I was determined I was wearin' me a sundress and cowboy boots. It was 90freakin5 but I didn't care. I wanted to be cute. (Anthony said comfort was more important than cute when it's this hot, but I ignored him.)
Boots were a freebie from my bud Brandi (she outgrew 'em post-baby)
and the dress was an el-cheapo from Rugged Wearhouse!
So traffic was worse than a tangled strand of 20,000 Christmas lights. We showed up late to the eat & greet, but they let us in (FO FREE) and we got to eat (yum!) and hear the ZBB boys play. Anth chatted with Jimmy (the cool cat on violin) but we didn't push our way through to talk to Zac. We were just glad to be there. Next year we'll get on the computer early and be ready! The tix sold out in 5 minutes. Yikes!
(Anth also talked to the chef who is the master mind behind all the tasty vittles...he was cool.)
We walked down the street and across the bridge. We walked across the street. We walked through the stadium, across the concourse (whatever that is) and then there was the ramp. The lovely humongo treacherous long ramp. Did I mention the ramp was forever long? I felt like I was walkin' up the stairway to Heaven. My feet were burning, but alas, we finally found our seats. So what if we were up in the heavens with the birds, helicopters and clouds? We were sitting. Ahhhh. Second guessing my foot attire....
A girl next to me had her boots kicked off and I told her she had the right idea and I became a copy cat. She said she thought she had blisters and I said yeah, me too!
After ZBB, Easton Corbin sang a few. He was okay. Sara Evans came next. She did: As If, Born to Fly, Stronger (everybody in the place was singing along with her...she said Hillary Scott of Lady A wrote that song and I was surprised they didn't keep it for themselves but anyhoo), My Heart Can't Tell You No (Rod Stewart penned this one and SE is about to release her version), and Real Fine Place to Start. She sounded reeeeal good.
Casey James (of American Idol fame) played an acoustic set between acts. He sounded good, but may have been a milli-tad nervous. Bless his heart.
When Jason Aldean came out, as they say, the crowd went wild. Up on their feet screamin' wild. He did Crazy Town, My Kind of Party, Big Green Tractor, Don't You Wanna Stay (WITH KELLY CLARKSON AND IT WAS AWWWESOMMMMME do you hear me?), Dirt Road Anthem, Johnny Cash, Hick Town, and She's Country. Brought down the house.
Ricky Skaggs came out and did an acoustic set while Brad Paisley's
Brad Paisley got a bigger reaction than Aldean when he took the stage. We listened to a few, but headed on out. Part of our motivation was the traffic. We got out lickety split. I might have walked in my sock feet from the outside of the stadium back to the car. You'll never know... We heard that Alabama showed up to sing with BP. Oh well... we didn't have to sit in hours of gridlock.
Out late? Tastes great!
