Keith Urban's San Antonio Stroll

Saturday morning I did not rush to San Antonio since the afternoon rodeo show was not until 1:30. That was a mistake! I did not anticipate a huge traffic jam at the highway exit for the A, T & T Center. We inched along oh so slowly for what seemed like forever. I followed the electronic signs above the lanes of traffic to the numbered rodeo parking lots, only to find that one after another was completely full and admitting no more cars. Finally a state patrolman told me the only lot with spots available was the off-site Gembler Road lot. So I inched my way there, parked and joined a huge line for the shuttle bus back to the Rodeo grounds. With all this delay I missed the entire afternoon rodeo except for the final bull-riding event!

I had bought a cheap seat way up in the nosebleed seats for the afternoon, but did watch with interest as the crew began to set up for the concert. Out came the portable stage to the center of the rodeo floor - a more modest size stage than what was featured at the Houston Rodeo and a stage with no fancy upper portion or background for the performers. I thought that was good because then there would be nothing but the band's equipment (amps, speakers, etc) to block one's view as the stage rotated to face each section of the arena in turn. But I got even more excited as I watched them roll out carts of folding chairs for the "Rodeo Star" down-in-the-dirt floor audience. Unlike Houston, in San Antonio they set up rows of chairs ahead of time for those with floor tickets - just 3 rows deep in most areas around the stage, so there really would be no bad seats down on the floor. Also, unlike Houston, which kept the floor folks down at one end of the arena - a good 30 feet from stage, San Antonio set up the chairs just about 10 feet from stage, encircling about 2/3 of the stage. A skinny little rope separated chairs from stage and there was little visible security (again, a contrast with Houston). It appeared they left the 10 ft gap primarily to allow Keith's camera guys to constantly run around the stage, to keeping him in view as the stage rotated. Watching all this I was so happy that I had purchased a down-in-the dirt seat for the evening show!!

The show itself was great, but an hour is way too short for us spoiled Urbanites! A mere 11

songs and one special extra verse treat:

You Gonna Fly (with 'you can be a songbird at the rodeo" added in)

Blacktop (with "I'm Texas- bound" added in and a bit of fancy guitar play mid-song before Keith lead a slightly altered version of the sing-along from last night " Hey hey, uh huh, feelin' so good, I'm in Texas tonight". I guess San Antonio is just too many syllables! )

Stupid Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwhlVFwrkYI

Keith greeted each part of the arena, but since the stage was rotating all the while he joked "If I spin around enough times I'll probably ask the same group how you're doing/"

Put You in A Song with some great little guitar riffs midway

Keith asked "Who is actually from San Antonio? Who is from out of state?" ( I and a number of others gave a big yell)

Long Hot Summer

You'll Think of Me ( which I thought sounded particularly outstanding this afternoon - Keith definitely has his full range back for the high notes at the close of this song!!)

Sweet Thing (Chris did get introduced at this end of this)

Kiss a Girl Keith did pause in the lyrics the way they do before a Kiss-a-Girl competition, but he must have decided, as he looked out at the audience, that he couldn't invite anyone up this afternoon, because he then began to sing a final KAG chorus.

Without You

Making Memories of Us (Keith again said they were dedicating this song to everyone feeling in love. He asked who was married, who was single, but then added "Well, there they are (the single people) - we just want to help out our brothers and sisters...)

Keith: "We're gonna change things up a bit," and belted out a lovely verse of Tanya Tucker's

San Antonio Stroll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxAreXZF2mo

When I was a child down in South Caroline

Soon as Saturday sun went on down.
My folks and sister would go and leave me home all alone,
Going to that big square dance in town.
Well my old radio would play that old opry show,
So I never got lonesome or blue.
I'd fall asleep in my chair and dream that I was right there,
Just singing the whole night through.
When my folks would come home, they'd be humming a song,
Mama'd smile and say: "Child, don't you know,
"There ain't a thing in this world to make you fall in love girl,
"Like the San Antonio Stroll?"

And Keith then commented that every since he heard that song when he was growing up, he knew he wanted to go to San Antonio. : )

Then Keith drove the audience wild http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEXPNvOBG3o by not only leaving stage but climbing through the fence and going way up in the stands for You Look Good in My Shirt, even getting a young girl to sing a line of the song to his proffered microphone, and giving away a guitar. I was excited to see that instead of then making his way around the edge of the arena, as he had in Houston, Keith headed for the down-in the dirt crowd, walking the entire length of the rope 'barrier" slapping hands and even signing a couple things.

