Yes, another JMC show... and look! new music!

Took Wednesday off work to head up to Steamboat Days in Burlington IA for yes, another JMC show.

Was very excited, because shortly after the April concert, a gal had contacted me, saying she was a JMC fan too and was going to have extra VIP tickets for the show, and did I want them? Naturally I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately she bailed on me, but not until AFTER the VIP tickets had all been sold out. I was so mad - not because of whatever reason she had for not giving me the tickets - but for not telling me I couldn't have them. Instead of  saying something, she ignored my messages and said absolutely nothing. Rotten.

Luckily I work with a very nice girl (Danielle) who had season passes and let me borrow them so I could still go to the show. So Cindy and I headed up there. The drive was relatively uneventful, though it involved driving in a bit of a circle to get a picture of The Pink, and another for a detour due to a road closing.

 This motorcycle was parked outside the Pink. Thought it was cool looking :D

Looked for parking - nothing really close by.  Ended up parking near the church that had been burned down a couple of  years ago. Arson. Which is something I just don't understand. Good grief, nobody says you have to like every one else's religion, but geez. It's a CHURCH. 

Wish I'd taken more time to get some other photos.. some of the angles were just amazing..

 Got to the riverfront just in time to enter the giveaway for backstage passes. We both about passed out when they called out "Cindy.... " but the last name was different. So bummer - 7 concerts.. still no meet and greet.  Ah well. There will be more ;)

Stopped at the merchandise tent to get tshirts (including one for my daughter, which she will get for a birthday present) and the latest keychain, then headed up to the stage to find a spot. We ended up right up against the barrier, about as close to the stage as we could get without being in the VIP section. The barrier turned out to be helpful for steadying the camera too, for some better low light photos. I am actually pretty pleased with most of them. And, yeah, I ended up taking a ton - good thing I had a new card LOL.

As it got closer to concert time, 2 guitar players and a drummer came on stage.. and I started to get a little confused.. I knew Jason had new band members, but I certainly hadn't heard that Sean was leaving, and I didn't recognize these guys. There hadn't been any mention of an opening band either. When the announcer came out he was talking about Jason... then said "But first - " and introduced Glen Templeton, a new singer from Nashville. LOL At least I knew I wasn't crazy. 

Well, let me just tell you.. Glen is Hot. LOL. Great voice. Nice.. jeans ;) He portrayed Conway Twitty in a movie, and learned a lot of his music. At the show, he sang "Slow Hand" and oh my, even if it hadn't been 90+ degrees out the ladies would have been melting.  

Musically, he is a lot like Jason - more Country Rock than anything else. Some very awesome songs. (My favorites: I Could Be the One, Fixer Upper, and I Threw It Away).  He played for almost an hour, and Cindy and I both said we wanted to get his album. I think he will go far in this business. He's really fabulous. And I think he had just as much fun as we did.

Had to laugh.. one of the security ladies was having a great time listening to Glen sing.. tapping her feet, bopping to the music, singing along. This will be me eventually, I think...

 After a 20 minute break, during which the bands changed out the instruments, and the sun went down... wasn't sure how the pictures would go for the rest of the night... definitely too far away from the stage for the flash, and no zoom lens..

Jason finally came onstage. Silly me didn't think to bring a pen to write down the playlist (yeah, I know, I was UNPREPARED - what was I thinking?). The first song he sang was "With You" which was different.. but a good change. And one of my favorite songs. Then I Can Sleep When I'm Dead.

 Considering how far away we were, I think the pictures turned out pretty well. Most of the shots are cropped, but they are still really clear, which makes me very happy. There are a ton that didn't turn out as well.. but that is one of the reasons I love the continuous mode on my camera (that and I can get serial pictures of hip swaying ;) )

I think this is one of my favorite pictures... meow ;)

 He sang Honky Tonk Friends (of course), Where I'm From, Barn Burner.. a couple of new songs - Drinking to Drink (which is actually rather funny - "I'm not drinking to forget anything.. I'm just drinking to drink") and Meet Me in the Barn (hot hot hot).

New guitarist.. who is also named Jason :) 

He did an absolutely FABULOUS cover of Randy Travis' Nothing at All.. which has always been one of my favorite songs.. and hearing him sing it.. amazing. Something I wish I had a recording of. He also sang Garth's Friends in Low Places, which everybody sang along with. He always comments about that too, I think he really likes it when the audience sings along with him.

My favorite part of the whole night? He sang Stray. Not only did he sing it, he said it was going to be on the next album!  (To which I replied "About damned time!!") He also sang George Strait Cover Band. (This picture will be added to the composite picture I have on my desktop - it has one photo from each concert I've been to.)

I think he made the security guys a little nervous - he climbed out onto this huge speaker that was in front of the stage. Didn't surprise me at all, but they looked very nervous. Have to wonder what they thought when he was out in the audience for Drinking to Drink! (didn't get any good pictures of that, we were too far away and the lighting was terrible.)

Oh, yeah, and you should have heard the screaming when he took his shirt off.. LOL (check out those muscles!)

Rockin' out with Jason.

 It was so hot.. I can't imagine how hot it was onstage with all the lights. And it's not like Jason just stands up there and sings.. he is dancing and moving around a lot. It doesn't stop him though.

He climbed up the supports on each side of the stage. Silly man.But it definitely made the crowd roar.

Lookin at me :D

Finally caught this at the right time ;) yummy.  Yep, lots of screaming.. and yep, I shot a series ;)

Looking at me again! :D During Barn Burner, I think.

"Give a hand to my band!" After Livin' Our Love Song, before which he talked about Brittany, and which was the last song of the night. It was done as the encore.. after he left the first time, and Cindy asked if he was coming back - I said of course, he hasn't done LOLS yet.

It was an absolutely fabulous concert. Oh my gosh, I was so tired when it was over.. so glad I didn't have to drive home. 

After the show, we headed back to the merchandise tent, where Glen was for photos, and selling brand new copies of his album. Of course I got one! And it was autographed too, which was nice. And Oh my, he has a line in Fixer Upper that goes "I clean up real good" and yes he does. We listened to the album on the way home, and the songs are all really good. (And yes, he's really tall)

Glen's website: http://www.glentempleton.com/

Jason's website: http://www.jasonmichaelcarroll.com/

Got home and saw Jason posted this photo on Twitter after the show with this comment:
 The one night I didn't take a pic of the crowd?!? I guess this will give you some idea of how fun it was...

(photo by Jason Michael Carroll)

And.. another bit of new music.. LOL though I can't really call it that yet..

Thursday I picked up a new guitar! I have been thinking about starting to play again for the last 6 months.. and actually looking at guitars for the last 4 weeks or so.. Stopped in at the music store that was selling out, and found a great Palmer beginner electric guitar, for a very reasonable price. Looking forward to learning to play it - although WOW it's already making my fingers hurt! Will have a name eventually... for now I've been calling it Blue.