HEART

Stephen and I had a great day in Nashville on Tuesday. We dropped Stella off at Nene's house and headed out of town around 10 AM. We went to the Green Hills area to shop. I know that we are true parents now since most of our stops were kid stores. They had great sales and we picked up a few things for Stella. She has a new infatuation with the tags on all of her toys and clothes. While we were at the bookstore, I found her a new Taggies brand toy so she can play with tags until her little heart is content! After a few hours of shopping, Stephen took me to meet his first boss that he had while in college. It was great to see where he lived and worked. Then, we went back to Green Hills for dinner and got to meet up with Tommy. I'm so glad that we were able to chat, even if it was a short visit. I miss my friend being so accessible. But, it gives me a great excuse to visit Nashville. Now that Stella is getting bigger, I'm sure our trips will be more frequent.

After all of that fun, it was finally time to head down to the Ryman Auditorium to see Heart! Stephen had given me the tickets for Mother's Day and it was absolutely perfect. Heart put on an amazing show as usual. They sang all of my favorites and included 3 from their new album that will be released August 31st. Ann Wilson is one of my favorite singers. She has an unique voice and sings with the most power I've ever witnessed during a live show. What really blows my mind is that unlike most current artists on tour, Heart travels with no background singers. Nancy offers harmony vocals on a few songs, but 90% of the vocals are all Ann. It's amazing that she lasts through 90 minutes+ of music at that range. I'm always in awe and wish that I had that kind of power in my voice. I'll just continue to pretend that I do while rocking out in my car! Here are some shots that I took with the camera on my Blackberry. I wish that I had taken my actual camera inside. I was trying to obey the rules printed on our tickets, but everyone else had cameras out snapping away. Security and Ryman greeters didn't seem to mind. Drat!

I saw their equipment stacked in the hallway on the way to our seats and had to snap a shot of Nancy's amp case.



Rocking out.





The acoustic set. "Dog & Butterfly", "Alone", and later a bluegrass tune with Alison Krauss & Dan Tyminski of Union Station: their special guests!





Head back, letting it fly. . . Go Ann!



We had a perfect day together. I love Stephen so much and am so thankful for our fun memories. We missed little Stella, but she had a blast at the fair with Nene, E, and Aunt Sis. She was so tired and looked like a little angel in her bed when we got home. She woke up around 4 AM and I was able to rock her a few minutes and sneak in a kiss before she fell back to sleep.