Banjos, steel guitars, mandolins, fiddles and storytelling all come together to create one of the best sounds in this world, country music. It’s a genre all its own and has been capturing hearts of “country folk,” farmers, rednecks, Southerners and all the other hillbilly stereotypes for almost a century. But now, it’s even reaching a broader audience while everyone is falling in love with it from every neck of the woods. Country music is getting even better. (Now let’s not get into the old vs. new country music argument, let’s just talk about the industry and how it’s grown. Old vs. new country music is like putting liberals against conservatives, and my blog will not bring up those kinds of sore subjects. I’m here for smiles and not snickers, people.)

If you think about it, I mean really think about it, you can’t count the number of songs that have been written in or even just about Nashville. You just can’t count that high, period. You’ve got Jason Aldean’s “Crazy Town,” Dierks Bentley’s “Damn These Dreams,” and Johnny Cash’s “To Beat the Devil”. There’s three I didn’t even have to think about, so if I really thought about it, well, I’d be here for a year.

The point is that country music is centralized in Nashville, home to Music Row, the famous Broadway lined with honky tonks, and the Country Music Association (CMA) Festival.

For my combined high school graduation and 19^th birthday present(s), my mom bought two tickets to go to Nashville from June 4-9 and attend the biggest party in country music. If you don’t know what CMA Fest is, it’s a 4 day festival of nothing but concerts in every corner of downtown Nashville. There were at least 6 stages were artists were always playing. Every night, there were about 6 artists lined up to play at LP Field, home to the Tennessee Titans. They were the “big name” artists. The first night was Alabama, Brantley Gilbert (with special guests Justin Moore & Thomas Rhett), Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, and Tim McGraw. Friday’s lineup was Blake Shelton, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, and Travis Tritt. On Saturday, Darius Rucker, Florida Georgia Line, Sara Evans, Little Big Town, and Keith Urban performed. And the final night consisted of the Charlie Daniels Band, Thomas Rhett, Hunter Hayes, Lady Antebellum, the Zac Brown Band, and Brad Paisley. Talk about star-studded!

Although the big name stars were absolutely awesome, I have to say that my favorite parts of the whole experience were those with the lesser-known people. On Thursday, I attended Show Dog Universal’s Fan Appreciation Party featuring Josh Thompson and 4 other artists on the label owned by Toby Keith. I planned on getting a VIP pass at the door, but they sold out. I got a regular ticket, but they accidentally gave me a VIP one and no one noticed until the woman in charge of this event (that all the proceeds went back to charity) asked me why I wasn’t meeting & greeting the artists. I explained what happened, my mom said I was sad I couldn’t go meet them, and turns out 10 minutes later she comes back asking me who my favorite artist there was. Of course I said Josh Thompson, a humble guy with such real songs who I had seen at the Grand Ole Opry 2 years before. She asked me if I wanted to introduce him, and holy moly, I was quite close to screaming and/or peeing my pants. I contained myself and eagerly waited. Then before I was about to go on stage in the Silver Dollar Saloon, she came and grabbed me and took me to privately meet Josh where he signed the CD I had of his. Greatest moment ever (for Thursday anyway). Then I introduced him (again, almost peed my pants out of nervousness) and as I walked off the stage he told me “Just so you know, you did a very nice job” and was genuinely impressed. I thought to myself “I can die happy now.” Joel Crouse, an artist I had met at the Maryland Barbecue Bash this past year also performed, and that added onto the overload of excitement.

Then Friday rolled around. We spent a lot of our day in Fan Fair where artists did signings and meet & greets. I saw Dustin Lynch (who’s really tiny, by the way) and saw Jep & Jessica Robertson and Martin from Duck Dynasty. Their bus was there too and wow, I couldn’t believe it. Everything kept getting better and better. That night, my mom and I went to the Grand Ole Opry which was fantastic. If you’ve never been, GO. You will not regret it. Charles Esten from Nashville made an appearance, but the line-up included Ricky Skaggs, Charley Pride, Bill Armstrong, Sara Evans, Scotty McCreery, Lorrie Morgan, and Rascal Flatts. It was pretty awesome.

Going back to the “lesser-known” artists I mentioned, we saw a lot of up and coming artists and not-so-famous ones like Dan & Shay, Joel Crouse, David Nail, Jon Pardi (one of my all time favorites, also met him at the MD BBQ Bash), Chase Bryant, Lindsay Ell, and the list goes on. They made the experience SO cool because they’re so awesome and have so much excitement in their eyes and in their voices. I felt like all a cheerleader for all of them.

Craig Morgan is also one of my favorite people on the planet now. We saw him at a really small concert-like setting where he honored our military and even Facetimed with a soldier. He is hilarious and incredibly down to earth. Someone was videotaping him and he told them they couldn’t do that. He quickly said he was kidding and asked why people aren’t allowed to videotape singers. He said “Please videotape me, I need to sell records, I’ve got 4 kids”. He was absolutely charming and had my mother wanting to buy every one of his CDs to support his 4 kids.

Sunday rolls around. It’s no secret that I would marry Scotty McCreery in a heartbeat if he said anything to me, even if it wasn’t “Will you marry me?” or anything along those lines. So for my birthday present, I got to meet him at his Fan Club Party in the Wildhorse Saloon after a private concert and Q&A. And I thought the Josh Thompson experience was cool….but Scotty is so kind and humble, yet so successful, and he’s only a year older than me. Aside from
the fact that I’ve been in love with him since his appearance on American Idol, I have incredible respect for him and the person he is, despite his fame.

That’s only tidbits of our trip. I do have to give a shout-out to the Hanlons who we met from Boston who instantly became our friends. Y’all made the trip SO much fun and we’re incredibly blessed to call you our friends now. Also, no more dancing in the bar, Ms. Susan and Mom…

I hope I’ve convinced all of you to go to CMA Fest at least once. It’s the trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to go back to Music City! Seriously, can I go back now…