After the guys took their bow on stage, they climbed into the truck for their ride out of the arena. But they did not leave right away! Instead the truck rode right along the very edge of the arena so that Keith and the guys could slap hands with those in the front rows of the stands. That was a great idea - much better than Keith trying to run that long distance during YLGIMS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0YMGWOY814

They chased everyone out of the arena during the time between the afternoon and evening performances. I hung around in a nearby display building during the break because San Antonio had experienced a cold snap!! Roses in bloom but it dropped down to 40 and here I was in my sandals and shirt sleeves! (Austin had been 65 on Friday!).

The Rodeo Star down-in-the-dirt ticket includes a steak dinner before the show (in a separate little tent next door), somewhat cushier seats during the Rodeo, and then the trip down to the floor at concert time. People started lining up for the walk down a bit early during the rodeo, everyone hoping to get the front row floor seats. I was in about the middle of the group since I didn't want to stand in line too long. They took us down in an industrial size elevator and were very attentive to maintaining the order of the line to be fair. Then we were lead through long corridors since we would be entering the floor from the same chutes that the bulls and broncos had used. The first 15 or so people in line headed down the chute approach and then I heard a few squeals from some gals in front of me. When I looked up to see what the squeal was for, here comes Keith strolling down the hall!! All by his lonesome, no security or managers. And he doesn't bolt when he sees us - he continues down the corridor and shakes a few of our hands - no introductions but otherwise a little like a meet and greet line!! What a wonderful surprise!! My only regret is that I only got out a surprised "Hi Keith!!" as he clasped my hand, instead of wishing him a great show. Thank my lucky stars for putting me in the right place at the right time! (Later that evening I saw signs pointing down that corridor to the "Keith Urban buses" so I think we caught him in route from the buses to his "dressing room" or where ever he boards the vehicle which takes him out to the center of the rodeo floor.)

After a bit of fanfare alerting the rest of the audience that the lucky "Rodeo Star" ticket holders would next be coming out of the chute doors, the gate finally opened and our line went rushing towards the seats surrounding the stage. Well, rushing as best one could in 8 inch deep damp sand!! (I didn't want to think what else might be in that sand since I was in sandals!) Actually, I just gave in and took off my sandals and ran barefoot to capture a front row seat - yay!! And I held out my naked foot later as Keith rotated by singing "Gonna kick off my shoes and run in bare feet!" during Blacktop : )

The lineup for the evening show was the same as in the afternoon except for a few things:

You Gonna Fly included "a songbird from San Antonio" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSKaWMkeYVw

Blacktop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5l2fCnP_UA with a very special guitar excerpt that I had never heard before before Keith went into his echo round with the audience

Yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)

Uh-huh (uh-huh)

Yeah, yeah (yeah,yeah)

Uh-huh (Uh-huh)

Feel so good (Feel so good!!)

In San Antonio tonight (In San Antonio tonight)

A couple great-sounding lines of the last Sweet Thing chorus that Keith sang a cappella, resounding through the arena.

Keith did bring up one gal from the down-in-the-dirt seats about 6 feet to my left to sing during Kiss a Girl. "Anyone want to have a sing with us?" Keith asked. No contest but the lucky girl did get to sing with Keith and she was ecstatic!!

We were treated to You Look So Good in Love instead of San Antonio Stroll (I only wished that the stage would stop rotating so I could keep Keith in sight during this special song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC2OQzyGG1E

We got a few fun lines of Deep in the Heart of Texas (like he did on Urban Developments) before the Say 1, Say 2, Say 1, 2, 3 of Somebody Like You. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5QeyCiUXE

And, yes, after visiting the stands during YLGIMS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9vmObrHbms , he did come down and followed the rope in front of the floor seats, greeting all of us. So I got a second hand clasp for the day! Life is good!

Saturday morning I did not rush to San Antonio since the afternoon rodeo show was not until 1:30. That was a mistake! I did not anticipate a huge traffic jam at the highway exit for the A, T & T Center. We inched along oh so slowly for what seemed like forever. I followed the electronic signs above the lanes of traffic to the numbered rodeo parking lots, only to find that one after another was completely full and admitting no more cars. Finally a state patrolman told me the only lot with spots available was the off-site Gembler Road lot. So I inched my way there, parked and joined a huge line for the shuttle bus back to the Rodeo grounds. With all this delay I missed the entire afternoon rodeo except for the final bull-riding event!

