Donna goes to a country music concert

When I paid for tickets for Green Day so my granddaughter, Monica, could see her idols, I don't think her sister Natalie was into Green Day.  If she was, she certainly didn't make it known.  I told her at the time to pick her concert and I'd see that she got to see somebody she cared about; I'd get tickets for me, the granddaughter, and someone to be our taxi driver (in this case, my daughter.)  Cliff foots the bill for the tickets; I simply do the online buying.  Cliff is big-hearted like that.  Plus, he figures if I find a way to go to a crowded concert without his having to go, it's worth $70 a ticket.


Natalie's first choice to see in a live performance was Taylor Swift, but all her concerts have sold out before I could get tickets; the last one, I'm told, sold out in thirteen minutes.  And after last night, I'm glad.


Oh, the two opening acts weren't my cup of tea; they confirmed my belief that country isn't county any more.  Their bands were more rock than country.  And since I'm not familiar with their songs, I couldn't make out most of what they were singing.


The first guy was Justin Moore, who did one song I rather liked... Small Town, USA.  The video actually sounds VERY country, but at the concert his band sounded like rock to me.  I guess my main problem was that I couldn't make out the words.  Words are very important to me.


The next opening act was another guy I'd never heard of, Darius Rucker.  My daughter thought I surely recalled Hootie and the Blowfish from her youth, but I didn't.  Anyhow, Darius is the artist formerly known as Hootie.  When a very handsome black man walked out on stage, I was surprised:  You don't see a lot of black country artists.  The man is quite talented, but his band is very "rockish" for my taste.  My favorite of the songs he sang?  "It Won't Be Like That For Long."  Boy, can I relate to that one.


Since I don't care for modern country, I don't listen to any of it on the radio.  After seeing Brad Paisley perform, I can see I've been throwing the baby out with the bathwater, with my attitude about modern country music.  He's actually such a big star that I was familiar with some of the songs he sang, I just never paid attention to who the artist was.  And I could understand his lyrics, all of them; even the songs I had never heard before.


Maybe this concert was worth Cliff's money after all.  I can't even describe all the special effects, but the most unbelievable thing was when Allison Krauss showed up on stage toward the end of the concert to sing a duet with Brad:  Wow, it was really her!  What an amazing voice.  The audience went wild, myself included... until the song was over and Allison literally went "poof".  It was a hologram; we'd been duped.  I briefly wondered if all the artists and bands we'd seen were holograms.  Actually, it was an amazing trick I'll never forget.


My favorite song that Brad sang was "Letter to Me", in which he writes a letter to his seventeen-year-old self.





Yeah, I'm sure glad we couldn't get those Taylor Swift tickets.