Ever since I can remember, I have loved music. My parents had pretty varying tastes in genres, and I think I grew up with a mix of the best. Some of my favorite memories were when we would play records in the living room and dance around. Everything from Hank Williams, Charlie Pride, Kenny Rogers, The Beatles, Fats Domino, Alabama, Lionel Richie, and so on. Some of those records have migrated to my sisters house, and to mine. We play them with as much enthusiasm as I recall from my younger years. As I became a teen, I started to listen to a lot of other types of music. I fell in love with The Doors, and even more of The Beatles. I also started to like other things like Aerosmith, the Wallflowers, and all sorts of teenage pop from the 90’s. I do remember going to a music store at the top of the hill we lived on and buying cassette tapes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Steve Winwood. The first CD I remember buying was a Hank Williams Jr greatest hits CD. I still have all of them, they are pieces of my musical past. Even though I can’t recall now the last time I actually bought music instead of just adding it to a play list, music is still very much an important part of my life; it has just taken a different route I suppose.
I have a love of live music. It could be a huge stadium concert, a bar with a stage the size of a coffee table or a man playing on the street. Even as I’m writing this I am taken back to all the shows I have been to. My first concert was Merle Haggard, and I saw him again as an adult. The feel of a live performance is like nothing else I can even describe. There could be a million people, but when the song is perfect, and you’re right there with the artist, you might as well be singing along with them all alone.
A few months ago was the third annual Daytona Country 500. Handy Fellow and I have been attending this huge country music festival since it started, and we always have a blast. This years line up included 38 Special, and we were pretty amped about that, as we love their tunes. We also got to see Billy Currington and Chris Stapleton. The show itself was a spectacular one. The fans were all revved up and having a blast, there are vendors to buy belts and boots and hats, there was food, and plenty of drinks. Not too long into the day..the skies opened up in bouts of torrential rain. At first my instinct was to scatter like all the other folks were. There were people that were pulling out plastic ponchos, and people running for cover. I don’t know why, but Handy Fellow and I kind of just laughed, and kept on listening. This is the spirit of a concert. My boots might have gotten a little muddy, and our hats were soaked but it just didn’t matter that much; we were there to enjoy the songs. By the end of the night, we had made new friends with some other soggy people, we had our share of adult beverages, we had WOO HOO’d and YEEEE HAWWWE’d with the best of them; and we made memories that will last forever. All to the soundtrack of a live show.
Just three short months after that epic concert, I was on my way to another! This time to Tampa with one of my besties to see Miranda Lambert. I had seen her years ago but had become a huge fan since then. Her music is bomb, and she is feisty and fun. The tickets we got were in the grassy area of the arena, and I am so glad we went with that option. Part of the fun of a concert is the dancing and meeting people, and you just cant do that if you are stuck in a seat smushed next to someone that you don’t know..lets be real. Anyway, we walked up and up and up to the top of the place, and found a good place to stand where we had a good view and also a close distance to a drink stand. Little Big Town came on first during the “Bandwagon Tour” and warmed up the crowd really well with some of the songs we all know and love, along with some covers of other artists songs. Miranda came out in a flash of lights and a “HEY Y’ALL”, and that’s when things really got fun!! She put on a show of a couple hours, singing all the songs that I sing in my car and in the shower, and ok..everywhere. I sang along, I stomped my boots, I screamed, I shouted. We made some new friends and were laughing with them in no time, and we even witnessed a kind Security Guard cover for a woman that was peeing in a bush. It was another awesome music experience.
Each time I head to a concert, something I do to commemorate it, is get a T-shirt from the show. I know..the lines are crazy, and the shirt is over priced for sure, but I really like having something that I can wear all the time; and remember how I felt standing in a stadium somewhere listening to an artist that I love. These are people that I will pay to see, that I will travel to hear, and that’s a connection that doesn’t come with just everything.
Remembering all the awesome concerts that I have been to, makes me feel pretty lucky and also makes me wanna find another one-now! I actually this past week was at a Blues show and got to meet one of the musicians (he and I are in a pic above), so that was really cool for me as well. I guess you could say that I’ve got the music in me, that I have the concert bug, or maybe that I have a gypsy soul. Whatever it is, I will always keep my ears open for a song I can sing along with, a melody I can hum to myself, and a musician that will capture my heart. What are some of the great shows y’all have been to, or are looking forward to? Share with me some of your great musical memories; and until then you can find me anywhere that there is some loud sounds, with a smile on my face.
Diaries of Suzy Doozer 
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