Musical Adventures with Bryan White

This is a long one but an important one so stay with me guys. 

So fans of this blog know of my love for Music … all kinds. It’s been a while since I did a music post on this page but I decided to wait to tell you all about the greatest musical night of my life in a very long time. If someone were to ask me “who is your favorite musician ?” I never hesitate …. I already know. I’ve been in love with his voice since the early 90s. For my 15^th birthday I was given a membership to his fan club. He came to Mobile a couple of times and I got to see him all but once. One time he was performing at our local Junior Miss Pageant and my mom bought us tickets and when he finished his song we left. We were there for him, that was it, good luck ladies, Bryan is gone and so are we! I will never hesitate to see this man strum his guitar. Immediately Bryan White comes out of my mouth. Their response is usually “who?” then I give them a 45-minute dissertation of the man’s career from the 90’s to today. It’s funny to me most know his music but not necessarily his name. Mind blown every time it happens.

Here’s the short version of his “Marcy created bio” – yes this is the short version. 

His first album titled “Bryan White” came out in 1994 on Asylum Records and from that first strum of a guitar I was hooked. He’s an Oklahoma native and quite proud of those roots, as displayed on his album Dustbowl Dreams to come later. He’s definitely classified as a singer-songwriter writing as many hits for himself as he has for others (remind you of anyone else that I’vetalked about on this blog?). His debut album was a great introduction to an artist. Showed his range in ballads and playful songs like Eugene You Genius which never fails to put a smile on my face. Look at Me Now was his first single ever and will forever be in my top 10 of favorite Country songs. It was however Rebecca Lynn and Someone Else’s Star that rocketed him to the top of the charts and kept him there for a while. The album earned him the CMA Horizon Award (beating out LeAnn Rimes and Shania Twain) and a nomination for Male Vocalist of the Year Award narrowly missing out to George Strait twice (1996 & 1997). He was in good company tho with fellow nominees being Vince Gill, Collin Raye Alan Jackson. Good company to sit with while King George took home the trophy. 

His second album Between Now and Forever was created to build on the success of the ballads found in his Debut album and it’s fantastic because it also balances with a few fun tracks like “So Much For Pretending and Sitting on Go that keep the listener on their toes. It does tend to lean more towards ballads tho. 

The Right Place continued that formula and has several songs about love, breaking up, and staying together for ever. The Star of this album was Tree of Hearts. It makes me cry every damn time. 

When 1999 rolled around Asylum was struggling hard, and that’s a shame cause How Lucky I Am it a fantastic album that deserved far more love. On any other record label, it would have kept the needle on Bryan and Country music would have embraced it hard. The formula was still there but it was a more grown up Bryan behind the mic. He played with his vocal range, the lyrics were tighter, and the music was perfect from track 1 to the last track. It didn’t hurt that Bryan had recently found the love of his life and the album reflected that (again sounds like another artist I’ve talked about on this blog before ÷). There is not one track on this album that is skip worthy. If there is a perfect album on this planet this album is it. I’ll die on that hill if I have to. I listen to this album when I’m happy, when I’m tired, when I’m sad, when I’m having a good day or a bad one cause it’s literally that good. I give this album to friends as a wedding gift and force them to listen to The Staying upon their engagement cause at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about and they need to hear it.

When Asylum folded many think, Bryan fell off the planet. He retreated into himself and suffered a great depression which frankly was likely due to exhaustion. So, he walked away. So to most that is where his story ends but to me that’s where his story begins. He got married to Erika Page (who at the time was on One Life To Live), he took time off for the first time in years and just was a normal guy walking around New York City with the most beautiful woman on the planet and just stopped everything while he sorted it all out. In 2003 his first son was born and in 2005 his second was born. The music was still in him was still wanting to come out. 

No longer saddled with a label telling him what he could and couldn’t do or what he needed to sound like he started recording again and released Dustbowl Dreams in 2009. By far his most personal album to date he wrote a track about Erika (his wife) and how her adoption journey led her to him, sang with Steve Wariner (the man who made him want to be a musician)  and quite possibly my favorite track of all Beautiful Place. It was a wonderful Album sold through his website and I’m sure I-tunes. I’m a CD girl, I like to hold it in my hands, read the CD Jacket from page to page etc. 