I had bought a cheap seat way up in the nosebleed seats for the afternoon, but did watch with interest as the crew began to set up for the concert. Out came the portable stage to the center of the rodeo floor - a more modest size stage than what was featured at the Houston Rodeo and a stage with no fancy upper portion or background for the performers. I thought that was good because then there would be nothing but the band's equipment (amps, speakers, etc) to block one's view as the stage rotated to face each section of the arena in turn. But I got even more excited as I watched them roll out carts of folding chairs for the "Rodeo Star" down-in-the-dirt floor audience. Unlike Houston,in San Antonio they set up rows of chairs ahead of time for those with floor tickets - just 3 rows deep in most areas around the stage, so there really would be no bad seats down on the floor. Also, unlike Houston, which kept the floor folks down at one end of the arena - a good 30 feet from stage, San Antonio set up the chairs just about 10 feet from stage, encircling about 2/3 of the stage. A skinny little rope separated chairs from stage and there was little visible security (again, a contrast with Houston). It appeared they left the 10 ft gap primarily to allow Keith's camera guys to constantly run around the stage, to keeping him in view as the stage rotated. Watching all this I was so happy that I had purchased a down-in-the dirt seat for the evening show!!

The show itself was great, but an hour is way too short for us spoiled Urbanites!

Amazing Austin!!

Another KURT adventure right on the heels of my trip to the Ryman show! It is kind of a shame that, with so few shows this year and the inevitable deprivation that we will feel, that two of the few concert opportunities were quite so close together. If they were spaced apart they would satisfy my “dependency” over a longer period of time. Be that as it may, I was thrilled that I could fir this trip into my schedule.

What clinched the deal was the chance to attend a more intimate show with the added benefit of being able to support a very worthy charitable event in Austin, TX to help combat Batten’s disease. This also made me feel a little less guilty about leaving school early. We have spent this week in my Neuroanatomy course on disorders affecting nervous system development, so promoting research and treatment efforts for one such disease seem particularly appropriate. I scored a first-row center of the balcony seat (yay!) - the $500 for floor seats was a bit rich for my blood. (At the show, however, I learned that the week of the show the still plentiful floor seats were marked down almost to “balcony” prices!).

I had never been to Austin so tried to pack a lot of little Austin experiences into my few hours. I had some excellent breakfasts tacos at Tacodeli, a tiny but top-rated spot that even my GPS had trouble finding. I’m really glad I kept circling the area until I located it because the young men on their staff were so friendly and hlepful and even wrote me out a list of suggested stops for my brief time in their city! I made brief stops at the state capitol and the University of Texas campus, drove through many lovely neighborhoods, walked over the Congress Street bridge where apparently millions of Mexican free-tail bats reside, visited one of the "moonlight towers" that have been ligthing Austin since 1895, and went to another local favorite Maudie’s for more of those Texas tacos for lunch.

The Batten benefit early evening activities were for the VIP big donors only, so I bided my time by visiting an interesting bar/jazz club called the Elephant Room (all the wall lamp sconces are elephant head carvings). The jazz quartet (or trio plus a singer) did some great old favorites. I walked over to the Moody Theatre (site of the Austin City Limits show) in time for the auction portion of the benefit. Since I had received both mailings and emails encouraging everyone to arrive in time for the auction I thought I would people-watch even though I wouldn’t be bidding on the diamonds or vacation trips that were in their auction list : )! But despite those encouragements, I discovered that I would have to pay another $50 to enter the auction! So I and several other early-bird “balcony” folks had to sit outside for an hour before the balcony was opened for seating.At least I had fun chatting with another long-time Urbanite who had come down from Nashville for the show. We did hear over the loud speakers that the winning bid for the meet and greet with Keith went for $8000! Strangely, once we were able to enter the balcony, the benefit announcer kept making announcements looking for the winner so the M & G could happen and the show could begin. It took 15 or 20 minutes and multiple announcements before the winner showed up! I keep volunteering to take their place if they were too busy! : )

Danny has tweeted early in the day that this intimate theatre was going to be an awesome venue - and it was! It was a little bigger than the House of Blues type theatres but had that same feel. The stage was laid out with attractive Oriental rugs. Although they used a large screen to show us a brief video about Batten Disease and the Foundation, they then lifted the screen before Keith’s performance.

