Nashville Day 4 On To Memphis!!!!!!

Right now I'm writing from the 5th floor hotel room right smack dab in the middle of Memphis Tennessee! It's about 8:30pm local time. We left Nashville around noon today... More about that later.... but first and update from last night.......

So my last post ended with me talking about going to one of the nightly concerts at LP Field. This was going to be my wife's test.... I wanted to see her reaction to being at a REAL country concert. Now remember, every attending the concert paid really good money to be there, lots of people came from all over the country to be there! So you know for sure that the crowd is going to be filled with some serious country fans!

We show up at the stadium with Frogman Scott, Tommy was already there. You could hear Trace Adkins singing "Honky Tonk Badonadonk" while we were in the parking lot.... by the time we reached our seats in the nose bleed section, we could barley make out the bands!!! Tommy sent us a text message to let us know that our "media passes" would let us go on the field.... So we hustled down there as quick as we could.

When we got down there "The Wreckers" were performing, we staked our claim near the sound booth. After their set it was time to get some brews and food.... just in time for Deirks Bentley to perform... I like Deirks song "Lot A Leavin' Left To Do" so when he opened up his set with it, I caught myself holding two beers and yelling for Dierks!! My wife thought I was nuts. Scott and Tommy just laughed and took pics..... oh boy!

After Dierks.... Brooks and Dunn took the stage and rocked it hard!!! They're amazing on stage. Ronnie Dunn's voice reverberated from every corner of the arena! It was then that I began to notice my wife dancing and singing along.... Every time a they started another song, I would lean over to tell her the title... she looked back and would say.. "I know... I like it!"

Now the act that I really wanted her to see was Alan Jackson. Why... Because Alan is as country as it gets. If she enjoyed his set, then I think she can be a real fan. She has a blast during his set. I caught her singing "Where I Come From", you know, the "Corn Bread and Chicken" song!!! We left after his set and she was ecstatic!

We walked back to our hotel afterwards and found this bar next door called the "Flying Saucer"... over 100 beers on tap! There we found some great music by a cover band playing everything from Aerosmith to Blondie.

Later it was time to pack, because today.. (Friday) was going to be our last show from Nashville. The show went by fast this morning.. not as many artists stopped by, we did see Emerson Drive who's song "Moments" just hit number one on the charts! Afterwards we had to pack our remote gear up and get out of Dodge!!!

Tennessee Storm!

My wife and I rented a car and began our journey to Memphis about noon local time... It was nice and sunny, hot and humid. About 93 degrees! We headed west on I-40 and after about 10 miles out we could see dark clouds and lightning!!! It kept getting closer and closer and closer!!! Before you knew it we were in the middle of one of the worst downpours I've ever driven in!! My fingers were gripping wheel so hard they started to hurt! After about an hour of that we finally passed the storm.

About 80 miles west of Nashville is the Loretta Lynne Dude Ranch. She runs the place. What a beautiful piece of property...think of the place where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed and Country it up a bit... that's what this place is like. I've read that it's haunted by old civil war soldiers or something... (have to research it more). Before stopping there we ate at her local food joint. Real Southern Cooking!!!! We enjoyed some sweet tea, fried chicken, pork, meat and potatoes and lots of grease!!!!

Mississippi River

Now we're in Memphis... resting right now... later we'll head out have some fun... And then tomorrow we go to Graceland!!!!

Until then.....

JB