We left off at the end of Jake Owens set. Fifteen minutes of country hits from the DJ and the stage set finally transformed.
The lights go down, movement on the stage, the crowd hushes.
Then….
A roar rises….
… and we are swept into the full effect of Jason Aldean and the Night Train experience!
Pictures may speak a thousand words, but they lack the wonderful effervescence of being swept away into the rhythm of the music.
Just more JA pics.
This band has a heart of country, but their soul is in rock and roll. I love the steel guitar as part of the band.
He sang all the favorites… She’s Country, Tattoos on This Town, Crazy Town, Flyover States, 1994, and a slew of others.
He even did the duet with Kelly Clarkson. Off to far side of the stage, a full size video played her singing. It looked so real in the dark.
That was fun.
The stage colors fascinate me. Hence the many pictures of the whole stage.
This is definitely “Big Green Tractor”
The best part of it all is the time spent with my baby.
I hope you get a vicarious sense of the fun we had. It was a blast, even with no backstage passes or signed autographs. Just feeling that bass reverberate through every cell of our bodies and singing those lyrics at the top of our lungs was enough to satisfy any country girl’s heart.
This post might be in two segments… Just a warning.
My daughter and I went to see Jason Aldean in concert over the Mother’s day weekend. Country music, rocking like the classics. It was a blast. Need I say more?
My hubby insisted we stay in a hotel in town so we wouldn’t have to drive home after the show. The whole trip made for a weekend we will remember for a loooong time.
Our hotel sat in the center of town. Our city has a very tourist friendly downtown district and made our experience even better. We checked in fairly early to have time to get dressed.
After getting all dolled up for the concert, we took a stroll down the main drag to find a place to eat. We ended up at a favorite eatery where we sat outside to enjoy the awesome weather we had that day.
While sitting there waiting for our food, the girls at the table next to us were talking about the concert.So much excitement coming from that table I couldn’t help but be my nosey self and eavesdrop. It was so much fun to watch them having fun. Then one of them asked my girl if we were going to the concert. They got a good look at her boots and made a likely assumption. Those are some great looking boots. Turns out the girls were out here for a bachelorette party. Making their day even better, they were given backstage passes by Jake Owen’s band members! I think Jake even stopped by himself to say hi. They were all hyped up and couldn’t wait to get to the show.
The girls were enjoying the sun and several beers, glasses of wine, whatever. Before long we were exchanging numbers and they were trying on the girl’s boots.
This is Leslie and Jackie. Leslie is sure my girl will be the perfect mate for her little brother (same age as my girl). This, as the mother, is way too early in life to be making that sort of decision.
This was such fun. My girl had a blast talking these young ladies, swapping numbers, taking pics. She didn’t even finish her meal she was so busy having fun.
The came the concert itself. We got to the arena early, plenty of time to find our seats. Only we sat our bums into the wrong seats and didn’t find out until the original owners of those seats wanted to sit there about 5 mins before the show! We felt a little stupid, having picked the wrong side of the aisle to sit. Turns out, our real seats were more awesome than our mistake seats.
As you see, we got there really early… empty seats and a vacant pit.
Our hearts ratcheted up when the lights went down and the place looked like this.
Opening the show was Thomas Rhett.
Cute dude who can really rock it. He’ll be a headliner one of these days. He only performed for about fifteen minutes, though. Short, but still long enough to play a few tunes we’d heard on the radio. One of his titles is “Beer With Jesus”. A personal favorite, I might say. If Jesus drank wine, why not a good ole beer?
I need to add a disclaimer to these pictures. Cameras with detachable lenses were forbidden inside the arena so I was limited to phone and a point and shoot camera. It wasn’t easy getting that camera to get good shots, but here they are. They weren’t too awful.
Jake Owen was the next headliner. The crowd roared, the music blared and we were swept into it like a tidal wave sweeps sand from the shore. It was wonderful.
My girl describes Jake as a younger Matthew McConaughey with dark hair. The girls went wild for that smile and that hair. Jake wore a Razorback tee-shirt through the whole concert. In Arkansas, that alone will endear him to it citizens. Half way through his performance he had a fan do Woo Pig Sooey – the Pig Call (spelling undetermined). Jake is an Arkansan for life now.
