For those of you who were waiting for a phone call from me at the show last night, I do have to apologize. There was no
cell service inside the arena. Apparently the only cell service was at the prison next door. You will all be proud of me,
though. I actually made eye contact last night and not just with Kenny.
What is it about seeing Kenny in concert? The count down until the day of the show. The anxiousness driving there,
no matter how far. The pure thrill just being there listening to him sing (the same songs just about every time) and
watching him move.
Everyone is always saying how they need their Kenny fix. To me, it’s always worse after the show. You don’t
get fixed. He just leaves you wanting more. Right away your thinking about how long it will be before you see him
again. By the way, the Fan Club Party in 57 days. This will be the longest wait for me since the wait for the Maryland
show on February 7.
My friend Jen, who I met on the now defunct Fan Club Forum, made a CD of all (or just about all) the songs he does in
concert. See it wasn’t all negativity in the posts there. There were good things there, too. We listened to her home
made CD for about the last hour driving there and the whole way home. It was a great way to savor the night.
Well, things didn’t necessarily start off well. Oh how I hate rubbernecking. It took a lot longer than necessary to
get off my island. Accidents, drivers getting pulled over, or someone changing a tire are very interesting indeed, but not
when you’ve been sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for over ten miles. For a while it didn’t seem like we
would ever get out of New York.
Finally, we did make it out of New York. We arrived in Trenton some time after 3:30 PM. While taking a tour of the
city there, we looked for a place to eat. We did find a nice place to dine in and it had an excellent view. Apparently the
fact that Trenton is the capital of New Jersey doesn’t necessarily mean that there would be places to eat at. Just
like Albany, the capital of New York, it was a ghost town on Sunday. The only place open that we found anyway, was a
McDonald’s. I haven’t eaten at one of those in quite a few years. My meal consisted of chicken, a handful of
fries, and a glass of milk. See Rachel, I got my milk and Kenny too.
Carolyn Dawn Johnson did an excellent job. I really like her. She has quite a few good songs that she’s written.
She’s an accomplished guitar player, and she sounded great both times that I’ve seen her.
This was my first time seeing Phil Vassar in concert. I saw him twice at last year’s fan fair. He did an excellent
job at the TNN/Country Weekly Awards last year. Plus, his set at the label show was quite inspiring. He has so much
energy, and he really gets the crowd going.
Sara Evans has a lot of good songs, and I do enjoy listening to her on the radio. I really like her new song. Enough
said about the opening acts. Let’s get onto the really good stuff.
Well, ladies and the few gentlemen that we have, I am here to say that some things do happen twice. See Gab, it does
help to rub that card. The fact that I had won the backstage pass with my GM Card at the Connecticut show last month
didn’t stop me from filling out another survey so that I could be entered once again. I really wanted to win, again.
As most of you know, I didn’t look into his eyes or speak to him at all. Right after Phil’s set was over, the nice
lady from GM came on stage to announce the evenings’ winners.
Well, that nice lady called my name, and this time she got it right. Last time she called me Ally Miller, which is my
name, but it’s not the name on my license or my GM Card. Ally is the name I always post with. It was fun trying to
get out of our seats for the meet and greet. The first three rows on the floor were just one long continuous row of seats.
There were no aisles between the sections. We were right smack in the middle. So, instead of climbing over everyone,
we climbed over the seats right in front of us. It was quite the scene to be seen.
This being my second GM experience and only my second time meeting Kenny, I was a lot less nervous. My knees
weren’t knocking and I didn’t have “Justin� in my way or anyone else. I made sure I was right next to
him for the picture. He put his arm around me, and I was more than happy to return the favor. Although, I did have a
slight problem finding a place for my hand. As much as I liked the first place it landed, I thought it was kind of rude to
leave it there, but I can tell you that he does have a nice firm butt. There is no way that I could have planned that any
better. Well, I brought both of my pillow shams that match my t-quilt. He signed the one with the fan fair pictures
during the GM meet and greet. I actually had a small conversation with him, and I did look into his eyes this time.
Naturally, he smelled really good once again.
