Concert Diaries Chapter Eleven ~ Love & Country

It's been a long time coming ... getting country music back in the New York area.  Our country radio station died about 17 years ago.  I was listening at the time it changed formats.  Thus began a 17-year drought.  I found some other things to listen to in the meantime and found books on tape, too.  Lately, of course, there's been my unabashed love affair with a singer in the pop music category.  But before that, it was contemporary Christian music, classical music and classic rock when my daughter was riding with me.  That was always fun.  Conversations sometimes went like this:

Listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sweet Home Alabama ... She: "Mom, you're so lucky you were around in the seventies ..."

Listening to Pink Floyd, Time ... Me: "You do understand that's our music ... right?"

Blair Garner of 94.7's morning show.

But this year, the country drought is over with the arrival of NASH FM, 94.7 (and, incidentally, sister station of my pop station, WPLJ).  I'd heard a rumor that country was coming back to our airwaves the day before they went live.  One of our bus drivers came into the school office on that day and said he was so happy to be listening to the new country station.  Suddenly I felt compelled to run an errand and hear it for myself.  There was car dancing all the way to the store and back.  There has been a lot of car dancing.

This weekend NASH FM sponsored a concert at Six Flags Great Adventure.  One of the opening acts was a new singer I've been listening to, Jaida Dreyer, and the headline group was Love and Theft.  I'd wanted to take the whole day off and hang out in the park before the concert but there is far too much to do at this time of year so I drove down after work in typical Friday Jersey traffic and arrived in just enough time for bad park food and a spot close to the front of the line.

Apparently, the collective memory of New Jerseyans has not remembered country music yet--or hadn't recovered from last weekend's Kenny Chesney extravaganza at the Meadowlands.  The crowd was sparse for the space and I felt so bad for all four acts and the radio station (it was fun to see Blair Garner from the station's morning show in person).  I was sort of in the front row and was shocked the couple of times I turned around and saw no where near the number of people I thought would come out.

Jaida Dreyer was wonderful.  She's a really good songwriter and has a lovely voice.  She reminds me of young Loretta Lynn crossed with Reba.  Pure country updated.  Did I mention she was born in Canada? That, of course, always gets my attention.  The band that supported her as well as the other two opening acts was tremendously talented.  There was serious playing and really good backup vocals happening up on stage.  I wished that she had played longer and that she had played my favorite song off her current EP, Half Broke Horses.

I'd never heard of the other two opening acts and was so pleasantly surprised by both of them.  Austin Webb was very good, entertaining although somewhat in need of variety in his moving around on stage (he paced).  Dakota Bradley, at age 18, is very talented and probably will be around for a while, having captured the attention of Tim McGraw who's produced his album.

Love and Theft, the enormously talented pair of artists comprised of Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson, both of whom play guitar and share the vocals, is one of my very favorite duos ever.  They performed a lot of their hits like Angel Eyes and If You Ever Get Lonely and even covered some Johnny Cash.  Country heaven for this one who's missed it for such a long time.  Their voices blend perfectly and their band is amazingly talented.  The bass player is from New Jersey. Their energy was totally infectious and the audience was treated to a wonderful show. Their interactions with the crowd and bits of stories that Stephen wove between the songs were wonderful.  I love knowing the stories behind the songs and how the artists feel about them.  It brings me that much closer to the music.  (I know another musician who's also very good at that ...)

It was a beautiful summer night, worth the drive from North Jersey.  I'm looking forward more live music sponsored by NASH FM.  I hope they know how happy thousands of us are that they are here in the Tri-State making up for lost time and giving us back our real, emotional, boot-stomping, loving-through good-times-and-bad-times music.  And they have to promise to stick around for a long time!

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Enjoy some Jaida Dreyer courtesy of @HomeSweetCountry here.  (And to the voice in the background that asked:  Jaida.  Dreyer.  Don't forget.)

Angel Eyes, Love and Theft

In Community

I have a theory about watching television and listening to the radio.  Maybe it's not a theory ... it's really more of a feeling ...

I feel that even if I'm watching or listening alone, I'm in community with a circle of nameless faceless friends with whom I have at least this one thing in common:  we all like this movie, program, song, station, whatever it is, however I define it.

So even though I own the DVD's of many of my favorite movies, I rarely watch them.  It just isn't any fun.  There's no one watching with me.  But if Sleepless in Seattle or Apollo 13 or Remember the Titans or, specifically, a Sex in the City marathon is on tv, well ... there I am watching with everyone else in West Virginia and North Dakota.  I like knowing there are thousands of people doing the same thing I am, enjoying the same story, liking their favorite part, getting something to eat when I do during a commercial wherever they might be in Massachusetts or Minnesota.

It's the same with radio which I have rediscovered with a vengeance this year.  This is my year of radio.  When country music disappeared* from the airwaves in the New York market about 17 years ago, I fell out of love with radio.  I still listened but couldn't get excited about any one station or genre of music because I'd been such a country girl.  I listened to Star 99 because I kind of like contemporary Christian music and it was useful in my job (at the time) as a church youth group director.  I liked the music--not so much the talk.  When my daughter was in the car, we listened to classic rock because that's what she likes ... my generation's rock music.  At Christmas Lite FM plays holiday music 24/7 from just before Thanksgiving until just after December 25 so there was always that.

