Back in February, when I found out that James Taylor was coming to Birmingham, I knew I wanted to go. James Taylor and his music has a special significance to me & Brent in that his greatest hits CD was the (decoy) gift Brent gave me on my 22nd birthday, June 29, 2002, which was also the day he proposed on one knee with a princess cut diamond ring at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga. But that morning, when I opened the CD – that I had not specifically asked for, by the way -- I was a little surprised that he had picked out such a great gift for me that I had not asked for, not even really realized I wanted. (This has been a continuing theme over the past 9 years.) I thought “Wow, he really knows me.” Fast forward to our 5-year anniversary trip to Hawaii, sitting outside one evening at a restaurant with live music, listening to a Hawaiian guy with a really smooth, sweet voice cover all of James’ greatest hits. I think we sat there for hours just listening to this guy sing & then tipped him really good because we loved it so much.
So, anyway, I think fondly of Brent and our marriage any time I hear James Taylor, even though Brent remembers neither of those stories. Whatever. When I asked Brent if he would take me to the concert as a gift for our 8th (8th?!) anniversary, I told him that: 1. James Taylor has sentimental value to us as a couple and 2. he would be able to redeem himself in that the last concert he will have been to will NOT be New Kids on the Block. (Yes, you read that correctly, and I think this is really too major for parenthesis, but the only concert Brent had ever been to, before tonight, was a New Kids on the Block concert in Atlanta when he was a little boy.) He quickly snorted & said: “Do you really think James Taylor is that much cooler than NKOTB?” And then he said: “Do you think there will be marijuana there?” Dear Lord. I assured him probably not, and that we would probably be the youngest people there by about 20 years. (Side note: I was actually wrong about this assumption because all of the 50 year old men had 20-something dates. ???) He agreed to go, because he’s sweet and he likes to make me happy and I like to let him make me happy.
As soon as we got the tickets, I put my two JT CDs in Brent’s CD player in the Explorer so he could learn some of the songs. He must not have been listening, though, because the morning of the concert, he asked “So, what all does James Taylor sing?” Good grief. I should mention that he is not a big pop/rock fan – more of a classic country guy, for sure. I lied and told him “Layla” just to see if he knew the difference and he did, so he scored a point there that he lost again when I heard him singing “Sweet Baby James” to the tune of “Sweet Caroline.”
So, since he was really not too excited about the concert and especially the fact that 1. the tickets were expensive, 2. I had a major fiasco with the ticket broker on the day of the concert that was not resolved until 3 pm (Stub Hub – will NOT use them again, & 3. the show started at 8 pm (!) in Birmingham (!!) on a Tuesday (!!!) night (in other words, it started at the exact time we would need to leave to get in bed on time), I let him pick where we would eat. Of course, he chose Niki’s West, which is arguably the best restaurant for country cooking in Birmingham and maybe the entire state of Alabama. So after a well-rounded meal of catfish, fried green tomatoes, squash, rolls & lemon meringue pie, we headed to the BJCC.
(Above is Brent’s plate, after the fact.)
The concert was fantastic! James still sounds great and he’s actually a funny guy. He told stories about most all of the songs and about his life and although I know it was all rehearsed, it didn’t really seem like it. He played all of his greatest hits, but my favorites of the night were “Fire & Rain” (one of my top 10 favorite songs ever & interestingly, the only song he did not tell the story about), “Steamroller” (awesome!!!), and “Sweet Baby James” (obviously). During intermission, Brent went out for drinks (the concert hall was SO stuffy & hot) and brought me back a shirt as a surprise – my first concert shirt! Woo hoo! He thought I was embarrassed of it, but I was really excited! Sadly, my Droid pics of the concert did not turn out, except for this one:
We got home late, but it was SO worth it & even Brent said he enjoyed it. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t even really have to convince him to go with me we to the Bama Rising concert next month. Of course, I’m sure this has more to do with the once-in-a-lifetime lineup!! I’m really looking forward to it!
Pics from Birmingham this afternoon on my Droid. Tuscaloosa is home for now, but I do love (and miss) this city!
And a new blog tag is born: “music” !!