Now to Kenny’s set. He wore the infamous West Palm Beach pants. After seeing him in those pants in person, I
now realize why he had them repaired. With those pants he wore with a denim sleeveless shirt and his traditional black
cowboy hat. At one point during the show he took off his cowboy hat to put on the FDNY hat that my friend Jen gave
him. He had it on for a few seconds. He tried adjusting it, but then he put his cowboy hat back on. He put the FDNY
hat on Clayton, who wore it for the rest of the show.
It was great being center stage again, and what can I say about being five rows closer to the stage than my last show in
Connecticut. I thought the seventh row was excellent, but being in the second row was ten times better. How will I ever
be able to sit anywhere else? The days leading up to the show, I kept thinking about how I would only have one row of
people to hide behind. Well, since the people right in front of me sat down the whole show, I couldn’t even hide
behind them. I got over my fear quickly. My new friend, Mary, who traveled from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Jen, and
myself were making plans for rushing the stage at the end of the show. Mary was going to push them out of the way,
and I was supposed to jump over their seats immediately making room for her and Jen. Turns out we didn’t have to
execute that plan. The security guards told everyone in the first two rows to get up and stand by the stage when Kenny
and the band started playing “How Forever Feels�.
Out of the four signs that I made, I only held up one. Anyone surprised at that? I really had every intention of
holding all of them up. Well, except for the one about me being ready for the “Kenny Challenge�. That would
definitely need a few shots of courage by me, like maybe some Tennessee Whiskey, but since it was a long ride home,
and I was the driver, no shot of courage. He was already almost at the end of his set when I realized I had forgotten
about the signs. At this point, he was all over the stage. He wasn’t still long enough to really hold any up. Plus, I
felt totally ridiculous. Even though I felt ridiculous, I just new I couldn’t let y’all down. So the one that I did
hold up and that he did look at. His eyes just about popped out of his head, briefly. I just about died. The sign he saw
was a combination of all the nuthouse member suggestions. It went like this:
I could just hear his thoughts, “gee and I thought she was a quiet one.� A little bit after this I got another
interesting look from him. When he was signing autographs, I had him sign the other sham. That’s right, I got two
autographs at one show. While he was signing it, I could tell he remembered what he already signed backstage and he
just smiled. All I did was just smile back at him. All the guys were in a great mood. They were really into the show,
and the crowd was most definitely into them. I think I got more band pics than Kenny pics. As much as Kenny enjoyed
showing me, and everyone else, his butt. I really didn’t take that many pictures. There was too much fun to be had
by just dancing and singing along with him. I had an excellent time. The best show yet for me. Of course it was easy
getting pictures of Nick, Clayton, Tim, and, at times, Jim Bob. I really did try to get pictures of Sean and Wyatt, but it is
so hard with no lighting on them. With Steve, you have to be ready when he makes his move up front, but I did manage
a few of him, also. I find Jim Bob to be such a riot. He’s too cool. Tim really gets into his guitar playing. I think
he forgets that people are watching him. There was that one band guy that I did get plenty of pictures of, and he knew I
was taking pictures of him. He even smiled at me. My second eye contact of the evening. The first being with Kenny.
I was planning on buying another piece of Chesney gear at the show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find Tim or Darryl.
They had three different booths set up throughout the arena, but no site of either one of them. So, I didn’t buy
anything. I didn’t need anything I just buy it to talk to them.
Well, another show over and a whole bunch more memories added to the collection. Why do I now find myself
counting down to my next Kenny fix? Problem is getting a Kenny fix doesn’t necessarily cure you of anything. It
just leaves you begging for more, and more, and more. Well, I do look forward to seeing Kenny and the guys at the Fan
Club Party, and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the nuthouse members and other fan club members. I’ve only
actually meet four members now, Renee, Jen (NY), Tammy, and Natalie. Natalie said that Tammy picked me out of a
crowd from seeing my last GM picture with Kenny which I had posted just about everywhere. Wait until they post the
new pic. I’ll be cropping everyone out of that pic. It will only be Kenny and me. For anyone who’s not making
the journey to Nashville, you will be missed.