Friday night was great. We went to the Melting Pot with a bunch of people before the concert. It was a lot of fun. Very expensive, but the food was good and I’d never been there before so that made it worth the price. The only downside was that we missed seeing Gary Allan because the meal took so long. It should have taken even longer so kudos to the waiter that made sure Kristi and I got all the courses before we had to leave to go see Keith.

Words cannot express how good the concert was. He played for almost 3 hours! There was a huge screen at the back of the stage so we could see everything even though we were not in the best seats. There was also a little stage in the middle of the floor – that’s where I got my best pictures. He sang almost all of my favorite songs, and Martina Mcbride came out and sang “Broken Wing” near the end of the show. Except for the rude woman that kept telling me to sit down and Kristi losing her voice, it was a great concert experience. Click here to see my pictures.

Also, something to add to my tips on concert going that i posted a while back: Always check the time that the parking garage closes. You never know when a concert might run a little late, and that moment of realizing you might be stranded is not fun.

Tonight is our Kelly Clarkson concert at the Ryman. Hopefully Kristi is saving her voice today so that she can help belt out “Since you’ve been gone”.

I Told You So by Keith Urban

The return of Matchbox! It’s been five years since More Than You Think You Are, and after solo cds, a member leaving, and the drum player becoming a guitar player, they are finally back together. I was disappointed at first when I heard it would be a greatest hits cd, but they made up for it by including 6 new songs (plus 2 covers if you buy it at Best Buy) on a separate cd.

One difference in these new songs is that they were written by the band. Generally all of their other songs were written by lead singer Rob Thomas. I’ve read some reviews that people can tell a difference but to me it just sounds like the same mb20. And that’s a good thing – great music, awesome lyrics, and the fact that each album is a little better than the one before it.

How Far We’ve Come, I’ll Believe You When, All Your Reasons, If I Fall are pop-y, uptempo songs that are great for turning up loud while driving with your windows down or dancing around your bedroom (not that I do either of those). I know these will be great in concert. These Hard Times and Can’t Let You Go are ballads. These Hard Times is the best track on the cd, or at least the one I keep playing over and over.

The greatest hits cd contains all of their singles from Long Day to Bright Lights. Nothing new for me here except that it’s a good way to see how their sound has changed over the years.

The good: All Your Reasons is so fun to sing along with. I love the lyric “Turn my cartwheels into headstands.” Rob’s voice sounds amazing on These Hard Times. Again, great lyrics with “Keeping me hypnotized, the power behind your eyes.”

The bad: If I have to pick something, it would be the 2 cd package. I would rather have it all on one cd. But that’s more annoying to me than anything bad.

The Anna Nalick Scale of Longevity: 5 for the new disc, 3 for the greatest hits one. I would be more likely to get out the older cds to listen to the non-released songs as well.

Listen to Exile on Mainstream

This may be my last blog post….. I’m kidding of course, but seriously, I’m not sure there will be a post to top this one.

Thursday, Kristi and I drove to Nashville for the opening night of the Nashville Film Festival to see Rob Thomas’s “My Secret Record”. We were excited about the movie and the thought that Rob might be in the theater with us. We were surprised to find that this festival is a pretty big deal and that there was a red carpet set up for the arrival of the “celebrities.” I’m using quotes because other than Rob and his wife Marisol, I recognized only one other person – Kimberly Williams Paisley (actress & wife of country singer Brad Paisley). After seeing the red carpet and all the people standing around, I was glad I had brought my new camera and Sharpie marker just in case.

Kristi and I had fun watching people arrive and taking pictures. At some point, Matchbox Twenty guitarist Kyle Cook was behind us. So off I went with my Sharpie, but he started walking away just as I said “hey Kyle….” I got some good pictures of Rob and Kristi tried getting him to sign something at the door of the theater, but again no luck. No big deal; we were ready to watch the film. I would have been happy to come home and find this picture of Rob and me on nashtown.com:

So we went in the lobby and see Kyle again. This time he did sign my book and Kristi got a picture of him signing it:

I would have been happy to come home with Kyle’s autograph, but it didn’t end there as Rob Thomas himself was standing right behind us. I now have Rob’s autograph and this amazing picture:

If you would like to see this glorious picture in person, feel free to stop by my desk at work on Monday. I told Kristi this may replace the picture I have from her wedding. She said that was ok because she may replace the wedding picture in her office with this too!

In case you’re wondering, the film was really good.

Streetcorner Symphony by Rob Thomas

I got an email today from my friend Stacy (hi Stacy!). It was a survey and one of the questions was the 4 sites you visit daily. Stacy listed jamie-miller.com as one of her 4! She probably gets tired of my lack of updates, so here’s a new post for when you check tomorrow, Stacy.

The title of today’s post comes from a song on Christina Aguilera’s new double cd Back to Basics. I’ve been listening to the cd for about a week, and I think it’s going to have to grow on me. I definitely like the first cd better than the second. Girlfriend can sang, but a lot of the songs just sound the same to me.

I’ve also listened to some of Jessica Simpson’s new songs. 1. She can’t sing. 2. She seems to be obsessed with this 80s sound. 3. Listening to her sing “You spin me round” makes me want to cry.

In other bad music news, I finally got to see Kenny’s new NINE minute video. You can watch it here or just read my summary:

Minutes 1 – 5: Kenny looking moody (aka trying to act), some guys speaking in Spanish with subtitles you can barely see but it doesn’t matter
Minutes 5 -9: Kenny singing, a love scene with Kenny sans hat, Kenny reunited with the girl.

The song’s not bad, but when the video was over I was thinking that is 9 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. (Actually, 18 because I watched it again with Kristi on Saturday. Maybe she’ll leave a comment to share what she said Kenny looks like in his big love scene.) Jason, you should do a video for your song. I bet yours would be better in half the time. And, judging by the comments in my last post, you have a lot of fans!

It’s only Tuesday and I’m already looking to the weekend. I’m in decorator mode and will be painting a bathroom and hallway in my house this weekend. I’m taking off Friday to get started before Kristi comes over on Saturday to help if LL Cool E lets her. Woohoo – three day weekend!

Slow Down Baby by Christina Aguilera

AOL music has made a list of the 111 Wussiest Songs of All Time. What does it say about me that I like a bunch of songs on this list?

I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys

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