Here is the set list for the evening:

You Gonna Fly

Where the Blacktop Ends, with a break in the middle (and an interesting musical introduction) to interact with the audience before going back to the rollicking blacktop chorus. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWJJd4cCR48

How are you doing to each part of audience

And Keith lead us in one of his echo rounds:

Hey hey, un huh , hey hey, un-huh

Feel so good, feel alright

Feel so good, in Austin tonight

(Does it look like Keith is growing a little more well defined mustache?)

Days Go By (with a little added “You know they do, you know they do” during the final Days Go By

Keith then paused to thank everyone for coming and gave a special thanks " those of you who bid out the wazoo at the auction tonight!” And then he apparently heard someone say that it was their birthday, so Keith stopped and sang Happy Birthday to Jennifer : ) Lucky Jennifer!

Stupid Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hySdwlBhoCk and the solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUucxkluoXc

Sweet Thing with a really rocking guitar interlude

Long Hot Summer

You’ll Think of Me

Keith prefaced Making Memories by commenting that Valentine’s Day is coming up soon and questioned the audience: "Where are all the maried people? Where are all the single people in the audience.?Who’s not sure which they are? We’re gonna do this song for everybody feeling in love - which has I’d guess has grown exponentially in the last few hours!"

Making Memories of Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6vAleEuTRg

Then a very special treat: Keith said "Seeing how we are in Texas today and in Austin, YX in particular..

By the way I love the teeshirts that say Keep Austin Weird!"

"I'd ike to bring a good friend of mine out to do a song with me: Jack Ingram!"

When Jack came out he confessed "Being from TX I should know the words to every George Strait song around but just in case (and he held up his cell phone wiht the lyrics! hee hee)

Keith chimed in "We’ve neve done this song before which will become immediately apparent"

They sounded great together and what was even more impressive was all the men in the audience (who had been relatively quiet during Keith's songs) all joining in on the choruses of George’s song You Look So Good in Love.

It was especially fun when Keith and Jack got to the spoken portion of the song. Jack got down on bended knee and Keith finished his spoken part with “Please, let Jack Ingram say...” and went into the chorus and then the entire audience joined in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZGXBLeQI6w

After sending Jack off with a hug, I suddenly realized the “on the move” music from the last tour was playing and there was Keith coming off the stage out to a little platform just beneath my first row balcony spot to sing I’m In!! Now that was a view I had not had before. I loved it when at one point he looked up right at me and grinned when he saw me hanging over the edge of the balcony! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu_PtrG_R-8

Sweet Thing

Kiss a Girl, with a KAG competition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNFcSJWjsvw

Naturally the first gal Keith brought up from the audience was actually from California, not TX and only knew the first couple lines of the chorus, then tried to give the microphone back The second gal was from Austin, TX (big cheer from the audience) and did better but a cowboy in his Stetson stole the show - what a ham!

Without You (feeling almost as if Keith were singing in my living room)

Then Keith said "Let's mix it up a bit" and broke into the familar guitar intro to

Billy Joel's You May be Right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGxi5AwuMmE

Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me, followed by the introduction of the boys and their individual song excerpts

Somebody Like You

You Look Good in My Shirt (where Keith valiantly made it up to the balcony to perform even though this was not an arena with readily available stairways). He even gave away a guitar up there.

I'm liking Danny's new hair cut and color but I'm not sure about Brian’s “James Dean” or “John Mellencamp” hairdo - short, slicked, with a bit of a curl over his right forehead.

It was a wonderful show in a very special venue. Being a very mixed "charity" audience, there wasn't quite the audience participation on songs that we are used to at concerts. There were quite a few of us Urbanites but we were scattered in the audience. Keith realized the audience was not his usual and didn't 'ask' for as much participation as usual, although he did regularly compliment us on what singing was occurring. But I left still singing as I mosied down 2nd Street towards my hotel!

Welcome Back Keith! Urban's Return to the Ryman

It has been 115 days since Keith Urban's Get Closer Tour ended, but to many of us it has felt much much longer. This was especially true after he had to cancel three scheduled performances at the Grand Ole Opry late in the fall to have throat surgery. We fans really empathized with the wearing wait and worry Keith experienced during his post-op mandatory silence because we were feeling it too. Would that sweet voice survive intact??

I had had tickets to the canceled shows at the Ryman Auditorium and was so pleased to hear that one of the rescheduled performances would take place there the first weekend in February. I have long hoped to hear Keith perform in that intimate and historic venue. When I called to claim my seat at the rescheduled show, they were already full to Row U of the back floor, but at least I would be there. I had heard others say that there really are no bad seats at the Ryman and I was hoping that they were right.