He really played to the crowd. He moved so fast on that catwalk, taking pictures was a real challenge. The girls in the pit had him taking pictures with him on their phones, shaking his hand. He’s signing something here. He was awesome to watch. The energy it takes to perform for an hour and a half like that is something else.
Jake’s band was awesome. His songs are country, but the music has so much rock and roll in it. Some awesome musicians.
We sang along with every hit he sang. It was freaky how many songs I knew. We couldn’t hear each other by the end of this set. Totally deaf. I had to watch out what I said, because I couldn’t even really hear my own speech. Didn’t want to say anything embarrassing.
That is enough for this post. The main attraction to follow…… Jason Aldean!!
So what is it when you’re supposed to do something and you keep putting it off and putting off?
Procrastination!! That’s right. I am supposed to post here at least four times a week and here I am barely getting in two weekly blog posts. Shame, shame, shame.
It’s not like there isn’t anything to write about around here. Between the chickens and the cats and the horses and the kids life is wonderful, fun-filled circus.
The other day I was in the grocery store and a very old song played over the Musak. It was a love song. Now, you need to understand, I write romance stories. I see the world through rose-colored glasses, at least many aspects of it are perceived that way. So when I heard this song, after so many years, my
reaction to it surprised me. It still brought up a deluge of passion. I realized at that moment how appropriate this song was for all those love stories in my head. If I could only instill that emotion into what I write!
This song is immensely romantic and I am always amazed that a man wrote these words, because they really speak of the heart of woman.
I always want to cry when I hear the words of this song. It reaches down into my soul, to that place I barely know is there because it scares me such tenderness could really exist, even inside me.
This song came into my life during my divorce fifteen years ago. After a fourteen year marriage I discovered I was not that one person in his life whom he cherished. He didn’t regard me with any of the feelings or actions depicted in this song and it broke my heart to be cast aside. All I had ever wanted, at that time of my life, was to loved like that. Come to think of it, I want to be loved like that even now, who wouldn’t?
The mystery song is by Bryan Adams and was featured in the Johnny Depp movie Don Juan Demarco, Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman.
When I listen to music, I don’t just hear the notes and think how wonderfully they fit together. I hear the words and what they say. The melody carries the words to a deeper place and brings their meaning to life. Too often words speak to my heart and this song tore at my shattered heart.
Here are the lyrics:
HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOVED A WOMAN ? (Bryan Adams)
To really love a woman
To understand her
You gotta know her deep inside
Hear every thought
See every dream
And give her wings when she wants to fly
And when you find yourself
Lying helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s really wanted
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s the one
She needs somebody
To tell her that it’s gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman
To really love a woman
Let her hold you
Do you know how she needs to be touched ?
You gotta breath her
Really taste her
So you can feel her in your blood
Then when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s really wanted
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s the one
She needs somebody
To tell her that you’ll always be together
So tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman
You got to give her some faith
Hold her tight
A little tenderness
You gotta treat her right
She’ll be there for you
Taking good care of you
You really gotta love your woman
And when you find yourself
Lying helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s really wanted
When you love a woman
You tell her that she’s the one
She needs somebody
To tell her that it’s gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman
Just tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman
Just tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman
Don’t those words just get to you?
As an added treat, I imbedded the video.
Don’t those words stir you? Can a man love a woman like that?
Fortunately for me, that guy actually did show up in my life. He held me like that and looked at me in just that way. He is the reason I write the stories I write. I love the feelings that erupted within me when he came into my life. I didn’t know those things existed, but when you find the ONE, strange things happen.
So, as a writer of romance fiction, I strive to bring each hero to that place where he can really love a woman. While I write those stories, I relive those early days of my romance with my husband. It was glorious. All those new sensations and emotional thrills are relived as I strive to bring a new story to life. I am such a sap, I know, but that’s how I’m built.
So this post is for the love of my life. He is, as always, my knight in shining armor.
My Little Piece of Heaven 