Thursday, June 5, 2008

First Day of Music Fest--From Tracy Lawrence to the Opry!

Tuesday, June 3rd Report!

What an amazing day it was to only be my second day interning for XM Radio this summer!! I started the morning at Greer Stadium where Tracy Lawrence’s Fan Club held their party. Not only did fans get to hear Tracy sing, but he brought along some friends from his Rocky Comfort Records record label to rock the venue. It was refreshing to hear some of the new songs Trent Tomlinson had been working on for a second album. I also enjoyed the performance of Tracy’s former guitar player, Rick Huckaby. He’ll be playing is own show at the Riverstages on Friday that I’d like to check out. It was exciting to sit right up front to take pictures and notes for XM. It was almost like I was in my living room, sitting four feet away, and Tracy and his friends had come to casually sit around and play for us all day.

The rest of the day brought me to the historic Grand Ole Opry! My ‘intern mentor’ also known as the Highway 16 producer, Joyce, and I set up an XM listening tent between the Opry House and an outdoor stage where we watched Luke Bryan perform. I must say, Luke Bryan is quite a dancer when he sings. At the tent, my deal was to thank our XM subscribers with goodies and encourage others that they couldn’t live without an XM radio. XM broadcasted the 7:00pm Opry Show as usual so it was fun to tell fans in the plaza that they could hear it live at our tent on XM!

Joyce and I got to attend the 9:30 pm show which included XM favorites like Montgomery Gentry, Luke Bryan, and Carrie Underwood, in addition to one of my favorite Opry stars, Bill Anderson. I don’t think I can pick a favorite moment of the show, so I’ll share my top three: Number 3 would have to be Luke Bryan dancing like Elvis to “All My Friends Say”, number 2 would have to be Bill Anderson’s “Too Country?” song-Love it!, and number 1 is when Carrie Underwood came out to sing her set and the crowd went wild. She is as beautiful and talented in person as we see and hear on television and radio! Carrie definitely owned the audience tonight!

You can say I worked a long day - from 10 am to around midnight when I finally got home - but I definitely can’t complain about all the fun I had. This is a chance of a lifetime to work with country music’s biggest stars and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Y Suzanne, the intern

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