Luckily it was time for exams in all of my classes, so I got everything ready and arranged for others to administer the tests so that I could leave for Nashville at the crack of dawn on Friday, Feb 3. It was icing on the cake that Nashville was 66 degrees when I arrived and pansies were blooming outside the airport! I was able to rent a car for $21 - cheaper than cabs or shuttles would be! I headed straight to the Ryman to pick up my tickets at will call before the evening crowds. A fellow fan who couldn't make the show ended up selling me her much better seat near the front of section 7 - a bit off to the side but my church pew seat was just 4 feet from that famous old stage.

Tickets in hand I decided to try out lunch at a local favorite "meat and three" I had read about online: Arnold's Country Kitchen. The line, as predicted, was long but moved quickly and the very friendly folks in line around me were happy to suggest their favorite dishes but said that everything was good. I ended up with some of the wonderful roast beef carved off the biggest roast I have ever seen - yum! Then I went exploring for a couple hours before checking into the free room at the Hilton hubby had gotten me with some of his Hilton reward points.

Unfortunately that was when my day went bad for a bit. Checking into the hotel I noticed my driver's license was missing!! The driver's license that I needed to fly home and to fly on another upcoming trip next week! My first thought was that the rental car agency had not returned it to me. For 45 minutes I tried calling their airport location but they wouldn't answer the phone. Then I tried the national reservation number and they got me through to the Nashville manager. He went to check with all the employees but no license was found. I was a nervous wreck for another hour when I remembered I had also shown my license to claim my tickets at will call. I called the Ryman and hallelujah!! - they had my license. What a relief!!

I was tickled by the location of my new seat just 2 seats away from stage edge. As my pew and the ones behind us filled in, it was clear many Monkeys had traveled from far and wide to attend this show! We kept peeking under the stage curtains hoping to see those familiar boots. Some ambitious fans had made us small hot pink signs saying "Welcome back - we missed you!!" But as soon as the ushers saw them they sent down security to warn us that signs would not be tolerated during the show.

Although I enjoyed the Opry ambience of the entire show the more 'old-style' country numbers are not my favorites, especially when I am impatiently awaiting the star of the show. I did enjoy seeing Eden's Edge again, later Charley Pride, and then had fun singing along with Rocky Top, Elvira and Amazing Grace. I was a bit worried - I could see the stage clock and the show was running 5 minutes later than the schedule in the program - would Keith's segment be cut short?

We were puzzled as the stagehands set up for Keith's segment during one of the last radio show sponsor commercials. Out came 4 or 5 chairs and extra microphones! What was going on here?? Turns out these were the chairs for the string quartet that Keith surprised us with for a new exciting version of Long Hot Summer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfX6zZtXYvo !! What a great and unique performance that was!! I wish I knew the whole story behind this - were these student musicians that he happened to meet or work with somewhere? (they all looked quite young to me) Was their performance among those submitted in his Long Hot Summer cover contest? I'm sorry I didn't include them very well in my video but I was just too entranced by Mr. Urban!

Keith sounded and looked great (if a little thin) in form fitting black jeans and a longer sleeve olive knit shirt. He came out with a big "Yee haw!" and received and huge screaming welcome - the somewhat staid auditorium suddenly came to life when he finally walked out on stage (with a slightly embarrassed but also delighted smile). "You guys are crazy!!" he said and then went on to thank the Opry for being so compassionate and understanding when he had to cancel the earlier shows and for having him back.

Of course despite all the Urbanites that made it to the Ryman, the majority of the audience were the usual Nashville tourists making their visit to the Grand Ole Opry which just happened to be holding its final winter show at the old "mother church of country music." So I think many of them were baffled when, during his second song, Making Memories of Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNUA_QdGK2U ,Keith said that one of the things he loved about the Ryman was its incredible intimacy. To prove it he went on to say that we could sing together there even without the trimmings of the stage microphones and amps. With just his acoustic guitar he stepped out in front of his microphone and sat on one of the amps to sing another chorus of the song with us. All of us Monkeys joined along but, a bit different from the arena shows of the tour, here we were a kind of quiet angelic choir responding to Keith's pure pluckings from the stage.

Then he turned up the volume a bit and rocked the house with You're Gonna Fly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxrQCEYtb0s , joined by the full band. It was great to see all the guys - Jerry now sporting a beard and stache, Danny with longer and lighter hair (a bit more like Keith's), and Brian with very short hair and sporting a jaunty cap (sorry Chris - my view of you was all but blocked).

