The Acoustic Concert Series

I get so caught up in trying to finish my recap of Texas that I'm slipping on all the new stuff that his happening. Then when I want to refer to something, I can't because I haven't posted it in the first place! Okay, enough rambling. What am I talking about? I am talking about live music. One of the things I picked up from being in Texas was the importance and the fun of live music. I've always enjoyed festivals and concerts but there is a grey area between free festivals and high profile concerts that I haven't really explored yet. My first opportunity to do so since coming back was the Acoustic Concert Series put on by my radio station. It's a "win to get in" set up. Only 107 people are let in. I actually debated wether I should enter the draw or not but I knew that if I didn't, I'd regret not trying. Luckily my name was selected.

The concert was on Wednesday, May 16th and featured Canadian band The Wilkinsons with local band The Higgins opening for them. The Wilkinson's lead singer is Amanda (she is joined by her brother Tyler and dad Steve). Amanda is six months younger then me and has been performing with her family since she was eight. Their first single "26 Cents" went number one in 1998 which was right when I was first getting into Country music. In fact I remember copying down the words to the course because I liked it so much. Anyways, I've watched Amanda grow up and I can't help but feel a bit of an affinity to her because we are so close in age so it was nice to finally see them live. Frankly she always kind of annoyed me but after seeing her live I know that she has a ton of talent and is actually really sweet. It definitely changed my opinion for the better.

The Higgins totally surprised me. I wasn't sure what to expect and they blew me away. They have fantastic harmonies and are really fun on stage. More about them in a future post ;) The lighting in this picture is really bad. I was a little far from the stage and on an angle so they're hard to see.
This shot of the Wilkinsons is better. I got out of my seat and went around in front of them to take it. I was able to use flash then too. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Jenna came to the concert with me! It was her first one since Grant was born. It was nice to have her "back out" with me ;) (and Grant and Daddy Will did fine without her :))
There was a girl sitting in front of us and I told Jenna that I recognized her but I couldn't remember where from. After the concert Jenna left right away but I stuck around to get an autograph. The girl (I later found out her name was Lori) said hi but confessed that she didn't remember my name. I told it to her and then told her that I couldn't remember where we had met. She reminded me that we had shared a "moment" at the Dierks concert in Vancouver! (I swear this is my MOST referenced blog post). If you remember she and I stood in line together waiting to go down to the Meet & Greet but lamenting the fact that while we wanted to meet Dierks and spend time with him, we *really* wanted to see Doc Walker's set as well. Then after the M&G it was Lori that I RAN back to the concert with. Very fun. Anyways, we had fun chatting and talking about the concerts we have coming up for the summer.

I just got autographs and a picture from Amanda, Tyler and Steve and then headed out. I'm glad I was able to go though. It was a fun time. I can't wait until the next "Acoustic Concert" is announced.

Speaking of, I really liked the intimate acoustic format. There was a few times that it would have been nice to get up and dance but it was nice to just sit back, relax and really enjoy the MUSIC. Neither of the bands had any back up musicians due to space constraints so it was just them and the guitars. It was really nice. I think I appreciated them more because of it.

~Heidi