Then along came Gavin DeGraw and my life changed in so many ways.  I've come to love the Top 40-type stations in New York, particularly WPLJ, because they play his music, although not nearly often enough (just saying).  And when I'm listening at home or in the car (and yes there is dancing at home and in the car), I know thousands of other people across the Tri-State area are listening (and, I hope, dancing) too.  My ever-changing yet always there community.  Now to be honest, I only like about half of PLJ's playlist at any given moment and I wonder why they play some songs and not others, especially when I hear other stations (through the wonder of iPhone apps) in other parts of the country like Carolina or Oklahoma playing more of what I'd like to hear.

I've had this feeling about television and radio for years.  Last year when I joined twitter that feeling exploded ... because the community began to have names and faces (or avi's, I suppose) that I could attach to it.  Meeting people on twitter with whom I have things in common has been one of the biggest blessings of trying out social media.  And yes, I've watched television with my twitter friends across several states and listened to radio with people all over the country.  It's community.  

I came to twitter because it's one of the ways my Girl Scout community is using to communicate with it's membership but I discovered so much more.  I've made new Girl Scout friends, follow lots of my church's leaders and thought-provoking bloggers, keep up with causes that are dear to my heart and can't imagine my life without my new friends made through our common love of Gavin DeGraw.  My community is vast and varied, causes me to stop and think and sometimes to act and, best of all, is always awake.  It lives all over the world so whatever time I come to find someone, someone is always there in Alabama or California.

Now lest you think I'm a recluse living in virtual community with mostly unknown ethereal relationships that have no basis in reality, let me assure you that I'm completely and firmly planted in my local actual communities too--at the school where I work, in my neighborhood and town, at my church and with dear old friends with whom I couldn't possibly live without.

But this other "community" gives me a lot of satisfaction too--this one that exists in my mind even now as I'm only half watching a cheesy Hallmark movie while half listening to Ralphie Aversa on WPLJ as I write.  And I adore the twitter community that feeds my soul, challenges my perceptions, teaches me about whatever I'm curious about at that moment, keeps me abreast of the news and enjoys the same things that are important to me.  

Don't you think it's amazing to be living at this point in time when so many things are being redefined, including how we can be in community with one another?  It's actually and virtually an opportunity to engage with one another in ways our grandparents and probably even our parents could never have imagined.

~

This morning Gavin DeGraw, Billy Norris and Ian O'Neill made the rounds of several media outlets in New York.  I listened live to radio interviews, watched a live internet interview and chatted with people all around the county (and yes, churned out an obscene amount of work in the office while all this was going on).  Gavin's out promoting his new single in advance of his new album due out in the fall.  Here're are the lyrics to the song, Best I Ever Had:

Melt Antarctica, savin’ Africa
I failed algebra and I missed you some times
We’re at war again, save the world again
You can all join in, but you can’t smoke inside

You said “Take me home, I can’t stand this place
‘Cause there’s too many hipsters and I just can’t relate”
You’re my neon gypsy, my desert rain
You’re my “Helter Skelter”, oh how can I explain that

You’re the best I ever had
And I’m trying not to get stuck in my head
But I read that soda kills you and Jesus saves
On the bathroom wall where I saw your name
You’re the best I ever had
I won’t be the same

Night sky full of drones, this neighborhood of clones
I’m looking at the crowd and they’re staring at their phones
They groom the coast line here, it's starting to disappear (Oh God!)
And maybe once a year, I think to clean my car

Caught my reflection, drop the call
I’ve been medicated with cigarettes and alcohol
I got vertigo, no I can’t see straight
I got obligations though I’m usually late but

You’re the best I ever had
And I’m trying not to get stuck in my head
But I think I dropped my wallet in Santa Fe
Lost the only picture I had of you that day and
You’re the best I ever had
I won’t be the same

Hey West Virginia, Hey North Dakota
I think I love you, but don’t even know you
Hey Massachusetts, Hey Minnesota
I think I love you, but don’t even know you
Hey Carolina, Hey Oklahoma
I think I love you, but don’t even know you
Hey Alabama, Hey California
I think I love you, but don’t even know you

You’re the best I ever had (you’re the best I ever had)
And I’m trying not to get stuck in my head (get stuck in my head)
But I passed the longest sign on the interstate
Saying “Find someone before it gets too late”
You’re the best I ever had (you’re the best I ever had)
I won’t be the same

Hey West Virginia, Hey North Dakota (Oh why, oh why)
I think I love you, but don’t even know you (I won’t be the same)
Hey Massachusetts, Hey Minnesota (you’re the best I ever had)
I think I love you, but don’t even know you (I won’t be the same)

Yeah, I won’t be the same.

You can hear it here:  Best I Ever Had

Gavin DeGraw interviewed on Huffington Post Live

~

*I'm excited to report that country music is back in New York today at 94.7 Nash FM.