Apparently three songs is the usual, so we were thrilled when Keith reported he had been asked to a sing a fourth, so he ended his set with a special Somebody Like You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_q7Nrz4hOY , slightly tweaked for the occasion: " And it sure feels good to be on this stage and back at the Ryman!" and later "You're teaching us to be a better band!" ( Not possible! : )

But that was not the end. Steve Wariner brought Keith back out because, he said, he really needed a second guitar on his song. So Keith a Steve jammed a bit, having a good ol' time.

An extra special Opry night : ) only lacking in the absence of the predicted invitation to Keith to join the Opry : ( . Every time all the players that evening had talked about how special this evening was, we were hoping that it was special for more reasons than it being the last night for the old Ryman stage. But that extra-special event we fans were hoping for didn't materialize this evening. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.

It has been 115 days since Keith Urban's Get Closer Tour ended, but to many of us it has felt much much longer. This was especially true after he had to cancel three scheduled performances at the Grand Ole Opry late in the fall to have throat surgery. We fans really empathized with the wearing wait and worry Keith experienced during his post-op mandatory silence because we were feeling it too. Would that sweet voice survive intact??

I had had tickets to the canceled shows at the Ryman Auditorium and was so pleased to hear that one of the rescheduled performances would take place there the first weekend in February. I have long hoped to hear Keith perform in that intimate and historic venue. When I called to claim my seat at the rescheduled show, they were already full to Row U of the back floor, but at least I would be there. I had heard others say that there really are no bad seats at the Ryman and I was hoping that they were right.

Luckily it was time for exams in all of my classes, so I got everythng ready and arranged for others to administer the tests so that I could leave for Nashville at the crack of dawn on Friday, Feb 3. It was icing on the cake that Nashville was 66 degrees when I arrived and pansies were blooming outside the airport! I was able to rent a car for $21 - cheaper than cabs or shuttles would be! I headed straight to the Ryman to pick up my tickets at will call before the evening crowds. A fellow fan who couldn't make the show ended up selling me her much better seat near the front of section 7 - a bit off to the side but my church pew seat was just 4 feet from that famous old stage.

Tickets in hand I decided to try out lunch at a local favorite "meat and three" I had read about online: Arnold's Country Kitchen. The line, as predicted, was long but moved quickly and the very friendly folks in line around me were happy to suggest their favorite dishes but said that everything was good. I ended up with some of the wonderful roast beef carved off the biggest roast I have ever seen - yum! Then I went exploring for a couple hours before checking into the free room at the Hilton hubby had gotten me with some of his Hilton reward points.

Unfortunately that was when my day went bad for a bit. Checking into the hotel I noticed my driver's license was missing!! The driver's license that I needed to fly home and to fly on another upcoming trip next week! My first thought was that the rental car agency had not returned it to me. For 45 minutes I tried calling their airport location but they wouldn't answer the phone. Then I tried the national reservation number and they got me through to the Nashville manager. He went to check with all the employees but no license was found. I was a nervous wreck for another hour when I remembered I had also shown my license to claim my tickets at will call. I called the Ryman and hallelujah!! - they had my license. What a relief!!

I was tickled by the location of my new seat just 2 seats away from stage edge. As my pew and the ones behind us filled in, it was clear many Monkeys had traveled from far and wide to attend this show! We kept peeking under the stage curtains hoping to see those familiar boots. Some ambitious fans had made us small hot pink signs saying "Welcome back - we missed you!!" But as soon as the ushers saw them they sent down security to warn us that signs would not be tolerated during the show.

Although I enjoyed the Opry ambience of the entire show the more 'old-style' country numbers are not my favorites, especially when I am impatiently awaiting the star of the show. I did enjoy seeing Eden's Edge again, later Charley Pride, and then had fun singing along with Rocky Top, Elvira and Amazing Grace. I was a bit worried - I could see the stage clock and the show was running 5 minutes later than the schedule in the program - would Keith's segment be cut short??

We were puzzled as the stagehands set up for Keith's segment during one of the last radio show sponsor commercials. Out came 4 or 5 chairs and extra microphones! What was going on here?? Turns out these were the chairs for the string quartet that Keith surprised us with for a new exciting version of Long Hot Summer!! What a great and unique performance that was!! I wish I knew the whole story behind this - were these student musicians that he happened to meet or work with somewhere? (they all looked quite young to me) Was their performance among those submitted in his Long Hot Summer cover contest? I'm sorry I didn't include them very well in my video but I was just too entranced by