Real. Charley Jenkins and Chris Cagle. June 2, 2012

My sister and I were driving home from the store when I switched the radio on to Z104

A song faded to the end and then I heard "come see Charley Jenkins tonight at 7:00...."

and you can bet your buttons I was flying outta my seat telling my sister to look up the details for the show on her iPhone.

There was no time to lose!

She got the information for it as I sped home.

I bounced into the house and told my mom how badly I wanted to go.

This is what summer is all about for me.

It's going to out door concerts and feeling the live music and loving every second of it.

It's nonstop smiles and a lot of screaming and dancing.

I'm not talented when it comes to music but I'm talented at loving it, that's for sure.

So I took my mom, sister, 5 year old cousin, and my talent and headed to Eagle Mountain for a great show.

The line of cars to get to the concert park was insane.

Traffic was backed up about 2.3 miles and moving slower than a snail.

This picture does no justice because it messes up the depth perception and the cars look too small! It was a long line though!

By the time we were 1.6 miles away people were pulling over and parking on the side of the street.

Not willing to risk my chances I convinced my fellow concert friends it was time to get out and walk.

And walk we did.

The sun was beating down and sweat was starting to appear but I was so giddy and happy inside.

As we got closer this is the sight I saw...

That is a lot of people considering this event was for the Pony Express Days, which is a local celebration.

I walked so fast blisters popped up on the bottom of my feet, but nothing was going to slow me down.

We missed about 30 minutes of Charley Jenkins which I was sad about but I was still elated just to be there.

I can't describe the feeling I get when I attend a concert, all I can say is it makes me come alive.

Chris Cagle was great as well.

He was in the middle of a song when he had to stop a drunk guy from fighting.

He had the band stop playing and called security over and had the guy removed.

He said we have people over sees fighting for our freedoms we should not be fighting among ourselves, and he's right.

Chris invited a little boy that, my guess is, was frightened by the drunk man to sit on stage for the remainder of the show.

There was tension in the air but it subsided as the song went on.

After Chris finished "Beautiful Day" he got emotional.

He told us that he was so humbled to see that so many people had come out to the show, he usually is an opening act not the headliner.

He expressed his appreciation and gratitude to everyone and said he felt very blessed.

Then over the headset someone informed him that this concert had broken a record for the most attended event for the Pony Express Days ever.

He was chocked up and I could feel that he felt like this night was a true gift.

He said the only thing that would make it better is if he could share it with his wife. 

He opened up to the audience and talked about his farm in Oklahoma and his two children.

Chris pulled a Garth Brooks move when he took the camera from the camera man and made a playful face into it and then turned it to the crowd signifying that we deserved to be seen too.

We were just as much of a highlight as he was.

 An artist is nothing without the support of their true fans.

Chris said it's not about getting on stage and just doing a show, it's about interacting with the people and feeding off their reactions.

The night came to a close and right before I drifted off into wonderful dreams of live music my sister asked me what makes country music country music.

I tried to answer her the best that I could.

I told her that traditional country songs usually follow a storyline and have fiddles, steel guitars, and twang.

But music is always evolving with the times.
I decided you can't put it in a confined box and give it boundaries.

Country music may mean different things to different people, but the one thing that will always be consistent with country music is the feeling behind it.

Country music is about real life and relating to real people.

It's about feeling real emotion whether it's happy or sad.

So if I had to say what country music is in one word I would say...

REAL.