Places Visited: Tennessee: Nashville Day three at CMA Music Festival

June 6, 2008.

We are staying in Two Rivers Campground near Opry Land in northeast Nashville over the Memorial Day weekend. Two Rivers is the private campground we recommend for anyone visiting Nashville. It ain't cheap $31 but it is $21 cheaper than the next best campground. The $31 is for water & 30-amps; full-hookup and 50-amps are a bit more. But, and it is a big BUT the Yogi Bear Campground next door starts at $51 and goes up. KOA a block away starts somewhere above that and the sky is the limit. In Nashville you are paying for LOCATION and Two Rivers Campground has LOCATION. Besides that they sponsor good entertainment in the park several times a week.

For those of you who listen to XM radio this is where the XM country music radio program is broadcast from. That glass building is located on the corner of 5th Avenue and Broadway in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

We noticed a crowd as we were walking up 5th Avenue past the Rhyman Auditorium. As we got closer (actually we were across 5th Avenue) we determined that it was the Naked Cowboy that was causing the stir. He had a "tip-box" and women were posing with him. What a hoot! Women were lined up to get their picture taken with the "Naked Cowboy". This was the most outrageous thing we saw during the entire CMA Music Fest, and it was more funny than anything.

And for any of you that might be thinking anything------NO, Joyce didn't get her picture made with the Naked Cowboy! Guess who made me add that qualifying statement. vbg

We saw Alan Jackson in the Convention Center where he was signing autographs.

Alan's wife Denise was with him and signing her new book.

One last picture of Alan.

Can you imagine the crowd of people with Alan Jackson signing autographs in one booth while Sarah Evans was signing in the adjacent booth? This was one happy mass of humanity.

A year or so ago Sarah Evans was voted the best looking female Country Music performer or some such. It is fairly easy to see how that happened. vbg

Bucky Cuvington was an American Idol contestant that is making his mark with Country Music fans. Women and girls were going wild to get a photograph with Bucky's arm around them. He was a heart throb.

We have seen several several signs & T shirts with a similar slogan concerning SLEEP. We are beginning to understand the signs. There is just too much to see and do to sleep. This pace is going to catch up with us sometime.

Around 5:30 we decided to take our bag full of loot back to the motorhome and freshen up before returning to LP Field for the big concert. On the way across the bridge we snapped this picture of the large crowd still gathered at River Front Stage. Mind you a crowd this size has been there since 10am this morning and will not leave until 6:30pm when the music shuts down.

At LP Field the Marine Corps did a low-level fly over with 4 FA-18's each night. Joyce got all 4 of them in this picture.

Ashton Shepard is performing for the first time on the big stage at LP Field. The one song she does that stands out is "Taking off this ring you put on me" --- the lyrics have something to do with her gold rings in her right hand and a cold beer in my right hand.

The new group Lady Antebellium performed several of their current hit songs. The one I like best is "All we ever need" but they have several more on the charts at the current time. Although I am not devoting much space to them they were fan favorites. I just don't know much about them. Sorry!

Taylor Swift and Kelly Pickler did much of the introductions of performers in addition to performing themselves.

These two were crowd favorites.

Maranda Lambert was one of the performers at LP Field Friday night. She sang her current hit "I've given up on love because Love has given up on me".

Josh Turner has a number of hits but is best known for his extremely LOW vocals. Some of the songs he had hits with are: "Long Black Train", "Lock the doors & turn the lights down low" and "My little Darlin is a firecracker".

Josh Turner again. With that look on his face he must be singing "Lock the doors & turn the lights down low" wouldn't you say.

Julianne Hough performed on the big stage at LP Field Friday night. Julianne made a name for herself when she won two of the Dancing With the Stars events. She has now turned her talents to singing Country Music. It should be against the law to be this good looking and be able to dance on the professional level winning two Dancing With the Stars events then recording a Country Music CD that is climbing the charts and now performing on the CMT big stage at LP Field in Nashville -- and she hasn't turned 20 years old yet.

Parents, tell your children early that "Life ain't fair" -- "get used to it".

I have to wonder what the rest of her life will bring. Anyone care to speculate?

Jake Owen is a new Country Artist that was aspiring to be a pro golfer before an accident. A college roommate gave him a guitar and the rest is history. We actually have a very tiny connection to Jake Owen. It seems that the friend that gave Jake the guitar is a cousin of our daughter-in-law. Jake sang at the friend's wedding where our son and daughter-in-law got to meet him. They have been following his career ever since. Our son made sure that we knew Jake was in Nashville and had us try to track him down. We did see him perform on the "big stage" at LP Field but we did not make it to his booth when he was signing autographs.

These pictures are for Jeff & Kathryn and her family. Josh sang a song that may be titled "Yee-Haw", I wasn't familiar with it but the crowd was. Then there was another song with a hook line of "Don't think I can't love you". I wish I could do a better job of recalling the songs he sang but my mind is getting feeble -- some people will tell you it has been feeble for years. vbg

In addition to Jake Owen a young lady by the name of Faith Hill showed up to perform on the Big Stage. According to the announcers this is the only concert that she is scheduled to perform this year.

Faith & her husband Tim McGraw finished a tour last year that had revenue of $88Million and I think I read it was the highest grossing tour ever. Someone correct me if this isn't correct.

Faith treated us to a litany of her hits including:

"She's a wild one with an angels face"

"Come on -- Take another little piece of my heart baby"

"Ohh, I love the way you love me"

"This Kiss"

"Mississippi Girl"

"Breathe"

Keith Urban was a surprise guest. He took the stage after Faith Hill and performed until midnight. Wow! How do you handle Faith Hill and Keith Urban back to back?

Keith performed for an hour and all I can remember are these two songs.

"You would look good in my shirt"

"I want to love somebody like you"

There is nothing like spending time with my best friend. It sure makes life worth living. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Until next time remember how good life is.