Jason Michael Carroll Concert in Carlinville IL

So, Rhi and I drove 3 hours today to get to Carlinville to see JMC in concert again {her second, my third}. It was especially fun to go back to Carlinville, because I used to go to school there. {It's changed. A lot!}

This is Rhi standing next to the big pink camo truck - it was there for Breast Cancer Awareness

We got there about an hour before the show started, which was great for us, because we wanted to be up near the front of the stage. And boy were we! Um, smack in the middle, like reach out and touch the alligator boots near the front of the stage. Woohoo! That was Awesome!

This is before the show started - she is holding the photo I took at the Bowling Green show that I have been trying to get autographed... {and yes, this time, we were successful!!}

{Yep, this is my hand on the stage - almost getting stepped on by those alligator boots!}

I love this picture. Dunno why, exactly, but it makes me smile. Thought it would make an interesting shot - cos, seriously, this is what was eye level for me LOL

{LOL guess I have a new alligator boot fetish and yeah - I touched them. More than once LOL }

{Really like this shot... the lighting is cool, and I like the way the mike stand frames the boot}

Though, in retrospect, not the best spot to be for taking pictures... had a lot of shots ruined with the microphone... But then again...... this was my view for a good part of the concert.....

Ahem... anyway....

Here are some of my other favorite photos from the concert...

I love this one, even though the color is off because of the lighting. The reason I love this photo, is because it is SO easy to tell he is having a lot of fun. And he definitely has a lot of fun {yeah.. including the Garth Brooks shake the water bottles all over the crowd type of fun}{mm, hm, got a little wet at this one... }

Fabulous closeup.. the color isn't even too bad on this one... he was holding my daughter's hand and singing to her. I was too close to get a far enough back picture including her and her incredulous smile, but I managed to get one with her hand.

There was a really little girl on the left side of the stage, and he kept going and singing to her a lot. {I was really pleased to see her parents had ear protection for her!!} At one point, during "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead" he brought her up on stage to dance with him! She was a doll!

I talked to several people for photography advice before this concert, both because I have a new camera since the last show, and because I wanted more pictures that were decent -Huge thanks to Noel, Dria, and Kimmy!

I really like this photo too - I love how clear these pictures came out!

Not the best photo, but I really like the lighting with the drums

Another photo that I thought would be an interesting one - He was tapping his finger with the music. I think I took this one during "Alyssa Lies" {wish I could have snatched one of the playlists they had taped to the floor of the stage!!}

Another one by the drum kit. Really like how the lighting on these came out.

This picture was taken during "Sorry Don't Matter". I love the emotion on his face... This is one of my favorite songs on the new album. Lighting is a titch to the red side, but I think it came out very well.

Overall, I am so pleased with the photos. I ended up taking about 500 of them {holy smoking camera, Batman!} and at last half of them are decent! So I am really really pleased.

The show was fabulous too - He sang almost every song off the new album {he didn't sing Tears this year} and several from the old one {"Alyssa Lies", "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead", "Honky Tonk Friends", "Waitin' in the Country" and of course "Livin' Our Love Song"}

And I thought it was really funny - when we were at the merchandise tent before the show to get t-shirts - I asked the guy that was there if Jason would be out to sign autographs. He said he wasn't sure, because they had a lot of driving tonight before tomorrow's show. I said "I know, we're planning on being at that one too." and he looked up at me, grinned and said "Oh really?"

Which of course... means I need to get this published, and get my behind into bed!

More tomorrow ;) Sorry it's not scrappy - it will be when the photos get made into pages for the JMC album!