The Concert of my lifetime.

This guy. Let me tell you about this guy. Nah, no need. If you don't know Garth, you clearly have been under a rock for the last quarter century. This is the man that started my love of country music.Picture it, 1990. Grunge and flannel were hitting the scene, goth kids sported their black lipstick and long greasy hair. Fortunately, I was only 7 and sported neither of these monstrosities. I was sleeping over at Alicia Climer's house. I didn't know much about music at this point, but Alicia had a VHS tape of a Garth Brooks concert. We didn't even have a VCR. This was big. All night long, we danced and sang along to Garth in his black and blue shirt and guitar to The Thunder Rolls, Rodeo, Two of A Kind Workin on A Full House, and Mr. Blue. When the video was over, we grabbed the tape player and started all over. Man oh man. That memory is forever burned. He was amazing to watch. He ran around like a maniac, he had a microphone strapped to his head, he smashed guitars, he flew in on cables from the ceiling. He was a rock star. A rock star of country. 

And today, he still is. 

He may have retired 10 years ago, but Garth pops up on the radar when no one is expecting it. A real patriot at heart, Garth donated the proceeds of 9 consecutive concerts here in Nashville for this city's flood relief efforts from the devastating flood of May 2009. 3.5 million dollars and counting. Matt and I joined the throngs of Nashville and the other surrounding continental United States for concert 5 of 9 last night. It was paaaaacked. I think this was my first true sold out concert. Garth was phenomenal. He sang all the songs I love. It's like he was singing to me. Well, he was. Sorta. Trisha Yearwood accompanied him and sang a few of her classics as well. The evening was being filmed to show to troops overseas. U-S-A. I still get goosebumps. We went with another couple that we have grown to be friends with in our time here, and we had a blast. I am croaking into the phone today at work, I think a leprechaun snuck into my throat and kicked my vocal chords. Or, it could be that I sang my guts out to every single song Garth performed. I think Matt was worried my head would explode. A few pictures from my phone:

All in all, a fantastic Christmas gift we got for ourselves. I couldn't be more satisfied. I can die happy now. Garth, I love you man.