Then came 2014 and he decided he wanted to release another CD, this time a 6 track EP called Shine and was going to do it with the fans help through Kickstarter. I gladly handed over my money and got guitar strings and a signed drum cover for my efforts. This 6 song EP is fantastic. If it’s not in your Music folder you need to get it ASAP!

I always say my favorite Bryan White track is his next one and he has yet to disappoint me with that notion.

In 2016 he started releasing singles instead of waiting on a full CD to develop. Finally Home a nod to his Phillippines fans who thanks to a noontime variety show got “God Gave Me You” from How Lucky I Am back in the spotlight when they started using it in their show. Bryan went to the Philippines and performed a show there and went on the show. It was a crazy ride to watch but proved that his music is stronger than time. He also released a revamped version of Never Get Around to it from his “Right Place” album, making it the way he envisioned it not the way the label created it. His latest single 2019, It Must Be Love is a tribute to Don Williams and keeps him on the radar as long as you are paying attention. I stayed up until Midnight at Golden’s house once to finally be able to listen to the track when it was released and kept it on repeat all night long while I slept.

 

In order to understand how special Thursday night was you have to hear this last encounter with Bryan. 

In 2011 I found out that Bryan was throwing a Back Yard BBQ at his house for the fans. I mentioned it to my mom thinking it was never going to be a thing. I was shocked when she bought me and Golden a ticket. Golden had no idea really who Bryan was tho living near me in College she had heard his music. She thought it was cool to be going to his house tho so she was in. Shes too cool for pictures tho. 

I picked her up and off we went. The whole day was sketchy and scary and required a LOT of trust on my part, my mom’s part and Bryan’s part too. The night before it rained hard. They sent out a message (I want to say via Twitter and maybe Facebook) telling everyone to bring a chair instead of a blanket since sitting on the ground wasn’t going to work. We stopped at a Walgreens or it could have been a Rite Aid and bought two chairs for like $10 bucks a piece and had like 3 hours to kill. We got lunch and waited for more instructions. They were watching the weather and coming up with a back up plan incase of rain. The entire day I was a basket of nerves. It felt wrong like this was all a scam. I was texting with his manager at the time the entire day. I’m sure I annoyed him but it all just … well felt sketchy. My mom’s instructions were forget the money if you get there and it feels off leave. You and Golden are smart just stay safe. We finally got the call to meet in a random Kroger parking lot at like 3. We were nearby so we went on over and got a Wendy’s shake while we waited. Several other cars pulled up around 2:30ish. 

It was bizarre we all got out of our cars and talked about how sketchy this was and how nervous we were. Golden and I had already made a pact that we were not leaving the car behind. Then someone all official showed up and gathered us up and said his driveway was really small that people would need to double up. I immediately raised my hand and said I can fit three more in my car. Anyway long story short we all pilled into cars and drove through the streets of Nashville (I won’t tell you where we went cause that was his one request not to give out his address ha!) as a long Bryan White Convoy. My car was 2^nd in the line. We stood on his  sidewalk for what seemed like hours then they let us in. We walked through his living room after being greeted at the door by the man and proceeded to the back yard to set up our chairs. He played for a few hours and then gave us a tour of the house and his studio. 

Up to that moment that night was the best night of my life. 

That’s where the history lesson ends and the post about the BEST NIGHT EVER I’ve had in a long while starts. In 2015 the Listening Room of Mobile opened in downtown Mobile. They have 3-4 shows a week with a single artist or group featured each night. I’m not going to lie if the shows didn’t start so late I might live down there but alas they do and I often only go down there when it’s someone that can get me in the seat. Vanessa Peters was one, Eric Erdman is another that can get me down there. I keep telling myself I’m going down there one day just on a whim and listen to someone I’ve never heard before and see what happens. 

