CMA Fest/Day 4/Pancakes!

There was some discussion on Saturday about church on Sunday morning. The former pastor of the church we attended when we first got married pastors a church just outside Nashville, and we thought about going Sunday morning and surprising him. But in the end, exhaustion won out, and we decided to sleep in.

We were tired of the hotel breakfast, and I really wanted to go to the Pancake Pantry, which is a Nashville institution.  I had read that people line up for pancakes, and that there can be up to 200 people waiting for a table. It was too far to walk, so we piled into the car and headed out. Sure enough, when we got there, there was a line around the front of the building. We hopped out of the car and took our place in line. The system is actually quite efficient, and they have self-serve coffee outside, so you can help yourself while you are waiting.

After about 30 minutes, it was our turn to be seated.  The host thanked us for waiting and promised us the best breakfast we’d ever eaten.  The menu had 23 types of pancakes, plus all the normal breakfast items-eggs, omelets, bacon, sausage…We all decided on different types of pancakes, which made it great for sharing. Heather got potato pancakes, Nick got SWEET potato pancakes, I got sugar & spice pancakes, and Randy got Santa Fe cornmeal cakes which had cheese, bacon and chilies in them. ALL of the pancakes were really good. I don’t think I could choose a favorite. And we got a side of hash browns, which were also amazing. Check out the menu. You’ll wish you were there, too.

http://www.thepancakepantry.com/images/Pancake_Pantry_menu.pdf



Waiting for our pancakes



We headed back downtown. I was hoping to meet up with Terri and Deb, as I had not yet gotten to meet Terri, and her husband, Rich. Also, Heather and I wanted to see Josh Kelley, who was performing at the Riverfront Stage.  Deb and Terri were at a fan club event featuring Bucky Covington, Jaron and the Long Road to Love, and a few others.  They didn’t think it would be over before Josh Kelley’s performance…so I decided to go find them. We walked into the place that was hosting the party, and saw a sign that the party was upstairs. Heather and I just walked on up, but the boys didn’t think we were supposed to, so they stayed downstairs. We found Deb, Terri & Rich, and Bucky Covington and his security shoved past us. Yes, I was shoved by Bucky Covington’s security. And Terri got his autograph.



Meeting up with Deb and Terri



We listened to Jaron sing “I’ll Pray for You” and visited with Deb, Terri & Rich, a little. Terri wasn’t sure who Josh Kelley was and wanted me to sing “Georgia Clay”. Haha. We headed downstairs to go to the Riverfront, hoping that Terri, Rich and Deb would be able to meet us. We got downstairs, and there was Randy, with people’s cameras in his hand, taking pictures of fans with Bucky Covington. And Bucky was helping him use the camera. The best part is that Randy didn’t even know who Bucky Covington was.

We headed over for Josh Kelley. Charles, obviously feeling fine, introduced him. Josh was great, and we stayed for Terri Clark’s first song, as well. Heather noticed Katherine Heigl with Josh in the golf cart as he drove away from the stage.



Listening to Josh Kelly at the Riverfront



We also had to plan dinner. There were a couple of “Original Nashville” restaurants we were interested in…we had fun reading the reviews. There was one that talked about an “inappropriate sauce” on the fish, which still makes me giggle when I think about it. I imagine the meal arriving, the customer taking a bite, and saying, “This sauce is totally inappropriate!” Who does that? Anyway, the restaurants were either too far away, or closed Sunday night. Nick finally found an Italian restaurant about 2 blocks from the footbridge, but away from Broadway, that had good reviews, called Sole Mio. It lived up to its promises, from the Italian margarita, thru the pasta course, and onto dessert (which Heather had been wanting for days). It was only 2-3 blocks from Broadway and the main CMA Fest activity, yet very few people ventured out that far, so there were plenty of tables, we didn’t have to wait, and the food and service were fabulous.



Our last walk to LP Field



We headed over to LP field for our last night of concerts. It started with the Jane Dear Girls-Susie is very talented, but Danelle needs to work on her stage presence. I liked them, but Danelle made me feel like she was copying Jennifer Nettles, instead of being herself. Next was The Band Perry-who were fabulous, then Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, and Miranda Lambert. Pistol Annies debuted with Miranda, which was fun and exciting. I didn’t think Blake or Miranda were as good live as some of the other performers I had seen during the festival, yet they are the Male and Female Vocalists of the Year, so…

Last was Entertainer of the Year, Taylor Swift. Randy and Nick left before Miranda, so just Heather and I remained. Taylor began her set, and there was a lot of posing, hair-flipping, and skipping around the stage. Her band was very loud, and we really couldn’t hear her singing over the band. At the end of her first song, Heather leaned over to me and said, “She just copied Jennifer Nettles!” Have I mentioned how much I love Heather? She is able to say things that would be judged as “biased” if I said them. As Taylor went through her set, more and more people left. You have to remember that is was late Sunday night, and a lot of people had to work the next day-which may be why our entire section cleared out by Taylor’s third song.  We stayed until the end…because we are die-hard fans.

Heather and Nick got up and left at 5 the next morning-Nick was planning to work half a day. Randy and I dragged our exhausted bodies to Nashville Airport, where  announcements are given by country music stars. We heard Kristian Bush giving directions to the rental car area.

