A few shots from AJR in Nashville. 7/31/24 🤩❤️🎶💃🏽

AJR Fever

I honestly don’t know where to begin. There’s so much to say. As I type this, I’m on a quick trip to Nashville. For perspective, Nashville is my hometown; it’s not strange to think I’d be here, except I was just here 4 months ago and don’t ever come back this soon and definitely not for just a couple of days. It’s a 10-hour drive to get here from Florida.

So, what brought me back so soon this time? In a (band) name, AJR. We saw them in Orlando in May after surprising my 16yo with tickets for her birthday in January, and my mind was completely blown - so much so that when the opportunity to see them again in Nashville presented itself these 4 months later, there was no way we weren’t taking advantage of it.

It’s probably been a couple of years since my kids first played me a couple of AJR songs in my car, and I didn’t think much about it. I figured they were just some new band I’d never hear from again. But the more I listened to them, the more I liked them, and they became a regular part of my car playlists. I have since become a huge fan of theirs, and I can’t seem to get enough of them, especially after seeing them in person twice this year. I am actually kind of bummed that I will likely have to wait until the next tour to see them again. Honestly, I have no idea how they can possibly top this tour (the stage production for The Maybe Man Tour is NEXT LEVEL), but I can’t wait to see what comes next from them.

As someone who is almost 50 years old and has seen more concerts than she can remember, I have to say AJR’s show is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. After seeing them the first time, I was actually quite speechless. After you’ve seen as many shows as I have, it’s easy to get to a point where you start to feel like maybe you’ve seen all there is to see and heard all there is to hear. Then one day your teenagers introduce you to AJR, and a few months later, you find yourself taking them to a concert that blows you away as much as it does the kids.

It’s hard to adequately put this into words because unless you’ve seen this tour, there’s really no way I can fully describe what we experienced in a way that you will completely comprehend. It is a full-on stage production visually and sonically from start to finish. From larger than life video screens to lasers, special effects, and live horns, there is never a dull moment…not to mention the brothers’ (Adam, Jack, and Ryan) humor and interactions with each other and the audience.

At one point, they even popped up in the upper level and sang a few songs while seated with the fans, and all I could think about was how fantastic it would be to be one of those fans at that moment. There was so much going on the entire show, and of course, they sounded fantastic. It’s clear that tons of strategic planning went into pulling off a show like that, and it absolutely paid off. Congratulations to the band and their crew for a job well done.

I have to give credit to my daughters for the monster AJR fan I’ve turned into because this band would not be on my radar at all if it weren’t for them. Kudos to my kids for having great taste in music. I feel like they got that naturally since their parents AND grandparents are all huge music fans, singers, and musicians. They have also turned us on to twenty one pilots and Alec Benjamin, who we will also be seeing soon, in the fall. I have no doubt I’ll have stars in my eyes after those as well, but man, what an act they have to follow now that I’ve seen AJR twice in 4 months. I have a feeling they’re up to the challenge. I guess we will soon find out!

700 pics later, I'm all done editing photos from Nashville. Here are some images from downtown, taken on the main strip on Broadway. It was an adventure, being a tourist in my own hometown, and I absolutely loved it.

Another highlight of our trip to Nashville was getting to be there for Juneteenth and the National Museum of African American Music's official dedication - a mind blowing experience. It's a bit overwhelming, all the things that are there to see and read, but in the best possible way...all the more reason to go back and re-explore another time!

The Nashville Zoo was one of the stops we made on our recent trip to Nashville. It's a wonderful place! I really hope to go back sometime.

Beautiful Nashville. I don’t get to visit nearly as often as I should, but it will always be home.

It’s amazing the memories a song can bring back. I was reminded of this one tonight and decided to listen to it for the first time in a long time. This was my introduction to the Indigo Girls way back when. A girl I was pursuing music with at the time played this for me, and I was hooked. I’ll never be able to hear it without thinking of her, and listening to it tonight instantly took me back to her living room in Nashville where this was one of the songs we used to belt out together over and over again. These harmonies still make me smile, even after all this time. Thank you, music. ❤️🎤🎵

For the Love of Live Music in the Age of COVID

Anyone who knows me or has followed me online for any amount of time knows that music is my life. Specifically, much of my life - both professionally and personally - revolves around live performances. For me, they are an essential service, but it’s just not safe to congregate that way at the moment. While many people have missed not being able to get their hair cut or their nails done while everything is on hold for COVID-19, if I had to pick one thing that I miss most, it would be live music.

From a personal perspective, concerts play a big part in keeping me sane. I’ve done numerous blog posts on that subject. A cool thing that’s come out of everyone being off the road is that the artists I love to go see live also miss the road and have been doing online performances from their homes pretty regularly. While I’ve enjoyed that, it is definitely not the same as being in the same room with them, only a few feet away and breathing the same air. You just can’t duplicate the energy of being there in the moment with them. For now, I am grateful that we have at least this outlet for sharing the music we love, but I dream of the day when we can all be in the same space again.

Professionally, I’ve made my living in various concert venues and theaters for over 20 years with only a break here and there to be a stay-at-home mom. It sounds strange to me to say that because that seems like a really long time, and I guess it is in a way, but it hasn’t felt like it because I love what I do. Any job brings headaches with it sometimes, but the feeling I get from looking in a packed room that I helped fill and seeing people enjoying themselves and getting lost in the performance is like nothing else. I remember feeling that especially when I peeked in on the very first Nashville Predators hockey game years ago when I was still in Nashville working at what is now Bridgestone Arena. I had no interest in sports but was curious to see the sold out crowd in the stands and what all the fuss was about, so I went in for a few minutes and took it all in, and the energy in that room was unbelievable. I felt an immense sense of pride that I had helped make that happen, and I have had an on-going appreciation for the Predators ever since - as our hometown team as well as for the time I spent working there. I’ve felt that feeling many times since then over the years. Somehow, all the hard work feels worth it when the lights go down, the act hits the stage, and the crowd cheers.

