Our Hunter Hayes Adventure

The insurance company Country Financial has been a sponsor at several country concerts I've attended over the years. They have hosted special photo booths at some shows (the Houston Rodeo and a Little Big Town concert are 2 I have souvenirs from), so at some point I must have given them my email address. As a result I periodically get emails from them about country events that they are involved with. Early this year I received one of their "Road Trips and Guitar Picks" announcements of their upcoming live streaming concerts and free ticket contests to promote Hunter Hayes. Two of the shows were to take place in Chicago and in Minneapolis where my daughters Sara and Annie (respectively) live. So I entered those contests daily until the deadline. Happily, a few days later I received the email that I had won 4 tickets to the private Hunter Hayes show at a small club in Minneapolis!! YAY!!

Country Financial, as is their right, seemed quite intent on not having these free tickets end up being brokered. They immediately requested the names and addresses of those who would be attending and stressed that each person had to have a photo ID that would be matched up with this list of attendees to enter the show. Annie invited two of her best buddies to accompany us and I sent in our list of names and addresses.

I was very excited at the idea of an intimate Hunter Hayes show. I had seen Hunter perform at Keith Urban's Las Vegas concert last tour, and was familiar with his couple hit singles, but did not know much else about his music. I kept an eye out for his CD at my local stores, but didn't find it. Finally, on the morning of the show, I decided to downoad Hunter's album off of Itunes so that Annie's best friend Katie and I could listen to it during our 3 hour drive up to Minneapolis. I did so, burned myself and CD and Katie and I headed up north.
Since Annie would be working until 5:00 , Katie and I planned on being in the Twin Cities about an hour before the 5:30 venue arrival  that Country Financial had requested.

About halfway to Minneapolis, we stopped for gas. I grabbed my purse to get out a credit card only to discover NO WALLET!! Here I am, driving to another state for an overnight visit and a show requiring ID, and I have no driver's license, no photo ID, no credit cards!!! How could this be?? I called home and was informed that my wallet was there, next to the computer where I had used a credit card to pay for my Itunes download : (  It was too late to return home and still make the show. I had enough cash to pay for my gas and asked that a copy of my driver's license be faxed to our Minneapolis hotel. Hopefully with that, the hotel would let me check in and perhaps the FAX would satisfy those checking us in at the concert. But I was still totally stressed, thinking I may be traveling all the way to Minneapolis for nothing, and was feeling naked without my wallet and its contents. I would have to rely on my daughter's credit card to get us through our visit.

We arrived safely, parked 2 blocks from the venue and found an odd little bar nearby to wait for Annie to get off from work. At 5:30 we headed over to the Fine Line Music Cafe, where several dozen people were already lined up, waiting for the doors to open. When a guy came down the line, checking IDs, I kept my fingers crossed that my FAX would do. Well, he was just checking that we were of legal drinking age, so was unconcerned that I only had a fax. As we entered the club, they checked off our names on their list,gave us our souvenir lanyards with our Hunter passes, but did not ask for photo IDs, so I was greatly relieved. The Fine Line is a cute little club with just a few tables close to the bar and an open floor area right in front of the small stage. We staked out a spot at the right side of the stage, then enjoyed the free drink tickets Country Financial had provided until they annnounced it was time for us to line up for our Meet and Greet and photos with Hunter! : ) Annie's friend Ping was not an ardent country fan, so wasn't interested in the M & G, so she held our spot while Annie, Katie and I joined the line that wove its way up the stairs to the second level, where Hunter and the photographer were located. Hunter was very cordial greeting each of us. I mentioned I had seen him in 2011 at that Vegas concert with Keith and knew then that he would be a big hit. He thanked me and thanked us for coming and we had our photo taken.

We re-claimed our spots upfront and were surprised to find a half dozen others who had come up from Cedar Falls, Iowa standing right next to us! It was such a treat to be perched  on the edge of the stage for a great hour long show with Hunter and his band. He was so personable, telling us stories and cracking jokes between songs. His vocals were great,  he is quite the guitarist and his bandmates are almost as cute as he is.  He sang all of my favorites from his excellent album and ended with his hit singles. Here are a few samples:

Love Makes Me
Love Starts Slippin'
Light Me Up
Rainy Season
Storm Warning
Wanted

A highlight, which unfortunately I did not catch on camera, was when Hunter incorporated in his great song If You Told Me To a bit of Somebody Like You, commenting afterwards that he had to include a bit from one of his idols Keith Urban! Luckily, someone else did catch this medley at another of Hunter's small shows:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqwhAbgbXtA

 The four of us had a great time at this wonderful show and I hope to attend more Hunter Hayes concerts in the future. Thank you so much Country Financial and Hunter Hayes!!

We left the warmth of the Fine Line Music Cafe to walk a couple blocks in the bitterly cold Minnesota wind to a pub for a late supper before heading to our hotel. Annie and Katie decided to have a couple drinks together but mom was ready for some sweet dreams before heading home to Iowa.