Between CMA Fest and Bonaroo, everyone at the Nashville airport was tired, hungover, and sunburned…but still pleasant and friendly. However, by the time our flight landed at LaGuardia, everyone had turned back into New Yorkers with attitude.

CMA Fest was awesome. I hope it becomes an annual event for us. Though we are already discussing that next year may be “girls only”.  Hehe.

CMA Fest/Day 3/Beer & Popsicles

I woke up on day 3 of CMA Fest wondering how anything could be as good as the night before. We were all beginning to feel a little worn out. The free breakfast at the hotel was starting to lose its luster.  Have you ever had that experience where even though there are tons of choices, since the choices have been the same each day, there’s no longer anything you want? My made-to-order omelet was not as good as the day before, and there were no cheese grits. Nothing looked or tasted good, except the fresh fruit. That was still amazing.

We were going on a tour of the Yazoo brewery at 3:30, and I wanted to drive down music row. Other than that, we didn’t have any plans. Heather wasn’t happy with how her “I heart country music” t-shirt fit, so she wanted to get another one. So we headed down to Broadway after breakfast to do that. We tried to talk the guys into getting shirts, but they said the shirts were too dark and heavy. So we used their e-mail addresses and got another shirt for ourselves.

Carhartt was giving away these very cute pink bags at their booth in the convention center, and Heather and I really wanted one. We went over there, but were told they weren’t giving them away until 1:30.

There wasn’t really anything else we wanted to do. No one wanted to go to listen to music at the Riverfront or other stages. We had explored everything else. I suggested going to the Country Music Hall of Fame, or tour the Ryman, but no one wanted to do that. We were hot. And tired. We decided to go back to the hotel…we got some frozen Starbucks drinks and relaxed in the lobby, reading books and catching up on Facebook.

Later that afternoon, we got in the car, and drove to what was possibly Music Row-I’m not sure. It wasn’t much, but I had been told not to expect much. Then we went to this place that sold homemade popsicles, called Las Paletas. I found it online, but when we got there, Heather realized she had seen it on Food Network. It was amazing. There were several interesting flavors, and people filed in the shop, asked for their popsicles, paid and left. The line never ended. Heather and I got avocado flavor, and the boys got chocolate with chili. They were really good, but I felt like I rushed through mine and didn’t enjoy it because I was concerned about making it to the brewery tour on time. I really wanted to get another one and try to savor it, but I resisted the temptation.



Enjoying our popsicles!



There was a gourmet burger place next to the popsicle store that looked really good.  We could see people eating delicious looking burgers and stacks of onion rings through the window. We decided we would come back for dinner.

We headed off to Yazoo brewery for a fun tour and some delicious beer.



I took this photo because one of our cooks always invites me to eat at her school and describes the food as "bangin', yo"...as in 'come have some bbq chicken; it's bangin', yo."

 Then we headed back to the burger place, “Burger-Up”. We started with fried mushrooms and a cheese spread-delicious. Then our burgers came…the boys got more basic ones, beef with cheddar and some other toppings. Heather and I split a beef burger with pesto and goat cheese, and a lamb burger with goat cheese and some other toppings. Although the boys’ burgers tasted good (we had bites), ours did not. The beef tasted really strong, almost “off”, and the lamb was even stronger. Since the boys’ tasted ok-we wondered if the goat cheese or the pesto was what made it taste bad. Anyway, it was a big disappointment. Thankfully, the onion rings were crazy good.

Concert time! The only artist I was dying to see that night was Little Big Town, so I wondered how the concert would go. The evening started with Chris Young, and then it was Little Big Town’s turn. I love them, but they chose a weird set, I thought, for CMA Fest. They did “A Little More You”, “Shut Up Train”, “Born This Way” (EPIC!), “Little White Church”, another slow one, and “Boondocks”. I thought it was weird that they didn’t perform “Kiss Goodbye” or “The Reason Why”. Also, slow songs at CMA Fest are mood killers. You get the audience on their feet, singing and dancing along, and then you sing a slow song. Guess what happens-everyone sits down. Or goes and gets a beer.

Josh Turner was next, and as he was singing “Your Man”, the crowd went crazy. I couldn’t figure out why at first, but then I saw that Scotty McCreery had joined him on stage. After Josh was Trace Atkins, and then Martina McBride, who was joined by Lauren Alaina, again to a screaming crowd. Martina McBride enjoyed a standing ovation, but we felt she kind of “milked” it…instead of moving on with her set, she just let the crowd keep cheering for her. Rascal Flatts went last. They handed out lights to everyone in the audience, and we were to turn them on during “I Won’t Let Go”. Perhaps you will see that on TV! They closed their set with a medley of songs from my high school and college days that they performed with Little Big Town. That was great! Thompson Square also performed 2 songs between sets, and Big & Rich with Gretchen Wilson performed the “Fake ID” song.

Every performance was very good-I enjoyed the night much more than I thought I would.  Of course, though, I am partial to Little Big Friends.

We headed back to the hotel, and had a drink in the bar before turning in. It was 1 AM, every table and seat was taken, and there was one server. Poor thing! But she did great. Heather’s chocolate martini was the winner.

Tomorrow-Pancakes and Bucky Covington