Little Big Town in a Little Big Town (Davenport)

I really enjoyed Little Big Town when they opened a half dozen or so Keith Urban shows I attended a few summers ago. When I saw that they would be performing at a small Iowa theatre, I jumped at the opportunity to see them on their own tour. I originally hoped that my youngest - whose school is just 90 minutes away from the venue - would join me. But it turned out that her big sister had made plans to visit her that weekend and take her to the Hawks game, so mama was out of luck. So we changed up our plans - hubby agreed to come to Davenport with me and we would meet Annie and Sara and Sam for brunch the morning after their football game and victory pub crawl : ).

Jim and I stayed at the lovely refurbished historic Blackhawk Hotel just a couple doors down from the theatre. We had a nice Italian dinner at Antonella's, then (not being a country music fan) Jimmy headed to the Davenport Celtic Fest while I went to the Adler Theatre. Iowa born Jake McVey opened for LBT. He has a decent voice - here is his first single Carry On - but I was wishing that he would venture off his stool and show us a little more of his personality. I did appreciate it that he told us he was the only Iowan who had had a CMT Top 10 video and that he had successfully beat Keith Urban in one of CMT video challenges ( the KU fan club must have been sleeping that day! : ) Here he is singing Waylon's Luckenbach, Texas with a bit of an impersonation of Willie Nelson singing this song.

Little Big Town was full of energy and fun to watch, but gosh darn it a four person group is hard to videotape because they are so spread out on stage. So I only caught a few clips: Bring It On Home , a bit of Good as Gone, and then their cover of Lady Gaga's Born This Way .

In the morning two daughters and a beau came to Davenport to have breakfast with us. I searched Yelp and Urbanspoon for something a little interesting and found a homey local place called Riefe's. Loved the fresh homemade cinnamon sugar donut holes that they placed on the table before we even ordered! Tasted very much like the donuts my father used to make us.

Then Sara and Sam headed back to Chicago for a White Sox Game while Jim and I drove Annie back to Iowa City and helped her hang a bookshelf in her new apartment before we headed back home. A nice weekend - a little travel, good music and a little family time!

James Taylor and Ben Taylor in Davenport, IA

Last spring I so enjoyed James Taylor's and Carole King's Troubadour Reunion - such wonderful music and so many warm memories! A few months ago I saw that Taylor would be performing in Iowa, in the Quad Cities, in a small historic theatre akin to the Fox Theatre venues. I decided that seeing him in such an intimate venue was something I'd like to do. To top it off, the show was conveniently scheduled for the Friday night beginning my Spring Break from school - a perfect time for a little roadtrip.

Davenport, IA is about 2.5 hours away. When I headed out after my last class campus was already deserted - everyone was anxious to begin their spring break! I had been craving Thai food so had googled Quad City restaurants and picked a place called Exotic Thai in Moline to enter into my GPS. It was perfect! I had such a delicious and interesting dinner. Picking an appetizer I had never heard of and a chicken coconut curry from their extensive menu I ate every little bit! It was so good that I decided a visit to a second Exotic Thai in Davenport would be necessary for lunch the next day! : )

My seat at the Adler Theatre was in row H of the main floor. Although it wasn't truly the 8th row (there seemed to be some extra "pit" rows) it was still a darn good seat. Taylor is touring with his son Ben so I wasn't sure what to expect. Ben is talented, good looking and has a great sense of humor, so he brought a lot to the evening. The setlist included quite a few of Ben's songs - all enjoyable and mostly of a distinctly different 'flavor' than those of his father (mix in a little soft adult contemporary a la Jack Johnson). Here is Ben having fun with his song "Your Boyfriend is a Really Nice Guy". Some songs they sang as duets, while on others one or the other would primarily provide guitar accompaniment. Of course new, unfamiliar music doesn't produce quite the same warm, comfortable feelings of old favorites but Ben's selections did spark an interest in taking a look at his upcoming album. Ben and James sat far enough apart that I often had a hard time capturing both father and son (between

audience heads) in my videoclips. Here is a bit of Carolina On My Mind

A bit of Don't Want to be Lonely

Angry Blues

Sweet Baby James

The show was a very chatty and personal offering - almost as if we were sitting in their living room listening to stories and jokes between songs. Ben and James seem to have a wonderful relationship. At one point James got up and nuzzled the side of Ben's head and neck with his balding pate - he is a proud and affectionate father! The Davenport crowd was quite interactive - shouting out Happy Birthdays to James almost as soon as he and Ben came out on stage and then the whole audience broke out into a verse of happy birthday to James.