One day I’m sitting in my living room watching TV and scrolling Facebook as I typically do when the owner popped up on my Facebook page one day with a note telling people Bryan White would be at the Listening Room Aug 15^th Tickets on Sale soon! I almost crapped myself. Wait what Bryan was coming here… to my back yard to my home town … to one of my favorite places in the city to listen to music!? I was in from there. I immediately put my name down on the list and started bugging Jim about when Tickets would be available to purchase. The next day I walked into the office and took the 16^th off so I could stay as late as I needed to without worry of having to get up early. I was going to this show, was going to enjoy every second of it and immediately started making plans to have people join me. I wanted to sell that room out hard. We got about halfway there when it was all said and done. That’s ok tho cause I think Bryan had a fantastic night and I understand is already talking about coming back.

So let’s set the stage. It’s a Thursday afternoon around say 6 pm my friend Christina (whom I roped into going with me to the show several months ago) had just finished dinner and are kind of just walking around downtown killing time when Christina said, oh my god is that Bryan (like they had known each other for years.) I looked up the street and OH MY GOD IT WAS. She took off. I caught up with her and said please don’t chase this boy down the street! At this point he was a block or so ahead of us. Then he passed the Listening Room. I said oh god he’s lost. So off we went, now literally chasing the man down the street. We got even with the Listening Room and I was looking to see if anyone was inside that could “officially” go get the boy instead of two crazy people that might scare him away for good. No one was there that I could see and we look up the street and Bryan takes a left down an alley between two buildings. I thought oh god he’s going to be killed (not a fantastic part of town but not the worst part either), and we take off. We walked though the alley and look right and left and he’s walking back up the street phone in his hand. I’m sure it was telling him he was there because he was right behind it but you know how phones are. So Christina yells “Bryan!!!” and he stops and turns around and I’m super embarrassed and he yells back ”yeah!?” and he’s just watching the two of us jog up the street towards him. She yells, “you are lost, you passed the listening room back that way.” She started pointing and he said “I’m following yall!” and started walking towards us. So we started walking back to the Listening Room and he says I’ve seen you before talking to me. I said yes sir and he asked when the last time I was at a show and I said the last show I saw was in your backyard. He said you were at the BBQ I was like yep, then it clicked and he said you were the one worried about the wiring in my basement! I laughed and said yes and he said you’ll be happy to know it looks better now. I said good ha!  

Yes … I took a picture of the wiring at the man's house that night 

Then we arrived at the Listening Room and he thanked us for being such tour guides. We let him in to do his sound check while we smelted in front and Christina made fun of my fangirl attitude cause she has never seen me like that before. A few minutes later a few other fans showed up for the meet and greet and the night was on. By the time they let us in there were 10 of us hanging out. When they let us in we all got settled and about 10 minutes later here he came. He told the whole room how we rescued him and it was fantastic. He mentioned it again while he was playing. Ha! He spent about 30 minutes just talking to us all about life, his music, what our favorite albums were and Mobile in general. Then he took pictures with all of us before the rest of the people showed up. I think we ended up with about half a room filled so I was happy about that. I think next time we can easily sell it out. School started in the area this week, there was another high profile show earlier in this week and it was just bad timing for many. It’s a real shame they missed a fantastic night of music, stories, and an overall good time! 

Myself, Bryan White, and Christina by far a better picture than before 

I tried to keep up with his playlist for the night (the album the song is from is also shown below)

• Sitting on Go - 1996 Between Now and Forever
• Amen - 2014 Shine - EP Kickstarter Album
• Look At Me Now - 1994 Bryan White
• Rebecca Lynn - 1994 Bryan White
• Love is the Right Place - 1997 The Right Place
• I’m Not Supposed to Love you Anymore - 1996 Between Now and Forever
• It Must Be Love – 2019 new single
• That’s Another Song - 1996 Between Now and Forever
• Get Back (Cover Beatles) – which I was really not expecting but loved!
• You’re Still Beautiful to - Me 1999 How Lucky I Am – since I told him that was my favorite album before he played it he said it was for me :D yes I might have squeeled a little bit 
• So Much For Pretending  - 1996 Between Now and Forever
• Short Are The Years (Cover Jason Crabb Unexpected) – I swear I think he said he cowrote this one for 
• Someone Else’s Star - 1994 Bryan White

