Cowboys Boots

One of the major perks of Johnny's job is that we get access to a ton of cool concerts in the area. He is an advertising sales man for a local radio company. His responsibilities lie with ESPN radio mostly, but lucky for me, his other radio stations include our local country station! Last Friday, they held a special, anniversary concert to celebrate 10 years of their morning show. The concert featured a local country band, Justin Moore , and the Eli Young Band. As a country fan I am always excited for a good excuse to throw on my cowboy boots and yee-haw. Of course non of the other concert go-ers were yee-hawing, and most didn't have cowboy boots on, but it was a good excuse to wear my new dress! Working with the station means back stage passes, which is one of the best perks!

Justin Moore

Justin Moore's performance was great. Adam Gregory was scheduled to appear, until he was put on vocal rest. Justin showed up with a weeks notice and without a band so he performed acoustic. He did great. After his performance he spent the rest of the show at the bar hanging out with the audience. I love a humble performer.

The Eli Young Band's guitars!

J. Maxwell of Hell's Kitchen, JT and I

J is a chef in the area who made his way onto this season of Hell's Kitchen. I really hadn't watched the show prior to this season but he's becoming a bit of a local celebrity with a morning cooking spot of the local news, and he does a lot of radio shows each week talking about each episode. His son was diagnosed as being autistic just days before he left for the show. He always says he thinks that was a big part of his inability to focus while on the show, but he choose to never talk about while on the show. Now, each week, he goes to a different restaurant or bar in the area to host a ' Hell's Kitchen' party. Each Thursday night, the various bars and restaurant's help to raise money which is all donated to his son's school, which specializes in working with autistic children. It's a great program he's established, he's a great guy, and I'm always a fan of someone who gets 15 minutes of fame and uses it to help others.

Horrible picture. I was surrounded in the Eli Young band while I was hanging out backstage. I so desperately wanted to take a picture but my camera gives off a red light right before it takes a picture, even if the flash is off. I didn't want to be seen as a stalker so I moved the camera quickly. I managed to get a blurred picture of the drummer, who was standing about a foot away from me.

Eli Young Band Set List

The concert was awesome. Each of the acts exceeded my expectations. We had a great night! The bass player of the band, the bald guy in the foreground and I chit chatted a bit before he went on stage. He caught me yawning, which was a bit embarrassing until he admitted that he had fallen asleep in the bus 5 minutes prior to coming on stage. They were great guys, super sweet and stayed around for about an hour signing autographs.

The whole evening was great. Johnny isn't a country boy himself and for the most part doesn't enjoy the music. The Eli Young Band is much more rock, and much less country however so he enjoyed them. The drummer was so talented, and we always have fun when we get to hang out with his co-workers. Now I am so excited for this summer's Country Fest. The headliners are Montgomery Gentry! The cowboy boots will likely hide out until than.