Me? Like Country Music?

Photo courtesy of CMT.com


Little Big Town

I attended my first country music concert this past weekend and actually enjoyed it. Little Big Town opened up for Sugarland. And I’m not talking about just hopping MARTA down to the state of the arts Phillips Arena at the CNN Center. Instead, we made this a truly memorable event by driving two hours to Chattanooga, TN and becoming part of the crowd at the 1924 Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium. The venue has obviously been renovated since 1924 but it still had the feel of an old-fashioned concert hall.

I was initially struck by all of the orange attire in the audience. There were orange jackets, orange sweatshirts, and orange accessories. Even the NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. number 8 baseball caps were orange. Then I remembered that we were in one of the largest towns in Tennessee, and the home of UTC – The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I half expected to see Pat Summitt and her hoops squad show up, since I’d not been in a sea of orange that large since last witnessing her “Lady Vols” beat up on yet another suspecting women’s basketball team. For those of you that don’t know Pat Summitt, she’s coached the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team for more than 30 years and has over 900 wins in her career. Oh, and she earns over $1 million per year.

I found the crowd to be very friendly and diverse. In fact when the 60 year old couple to Doc. B.’s left, asked the three young girls in front of them if they wouldn’t mind sitting down during one of the most upbeat, danceable songs of the evening, the girls sat down without a fight. After seeing that cordial interchange, I decided to simply enjoy the humor in the fact that the man next to me was spitting chewing tobacco into his plastic coke bottle throughout the entire show. At least he put the cap back on after each spew.

As much as I enjoyed the music of Little Big Town and Sugarland, I must admit that my favorite moments were when they sang “non-country” songs. Little Big Town’s rendition of “Go Your Own Way” blew me away. I whispered (wait, yelled) to Doc. B. that I thought it was better than Fleetwood Mac’s original. And while Kristian Bush is no Jon Bon Jovi, he did a fine job filling in on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”.

Could it be that I’m a little bit rock and roll AND a little bit country?