It was an awesome night and he covered all the hits. For me he could have played for 3 or 4 hours and I’d have still wished for more time. I’ve been sending suggestions to him via social media for weeks and he sang a few of my suggestions. I did tell him after the show that I loved his old stuff and was grateful he sang what he sang but wished he’d give more love to his newest stuff. Was shocked he didn’t do Finally Home and some of the newer tracks. He said he didn’t think anyone would want to hear them I said they would if you played them. They are really great tracks. However, I get it when you have a fan base like his there’s certain songs you have to play to make the night worth it. Like I’d have been super bummed if he hadn’t played Someone Else’s Star. So I get it but his new stuff deserves love too not “just the hits.”

At one point he just started playing. I don’t know the song I’m sure it started out as a song then it became a riff but whatever it was made the entire night worth it. He was literally picking and grinning and I could watch him do that alone for hours.  

His stories between songs were beautiful and allowed you to really not only connect to him but to his music. Towards he end he told about his struggles with depression and expressed his reborn Christianity and I just knew he was going to play What I already know. I told him that and he said that would have been a great song to end that on and I said I know! So maybe he’ll take my comment to heart and dust off some of the other songs in his catalog the next time he comes around.  
If you are new to this artist check him out

Itunes     https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bryan-white/129986

Twitter    https://twitter.com/bryan_white

Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/bryan_white/

Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/BryanWhiteFans/ 

You Tube    https://t.co/aCzYyWc9UM?amp=1

Website   http://www.bryanwhite.com/

Anyway this is a SUPER LONG post telling you if this man comes anywhere near you and you loved COUNTRY back when it was COUNTRY MUSIC then you need to get a ticket and get to his show. I will never miss another one as a matter of fact tomorrow he’ll be in Panama City Beach and it’s everything I can do to not make that drive.

Thank you Bryan for coming to my town, thank you Jim for getting him here and thank you Erika for letting us borrow him for a few days. You really are awesome to share him with us. 

Marcy

@beaslma

Nashville Night 2 ... AKA ED SHEERAN!!!!!!!

So it's been insane since the concert ... sorry this is so "delayed" but hey you have to quickly recover from a trip like this and everything else just falls to the side.

So ... back to where I was... oh that's right Day 2 of my super awesome Nashville trip with Christina and Trista. The day started out very innocently .... some sight seeing at the mall, maybe a boat ride through the Opryland Hotel later in the day and then .... the day turned amazing when we found the Smith Creek Moonshine distillery which was giving out free shots in the middle of a freaking mall!

Guys they had like 13 various flavors for our enjoyment... did I mention that the "tasting" was FREE?! I mean how could you NOT participate?! I will admit I didn't participate in all 13 flavors, I mean I even draw the line at alcohol when it has Peach in it ... or "coffee" flavored anything to be honest. I will admit when she pulled the coffee flavored one out Denis Leary popped into my head which made me giggle out loud harder than I meant to do so. By then I might have been a tick tipsy at this point cause ...incase you missed it ... FREE SHOTS!!!!!!!!

I will tell you what I tried and thought of the following:

• Sweet Tea - which was pretty good .. not fantastic but good.
• Peach - I declined this one
• Apple Pie - I declined this one too
• Chocolate Silk - this is the one that brought me to the table, it was delicious. Like hot chocolate with a kick. Like a nice hug that you didn't know you needed.
• Strawberry Shortcake - Another I declined
• Coffee - add that to the list I said no thank you
• Orange Cream - this one tasted like a Dreamsicle and it was delicious but too tart for my taste. I wouldn't want a lot of it at one time is my point.
• Butter Cake - this one was just gross . . . I mean I still vomit a little just thinking about it
• Ginger Snap - I declined this one
• Salted Caramel - If I could have married this I would have ... it was that good. Had they had smaller bottles of this stuff I'd have bought one but I didn't need the giant jars they had on the shelves. A thousand years from now I might be half way done with the jar... might be.
• Cinnamon  - I declined this one
• Lemon Lime  - I declined this one too -- eww I mean really? I mean who comes up with this shit.
• Straight - AKA White Lightening ... the OG of the Moonshine world -- the Granddaddy of it all ... and thank goodness it was last cause it burned ... hard. By this point most had walked away but me and a few others and let me tell you...one can't really appreciate the others without appreciating the base. I appreciate the base, and love what it signifies but yeah ... still burning a little bit to this day.

