Country Must Be Country Wide

Its no secret that I love music. Country music, gospel music, rock-n-roll, alternative, classical, hip hop, even bluegrass music. I just love music in general. It completely depends on my mood as to what I feel like listening to.

I have been to several concerts in my life as well. My very first one was New Kids on the Block when I was about 13. There is nothing like watching an artist that you love live & in person. The energy, the excitement, the adrenaline, there's nothing like it.

Now my kids have been to MerleFest (the local bluegrass festival - it's HUGE), but they have never been to any other concert.

Well, we changed that last Sunday.

We traveled down to the Greensboro Harley Davidson for an acoustic Brantley Gilbert concert & CD signing. It wasn't a regular full fledged BG concert with all of the bells & whistles, but we had an AWESOME time! Plus we got to meet Brantley, get his autograph, & shake his hand!

This concert was part of a week long trip dubbed #AthensToArlington to celebrate the release of Brantley's 3rd album Just As I Am. During this adventure, he stopped at numerous places starting at his hometown Jefferson, GA & ending at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day where he placed a wreath on the unknown soldier's grave. At every single stop, BG would ride his Harley in, play an acoustic set, & sign autographs, while Folds of Honor would give scholarships to families of fallen soldiers.

The biggest part of the afternoon was spent enjoying small un-discovered bands, singing, dancing, & mingling with people from all over. We enjoyed the Carri Smithey Band, but we really loved Zach Burick with Hell or High Water. They are from Rural Hall & just released A Country Boy's Dream over the weekend. Check it out!

Oh did I mention that we got to meet Zach Burick too?? Yep, we did. The guitar player even let Makenzie wear his hat!

As the evening grew later, the excitement grew stronger. We were all anxiously awaiting Brantley to ride in on his Harley! I got to see all his tour buses roll in, but I missed the Harleys. :(

Folds of Honor recognized the family of Major Larry J Bauguess Jr (no relation). He was from Moravian Falls (not far at all from us - same county) & was killed in action May 14, 2007. His daughters were awarded full scholarships to college.

As far as "seats" go (we weren't sitting), this was the closest I have ever been at a concert. We were only about 15 people back so we could see pretty good. Of course, Makenzie took a turn on everyone's shoulders so she could see.

Brantley played 4 songs & took several questions from the crowd before heading over for autographs. He agreed to sign EVERY. SINGLE. CD. even though the first 300 were the only ones he was supposed to sign.

Even though his PR people said he was signing CDs only, my lovely 8 year old daughter smiled sweetly at him & asked him to sign her hat. He winked at her, reached for her hat, & said "this whole line is getting ready to go nuts"! She was on cloud 9! Oh course, so was I! ;)

You would think that my excitement would have calmed down just a little bit over the next couple of days, BUT imagine my shock, surprise, & elation when I discovered that MY PICTURES, both some that I had taken & some of my family were plastered all over Brantley Gilbert's website!


Oh yes! I am FAMOUS!!!

Now I have no clue how long they will be on there, so of course I took pictures of the pictures for proof!

I think I can safely say that my kids first concert will definitely be a memorable one!