Country Drive

   A few months ago, while we were on the cruise with the Confederate Railroad Band, I was talking with the lead singer, Danny Shirley, and he mentioned that they were going to be in concert in a few months, in Bristol, TN, with George Jones. I told him "we would be sure to be there". Much to my surprise, he gave me his phone number and said to call him during the week before the concert and he would have tickets waiting for us at the door.

   Is this guy great or what?! As I have said before, some people may be prejudiced against this band because of the "Confederate" name, but I have never met a nicer group of guys, and the name "Confederate Railroad" was actually, originally the name of one of the organizations who helped get slaves out of the south, before and during the Civil War. Of course, the band is also a great group of musicians who, in my opinion, are as good or better, now, than they were when they were selling millions of records. That's right. "Trashy Women" alone sold over 3 million and they had many other hits like "Queen of Memphis", "Jesus and Mama","When You Leave That Way","Cadillac Kind" and many more.

   Anyway, I happily put the phone number in my wallet and began to anxiously await the day of the concert, but this story has another twist. On the day before Easter, I drove a farm tractor all day long doing some work at the rental property we own. When I stepped down off of the tractor at the end of the day, I was sans wallet. (That means my wallet was missing.) So on Easter Sunday we, and most of our family spent the day looking for a wallet rather than Easter eggs. Unfortunately, it wasn't found. It is probably buried under a foot or 4 of dirt. As my niece said, "Maybe a future archaeologist will dig it up." I replaced all of the cards and my license but now I didn't have Danny Shirley's phone number. I thought about digging the whole place back up but decided there must be an easier way. After several emails and phone calls I was able to reach the bands road manager, Tweak, (Yep, that's his nickname.) who assured me that there would be 6 tickets and backstage passes waiting when we arrived at the concert.

   OK, enough of my boring story and on to the pictures. When we arrived we were escorted backstage where we chatted with the band. Here we are talking to Danny and the lead guitar player Jimmy Dormire.

Here is a group picture with the band.

And here are some pictures from their concert.

Now some people who are not huge country music fans might not realize what a big deal this was to us, but if you are a sports fan, think about how great it would be to hang out with your favorite team just before the game and you can realize how we felt. Now imagine how it would feel to meet the greatest player that there ever was and you'll know how we felt about meeting George Jones. As I walked up to him he stuck out his hand. As I shook it, I'll never forget the words we exchanged. I said, "It's an honor to meet you sir" and he said "The pleasure is all mine." I think Tracy had to smack me to bring me out of my daze after that. (Just kidding.) Here is the picture that now hangs on our kitchen wall.

This is his charming wife, Nancy.

And here are some pictures from his show.

  If you get a chance to see a George Jones or Confederate Railroad concert, I would highly recommend it. The "Railroad" of course always puts on a great show but I was a little concerned since George is now over 70 years young that he might not be as good as he once was. My concern was without merit. I have been to several concerts by him and let me just say, for the record, as far as I could tell, his voice is as good as ever, and he still has some pretty good moves. Of course, he didn't swing from any ropes or jump off of the drum riser, but an entertainer as good as him, doesn't have to. He sang many of his classic songs like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Rockin' Chair" and a lady who sang like Tammy Wynette sang some of their old duets with him. His show lasted nearly 2 full hours. A screen behind the stage scrolled through some great video and pictures as he sang.

   After the show, we visited some more and by the time we went outside to head home the parking lot was nearly empty, so we didn't even have to fight traffic.

   I took my fiddle with me and George and Danny both autographed it. Buck Owens autographed it a few years ago, but that is another story. Life is good!