I will admit my friends didn't LOVE this portion of the day nearly as much as I did. However their displeasure of moonshine allowed me to have their shots so it was win ... win... win for me. So while I didn't try all 12 flavors I did have more than my fair share of 13 shots. Did I mention that we hadn't had anything to eat all day and it was close to 1pm at this point in the day and moonshine on an empty stomach is never a good idea?! ok .. cool just checking. That is a point that needs to be stated and just incase any of you saw me afterwards, no my face is not always that red, and yes I was on the verge of being a little drunk. On to food...STAT! I regret nothing....nothing I tell you ... except not buying any to bring home, I could totes finish that jar... totes couldn't but yeah i'm not a quitter.

After that we found food. I needed it, seriously my face was quite warm and i'm told that at some point I was dancing in the mall ... IN FRONT OF PEOPLE!!!! After a nice greasy burger I was good to go for round #2 but my crew refused to venture back to the Moonshine store, which upon hindsight... this was a good call on their part. Well played crew ... well played.

The coolest part of walking around the mall was seeing people in Ed Sheeran T-shirts from his first night in Nashville and talking to them about the show. The more I talked to people the more excited I got for the night ahead. Everyone had great things to say about the show and it just pumped me up more than I already was. I also discovered the shirt I planed to buy that evening. One decision made.

After the moonshine and lunch we made our way to the Opry Land Hotel for a quick boat ride around the hotel (more to sight see than anything else) then walked around the various shops.

It was at this point that I became an official County Music Manager when I financed the cutting of Christina and Trista's debut single, a cover of the Judds song "Grandpa tell me bout the good ole days." Unfortunately I was unable to be in the booth with them as they were cutting it I had business to attend to, gigs to book, myspace page to plan, Go Fund me account set up for our debut EP, you know that kind of thing. I wish the single was better but the equipment wasn't all that great. I'm going to work on that for their next single, cause I'm telling you this group is going places. Booking shows now just call 1-800-for-reals and I'll let you know about their availability. They will be made available for parties, weddings, really any place where people gather, your living room for instance. All money up front. Performance is non-refundable.

   

So we aren't ready to join Ed on tour yet but we'll get there one day and he'll beg to be the opening act for us! Sure that's how that's going to go...maybe I was still feeling the moonshine at this point in the afternoon. Shortly after that we made our way back to the car and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Pucketts, one of my favorite places to eat ever and then the concert.

     

I've been to Pucketts before once to see my boy Markus Fox play, and lo and behold I posted we were having dinner before the show and Markus hits me up. "What do you mean you are in town and didn't tell me?" - Did I mention Markus has recently moved to Nashville to pursue music full time and thus I don't see him nearly as much as I used to which makes me a sad Marcy ? - Turns out Markus was playing directly across from the arena and scheduled to go on AFTER the Ed Sheeran concert so he said we should come down. I was really excited to see him again and we made plans to get together
later that evening.

Then food happened. Guys Pucketts is soooooooooooo delicious. Imagine your grandma's cooking with a really awesome sound track playing behind it. That's how I describe Pucketts. No one was playing while we were there but it was still early. We wanted to give us plenty of time to eat and get to the show and boy did we. After a delicious dinner we went back to the Car to park at the arena then "walk around" as it started to drizzle. Stupid NATE....just kidding he wouldn't show up until Sunday but it was fun to say. We walked down one side of Broadway and then came back up until we were back at the arena. We also walked over to the Ryman, couldn't go in as it was closed but could see the building itself and walked through the "gift shop." Everything in Nashville has a gift shop . . . . everything.

