Grand Ole Opry

After visiting the Opryland Hotel a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to stay overnight there sometime and go see a show at the Grand Ole Opry. I haven't really listened to country in quite some time, but we're in Tennessee, so I figured it's time to embrace it! :) So, Eric took the hint, and he made arrangements for us to stay overnight and go to the show for my birthday last weekend. Kyle (Eric's brother) and his wife, Jessica, drove several hours to come and watch the kids for us. We really appreciated it.

The hotel was awesome (except our balcony view of the stairs and the $18 parking fee), but we also really enjoyed the show. We just picked the night and hoped there would be people singing that we liked. When Little Jimmy Dickens came out on the stage, I was shocked, because after I saw all his outfits in the museum, I thought he was dead, but he's still energetic as ever at 88, I believe.

One of my favorites was Dean Brody, who was there for the first time that night. He's from Vancouver, Canada, and his first album is being released this month. He sang his single called, "Brothers" (it is a very good, I already got it off i-tunes) and another one called, "This Old Raft" which was good but not available on i-tunes yet.

My other favorite was Darius Rucker. I hadn't heard of him before, but when they mentioned that he was the lead singer for "Hootie and the Blowfish" in the 90's, then he definitely sounded familiar. He sang two songs from his new album...one is his newest single, "Alright", which was my favorite. You could tell that he really enjoyed singing it. If you liked "Hootie and the Blowfish", you'll like his music!

Anyway, we had great seats and it was a really good time. We spent a little time at the Opry

Mills Mall before heading home. It was an awesome birthday weekend. Many thanks to my sweet husband for arranging everything and to Kyle and Jess for watching the kids!

I left my camera at the hotel because it was so big and bulky, so I only had phone for pictures. I took the above pictures with my phone and put them onto a scrapbook page. I wished that I had my camera after we got there because you can walk up to the stage and take pictures at any time, and we were close enough that I wouldn't have even needed to go anywhere. Oh well!