk the 1.8 miles to the arena because of the expected traffic congestion before and after shows. But I knew how plum tuckered I am after a show and was sure I didn’t want to hike back to my room late that night. So I left for the concert a little early to check out the parking situation. Once on the University of Tennessee campus there were several large imposing structures and I wasn’t sure which was the arena. I pulled over to the curb and waited for someone to walk by that I might ask for directions. When I saw someone approaching on the opposite side of the street I opened my window and called out “Excuse me!” to catch their attention and only then realized I was shouting at my concert buddies Tammy and Kelsey!! (small world for us Keithers!) Tammy must have anticipated my question and pointed another half block down the street. I drove the remaining distance and looked at the cars entering a parking ramp, then also looked at the empty parking spots right there on the street. They were metered but when I hopped out and checked the meter I found that they were only in effect until 6 pm. So I was able to park by the curb almost in front of the arena door!
I had not bought Christmas presale tickets for Knoxville - attending this show was kind of an afterthought when I realized its proximity to Cincinnati. So tonight I had lower riser seats about mid-arena. I settled into my seat expecting to wait another 30 minutes or so for the show to start but was surprised when a band came out and got ready to play. It turned out that the winner of Keith’s Guitar Center Contest for new musicians was opening the show tonight before Jake Owen! I was surprised at the early start and missed the beginning of his first song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba-suMtTfQg Brandon Green and his backup band were pretty good and looked to be pretty cute (as best as I could tell from mid-arena). Here is Love Lovin’ You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-YjXw2xwM which I think is the song Keith played guitar on on Brandon’s recording. There were some friends or family of Brandon sitting behind me who cheered especially loudly after his set.
Jake was cute as ever in a red teeshirt tonight. Here is Alone With You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GhnvQNbL9M - one of my favorites. Both Jake and Keith commented that the Knoxville crowd was on the quiet side and from my view in the risers there were more “sitters” here as well.
There were a good number of signs in Knoxville and Keith read and acknowledged several, but his favorite was one held by a fourth grade teacher which said “I promised my class no homework this year if I get to take a picture with you!” So Keith brought her up and took the picture and good-naturedly teased her about the impact on the education of her students. She said Keith was going to be their hero! Here is a clip of their interaction. ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6nxZ9x2ll0
Well, I wasn’t close to the small stage but you still might enjoy mt view of I’m In : ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfrvjvBhJ4
I am so enjoying the little bits of extra acoustic guitar play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJqQmkU1v9s before Without You = so beautiful and it seems Keith is having such a good time doing something a little different.
Tonight’s Kiss a Girl Sing-off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjab4YMoNE
was quite a hoot. The first girl said she knew the song but kind of faltered and then gave up and walked back towards Keith before getting to the end of the chorus. Keith fell to the floor in disbelief, laying on his back and shaking his head. When he got up he teased her “I asked you if you knew the song - how clear can I be???” But she did kind of know the song but was struggling with the enormity of the situation. He gave her a second chance (giving her a little push towards the front of the stage) and she did better the second time. Then there was a fellow who nicely ended the chorus with “I wanna kiss MY girl” (awww). The final gal really belted out the chorus, but it was the guy who had captured the audience’s favor and won this evening.
There was one centerstage microphone failure tonight (although I’ve forgotten during which song). Keith had to hightail it over to the right side microphone so that we could hear him. Here is Georgia Woods in Knoxville http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAb7nybfAZE
Jerry and Keith have been doing a bit of their old guitar “jousting” at the start of Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me, I had missed that little bit of play when they skipped it. I didn’t catch the jousting, but here is the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3nAFJs5mMo
At encore time Keith brought Brandon Green and Jake back out for a round of The Joker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nS0AYJVYKc Brandon does have a very good voice.
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