Upon getting back to the arena we stood in line for a T-shirt but they didn't have the one I saw at the Mall earlier booooooooooooooooo hiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssss, I did end up finding another but will have to start dieting like right now to wear it a year from now. ha! Then we got in line to go inside the Bridgestone Arena which took forever!!!!!!! I mean security was dumb tight and I get it really I do but good lord. Thank goodness we were so early. We made it to our seats in record time and I was immediately thankful for the seats cause they were amazeballs. Guys for real if he sneezed he would have sneezed in my face ... you know if he turned his head to the left. I was so excited .... I stood up and pointed to the back of the arena and told my friend, "those guys way back there are gonna be soooo angry!" I mean it's Ed Freaking Sheeran, he's a small ginger haired man with a guitar, that's it. Him, a guitar, and a loop pedal. Way back there I can't even imagine what he looked like .... I mean I guess it would have looked like him to those people. We also couldn't figure out where the "screens" were, I told my friend when we were planning that if I go I'm not watching a screen the entire time, I could do that on youtube for free. I had figured they were in the Jumbo Tron turns out that wasn't the case either. After a while I stopped caring about the people way behind us and focused on what was in front of us. That stage set up was ridiculous. Ed posted to Instagram a video of them building it once and I remember thinking they don't get paid nearly enough and upon seeing it in person i'm more convinced that's true.

Teddy's Photos - Stage Construction - Instagram

This evening was not without drama tho, just so you'll know. At one point my friend went to the restroom, I stayed in our seats. I had the tickets on my phone. She did not. The guy didn't want to let her come back to the floor. She finally just walked right past him and came to our seats. I mean it was the same asshat who showed us where to go like not 30 minutes before so she was like why are you hassling me.

Then without warning the lights went dark and James Blunt was on stage. I like James Blunt and upon leaning he'd be the support act downloaded his new album "The Afterlove" which I LOVE. It's cleaver and funny and just really good music. I really enjoyed his set which consisted of many of my favorite Afterlove songs but what no one set me up for was how funny Mr. Blunt was. He had us laughing between each song. It was a great start to the evening. While James was playing, that's right I've decided I can call him James now ..... the young ladies behind us were drink challenged and dropped a FULL coke with no lid and it was like the floodgates in New Orleans opened and took everyone out within a 3 mile radius. Christina, my friend, got the bulk of the spray. She was just happy it was coke and not beer, hold on to that hope Christina. The seats we were sitting in were soaked, the floor around us was soaked everything was soaked. So we stood for Jame's set. Seriously go get Afterlove. I was never a big fan of  You're Beautiful it gets on my nerves but as I've learned with Ed never just an artist by his singles.

When James went off stage watching the crew break down the stage and get it set up for Ed was fascinating. So much so that I didn't notice that the two young ladies who dumped coke all over us had been asked to vacate their seats when it was determined they were in the wrong seats anyway. They weren't even supposed to be there guys .... like what!?

During the intermission, since we couldn't sit, we talked with the couple sitting next to the "Coke girls" was we now refer to them. They were there celebrating the fact that their teenage daughter got a clean bill of health just that morning from scans done last week. She's been fighting cancer for 4 years and they believe she is now in remission. We all celebrated that. It was like our section was celebrating and it was awesome. The mom cried a little dad couldn't stop smiling and we were cheering for a girl we had never met. It was a really cool moment.

Then the lights went down again and ED walked on stage. Guys ... it was literally everything I wanted it to be and more. He was worth every penny. I hadn't looked up the set list he was playing at other venues cause frankly I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know he played say .... The City for Chicago and not here.... or that he played Lego House for Detroit but I didn't get it. I was surprised however by the setlist and have tried to recreate it in my own head tho I'm sure I'm missing some of the songs. He played (in no order other than what I remember) Eraser, Thinking Out Loud, Sing, Nancy Mulligan, Perfect, A-Team, Bloodstream, Don't/New Man/Happier remix (which I really want to have so I can listen to it forever on repeat), Galway Girl, Dive, and finished it off with Shape of you and You Need Me I don't Need you as his encore songs. I think there were more but those are the ones that pop into my head right this second as I type. I wasn't expecting Dive and Nancy Mulligan, two songs I love but just haven't gotten that much love. I also kind of expected him to dip more into his earlier CDs but this is the ÷ tour so it was getting all the love and I was A-OK with that.

