Now our boring pictures! ha ha

Here’s the pictures of us from Wednesday, the day we arrived in Nashville.

We started off the day visiting the famous Music Row…

I was surprised to see that it was only a street full of old houses (with MUCH character).  This is Chrysalis Studio…Where KingBilly and others call home.

Neal and Bitty take a second to pose on the front porch.

Trey Bruce is a producer/composer/etc… there….I was so impressed with the work that he’s done!

Really impressive lineup of his accolades!  This is the “mixing room” in the studio.

Awards were everywhere….just another day in the studio!  lol   (that’s where I keep my EMMY….next to my lava lamp!!!!)  ha

 

This is the famous “Hotel Villa” as seen on the KingBilly show on GAC!  :-)  This is where a lot of the boys that are in the band KingBilly live.  It’s on Villa Street, so hence the name…..

When we drove up, we could hear music coming from houses everywhere….  This is John’s (KingBilly member) girlfriend, Lucy. She was jamming across the street.  She was practicing for her show that night downtown.  This is truly outstanding talent everywhere in Nashville.

Downtown Nashville….You can always tell by the “Batman” building, AT&T.

We went to a restaurant to grab some supper….Dan McGuinness…again live music everywhere…

 

This is a statue of “art” downtown by the restaurant where we ate….I tried to get the best view that contained the least amount of naked body parts!  ha ha It was hysterical!  The other side of the statue was not so PG!!!!

Then we drove out to Franklin to see some stars homes.  I was most impressed with Alan Jackson’s little shack.  It’s really a shame that he has to live so poorly…..yea, right!

This is the front view of the house…I couldn’t get it all in one picture.  We were stopped in front of the house and I got out and stuck my camera through the fence.  :-)  The camera was checking me out, so I waved!  We moved pretty quickly before they called the police!!!

See all those beautiful old 100 year old oak trees?  They weren’t there when he moved in.  He had them helicoptered in from Georgia and planted here.  Can you imagined what that looked like flying through the air?  lol This is one of his lil ole barns…..  The rock fences are still there from Civil War days.  They are everywhere in Nashville.  Very historic!

No trip to Nashville would be complete without visiting the Grand Ole Opry!

Chip wanted his picture made with Martina….. :-)

Then we went to the Opryland Hotel for drinks…(we will stay there if we go back!  GORGEOUS!!!   

 

This is just hanging out inside the hotel.  It’s like a city in there!

Bitty was getting tired!!!!

So we went back to our hotel, The Preston, for our first nights sleep before hitting downtown tomorrow for the festival!

The First Concert of CMA Music Fest 2009…

Across the Cumberland River from Downtown Nashville is the huge LP Stadium, Home of the Tennessee Titans.  This is where the nightly concerts were held.

So every evening we started our evening stroll over the bridge to the stadium….

We had “handicapp seats,” but they were amazing!!!

Brooks and Dunn opened the first night….

They were joined by Reba to sing the “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” song….

Then of course she entertained us by herself!

 

 

Then after about three songs from Reba, Storme Warren came on and asked us all to evacuate the stadium…(or at least move to the inside…)  There was a storm, he said, “Nine minutes away…”  They covered up equipment and took down speakers….(quickly)….

We sat and waited….50,000 people!!!!  Everyone had a great attitude about it though….!

Then the heavens opened up and the rain, thunder, and lightning….came down!!!!!  It rained, and rained,

and it rained,

Then they announced (after two and 1/2 hours) that they would start the concert again!  Nashville has a noise ordinance that takes place every night at midnight….well, by the time the rain was gone, it was midnight!  :-(  They pushed it back that night just for us!  Yay!!!!  We didn’t have to go home.  Now, we had some sad news….Rascal Flatts was supposed to play that night…..because of the delay, they had to leave for their next engagement in Tulsa….boo hoo.  But, Darius Rucker did not go home….

 

Dierks Bentley put on a great show….

 

and Brad Paisley closed the show….he even stayed later because he said he wasn’t ready to go home!  Then he was joined again by Dierks.  It was a wonderful show!

By this time, it is 2:45 a.m.  Can you tell how late it is by how we look?  ha ha

 

Breakfast is at 9:00…???  and this is just the end of the first day!