With talk of concerts possibly not returning until 2021, it definitely gives me reason for concern as a fan and as a person who works in live events. As much as I miss seeing my favorite artists on the road, there is also the part of me with a family to feed who worries about what it will mean for my job long-term if this continues too much longer. I’m thankful that, unlike many in my field, I’ve been able to keep working from home thus far, but the 2nd half of our season was also wiped out by mid-March because of this. The live entertainment world has been hit so hard with countless canceled shows and those who work so hard to make those shows happen suddenly being left wondering what comes next. Our business can’t just open back up and go back to normal even when the time comes. Live performances take a lot of time - months and even years - to work out logistically. They don’t just happen overnight, and while our next season, scheduled to begin in the fall, is already mostly booked, I’m not overly optimistic that that’s going to happen as planned either. It feels like a lot is up in the air, and the planner in me doesn’t like ambiguity.

At the end of the year, I usually make a list of the concerts I saw as a fan that year. Sadly, this year’s list will be pretty nonexistent. Thankfully, I was able to see Allen Stone w/Samm Henshaw and Andy Suzuki & The Method a couple of weeks before everything blew up. As amazing as that show was, I had no idea at the time that it would likely have to hold me the rest of the year. The other shows I was planning to see right after that were canceled, of course, and there will probably not be any tangible summer concert season. That realization is heavy for me.

That said, I am in no hurry to rush back into a crowd of any kind and probably won’t be for a while. I am generally not a fan of crowds even under normal circumstances, and I am certainly not ready to be in one right now. I think it’s possible to deeply miss the things we love to do while also acknowledging and respecting the fact that now is not the time for them. Now is the time to pause these things to be able to come back together and enjoy them again later when it’s safer from a public health standpoint. So, I can mourn, with everything in me, the show season that has been so rudely and abruptly interrupted, but I am also happy to stay at home as long as it takes. Those emotions don’t have to cancel each other out, nor should they.

Hot. 🔥🔥🔥

You - OK, I - Can’t Go Home Again

I have not lived in my hometown (Nashville) since 2003. I’ve probably mentioned before how I never planned to move away, and after I did, I was homesick a lot of the time. I went back often in the beginning, then less, and now I go years at a time without going back and am perfectly OK with that. That probably sounds like it’s to be expected, but the thing is, I just don’t miss it anymore.

Don’t get me wrong; there are certain aspects of it I miss - mostly having to do with the music scene (naturally, given that music is my everything) - but between the stress of family drama over the last decade and so many of the relatives I miss (from the other, non-drama side of the family) having also moved away, I don’t have the desire to go back that I used to have...not to mention, the effort and expense that goes into traveling with a family, which I didn’t have before. It just doesn’t seem worth it to go to all that trouble for somewhere I don’t really want to go, despite there still being a handful of friends and relatives there I would actually like to see. It’s kind of become an “I’ll catch you when you come to Florida” thing.

I feel more and more like Florida is my home now, and Nashville, while it will always be my hometown and special in its own right, just isn’t (home) anymore. There was a time when I fully expected to move back to Nashville someday, but those days are long gone. I can’t see that happening at this point, but life is strange, so who knows how I’ll feel in another 10 years? But for now, I can barely bring myself to visit, much less entertain the idea of moving back.

When I first left, I was so sad to leave (which I initially did for a job in Houston before moving to Florida), and my mom told me that I should stay there (in Houston) because there was nothing in Nashville for me anymore. That sounded so harsh to me at the time, especially since the drama with my dad’s side of the family didn’t exist then. I missed my family and friends and saw no reason why I shouldn’t just go back home if I missed it so much. I guess that was her way of saying that there was more for me to discover out in the world and that coming back to Nashville was going to hinder me from finding what I needed. At that time, I thought Nashville was what I needed. Now that time has passed, and I’ve created a whole new life with a husband and kids and friends and a great job in Florida...after all these years, I finally agree with her.

So good. ❤️

Dear Diary, 11.7.13

1. People seem to think it’s strange that we (me, my husband, and the kids) do everything together as a family. I think it’s strange that they don’t…

2. I’ve been having a lot of email convos with other family members about the Thanksgiving menu. I’m happy to say we seem to have just about everything worked out about who is making what, but all this talk about Thanksgiving food has made me hungry all week. It’s my favorite meal of the year. I look forward to it so much every year that I have been known to make turkey and dressing in the summer because I can’t wait. So yeah…ready for it.

3. Don’t you hate it when the one phone call you’re waiting for is the one that hasn’t come? Yeah, me too.

4. Of course, I watched the CMA Awards last night. Watching country shows is always a mixed bag for me of pride in my hometown and induced homesickness. Great show, though. Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert especially blew me away, but then, don’t they always? Loved the tribute to Kenny Rogers too. He’s amazing, as are all the artists who were in the tribute. Kenny Rogers’ music was a huge part of the soundtrack of my childhood, and I still think his songs are some the best ever.

5. I haven’t actively kept a diary since I was a teenager, but if that’s part of what this blog has become, so be it.