Shortly into Ed's set the people who took the seats from the "Coke Girls" as we call them now were enjoying the show a bit too much for their Beer to handle and proceeded to lose control of their glass which then re-soaked Christina's chair, pants, shoes, and the floor. By the end of the show our feet were forever stuck to the floor. I really thought we were going to have to leave our shoes behind.

As awesome as both James and Ed were on stage one of my favorite things was watching this young man (11 or 12) sitting next to me who was at his first concert with his dad. His dad was so stoked about being able to give his son this experience and the kid recorded EVERYTHING like when the show ended I was shocked he still had any battery left for me to take a picture of him and his dad. It was so cool remembering that feeling of your first concert, mine was the New Kids on the Block with my mom and cousin (my cousin cried the entire way home). We saw several other people with similar stories ... the young girl with her dad who upon seeing her seats almost fainted. Another young girl with her friend (boyfriend?) who really needs to eat a hamburger but was also super stoked to be in that arena. A Young Couple who was almost more fun to watch than Ed To be honest. For those brief moments I was reminded why people go to concerts, why live music has a place in our world and why it should be celebrated. Sure we all have these songs on our phones, online and our computers but there's just something about live music that creates memories and connections with that artist that you don't get by just listening to a track in your room.

After Ed's show I was so pumped until we got outside and it was suddenly clear how many damn people were in that arena. Christina even looked at me and said, you ok several times. I'll admit part of me wanted to bail on Markus as opposed to walking through all those people, but we went ahead. If I had recently seen him or knew I'd see him soon I would have. I'm so glad we didn't however, we made our way across the street and walked right into the Bar. He was playing at a place called "Second Fiddle." When we walked in he was setting up his equipment, I hope he was as happy to see me as he let on cause it made me happy that he was happy. He was soaking wet with sweat but I didn't care that hug was totally worth being wet yet again.

It took forever for his band to set up, they were supposed to start at 10:30 and it was closer to 11 before they put finger to the first string. He's full on 90's country, don't ask him for Bro Country or the Marine will come out of Markus and that is just one of the many reasons that I love him. The other reason I love him, there were two young ladies who had to have been drinking since they were born cause they were trashed. They were dancing and having a good time but really getting on a lot of people's nerves cause they were at the point where the Drunk in them could care less about who was standing around them. Christina got hit in the face with one girls hair about 75 times. Markus finally got the attention of one of the guys with them and very quietly said "get them out of here before they get hurt!" and the guys listened. It was more enjoyable after that. It could have been a pretty scary situation quickly as they were knocking into people and annoying drunk frat boys which is never a good thing. It was an awesome end to a fantastic day. A few of the young ladies around us realized we knew him and wanted to know all the things about Markus. I will admit I told someone he was 25/26 but I think he's really closer to 30. I told them to find him on social media, see I'm still working for you Markus. He did a good job, I only wish I lived closer so I could hang with him more often.

Upon leaving Markus around 1am Sunday morning we went to an all night McDonalds near our hotel for beverages and food. I won't disclose how long we waited for the food just know it was closer to 2 when we finally got back to the room and had to wake Trista up to let us in when our key didn't work the front door. At that point I was ready to curl up in a ball and sleep in hallway, but lucky for us Trista let us in and my bed called me ending Day 2 in Nashville, well into Day 3.

When I say BEST.TRIP.EVER I mean it! I'm already trying to figure out how I can go see him next year on his Stadium tour. So I gotta make some money ASAP!

Hope you guys enjoyed our trip half as much as we did.
Marcy (@beaslma)