This is country music

On Friday, my friend Misty and I traveled about three hours to Roanoke, Va. to see Brad Paisley's H20 Frozen Over Tour. I had a feeling it would be pretty awesome to see him live, but I had no idea just how awesome he would be. (Side note: Brad's tour is the leading revenue producer so far in 2011.)

We went to the Roanoke Civic Center, a nice venue in downtown Roanoke. Because the show was sold out, I purchased our tickets through a Roanoke guy on Craigslist a few months ago. While he, and the tickets, seemed legit, I couldn't truly relax until they'd actually gotten us in the door.

Our seats were higher up, but centered perfectly in front of the stage. I loved them! Except for the fact that we had to climb some pretty steep stairs that had no railing. Being not the most graceful girl, I was so scared of them. But I am proud to say I did not fall. (Although five other unfortunate country music fans did.)

The opening act of Jerrod Niemann was fantastic. Not only was he hot, he was ext

remely talented and funny. He shared a couple of new songs with us and, of course, performed his big hit What Do You Want From Me?

Darius Rucker was next. I've already shared how seeing him perform is a bucket list item for me. While I love pretty much all of Darius' new country music, especially This, there was something magical to me about him singing I Only Wanna Be With You, Let Her Cry

and Hold My Hand. There are songs that I have known and loved for 15 years and to see him

perform them live was amazing.

Before Darius took the stage, Misty said, "I dare you to yell Hootie when he comes out!"

"I don't think I will be the only one," I told her.

Sure enough, when Darius came out, hundreds of people screamed Hootie. For just a minute, I could pretend that I had not ruined my life with my big mouth and was, in fact, attending a Hootie concert.

Darius sang a little Hank Williams Jr with the classic Family Tradition, which drove the crowd absolutely wild. Of course, he needed to change the lyrics up a little bit, as in, "Lordy, I have loved some ladies. And I have loved Jim Beam. And they both tried to kill me in 1993."

Darius ended his set with an amazing rendition of Prince's Purple Rain.

Jarrod and Darius alone would have been worth the (slightly scalped) price of admission, and we still had our main event. There really isn't much that Brad Paisley sings, says or does, that I don't love. This night wasn't an exception.

Brad's water theme was a constant throughout the night. At one point, Brad and his band appeared to be completely submerged under water. There were tons of little cartoons and video sketches behind him throughout the evening that could make you laugh, groan or even cry. (Thank you, Andy Griffith)

After playing a couple of songs to get the crowd going, Brad said it meant a lot to him and his band that people would spend their money on tickets to see them. "We're just going to try to give you your money's worth," he promised.

And they did.

It is honestly very hard for me to pick a highlight of the evening. This is Country Music is currently one of my favorite songs. Brad's performance was similar to his November CMA performance, so a montage of country music icons ran behind him as he sang, which stirred up all kinds of emotions for me. Merl Haggard, in particular. I remember listening to him as a kid with my grandparents, who could sing every tune even without hearing the music. My grandmother's brother would sometimes show up with his guitar and strum a Haggard tune. And of course, when an American flag was displayed on the big screen, the crowd went absolutely wild.

My probably all-time favorite Brad song ever is Then. Luckily, another Brad fan caught a great video of that performance for me, even the awesome guitar solo at the end.

One of the many highlights of the show was when Brad decided to "play to the cheap seats." He hopped onto the diving board of a pool and sang out to our section. That was pretty awesome. "When I was going to concerts, that's where I had to sit, so I wanted to do something special for the cheap seats!" he told us.

Brad ended the show with a giant, mascot-Muppet version of himself (hard to describe, but hilarious to see) serving drinks at a bar to Darius, Jerrod, the band and VT head coach Frank Frank Beamer while singing Alcohol. Darius was able to help Brad out with some of the lyrics by shouting out gleefully, "helping white people dance!"

All three of these performers were fantastic. They put their heart into it. They really did want us to get our money's worth. Throughout the show, they all accepted shirts and hats thrown on stage and would quickly autograph while continuing to perform. At the end of the show, Brad placed his cowboy hat on a little boy near the front of the stage who seemed overjoyed.

It takes a rare artist who can play for a room of 7,500 people and make you feel like he's playing just for you.

Check out all my pictures from the show here: