you can take the girl out of the country ...

I know sometimes we say we have it all here in the big city, but the one thing we are missing out on is country music.  Did you know that there is not a single country station that can be picked up on public radio here?  So the seldom times I do hear a random country song playing in the background I am always reminded of Utah.  Honestly, whenever I hear a country song come on it takes me back to summertime in Lewiston, 4th of July, the Cache County fair and working at the store (where country is always playing).  I don't know if it's because I never hear it anymore, so I immediately think of Utah, but I love when a song comes on and I am suddenly thinking of good old Cache Valley.

We love taking advantage of being so close to Madison Square Garden and Jason always surprises me with a good concert.  As an early birthday present this year he gave me tickets to none other than the hotest man in country music, Mr. Keith Urban.  It also helped that Sugarland was opening for them and I love their lead singer (and her accent).

Thursday night was the big night and it did not disapoint.  Sugarland was incredible and after seeing them live I love them even more.  Jason was enjoying the music but wasn't completely satisfied until after they sang "Stay".  I usually don't really like the opening act, but I must say, Sugarland was almost better than Keith.

Then Keith came out and I was mesmerized.  Okay, I wasn't really liking him at first because the music was so loud I could barely hear him singing.  But then he sat down with his guitar and sang all the good old songs I love.  I also like that he's not too twangy and that pretty much all of his songs are about love.  Jason wasn't really feeling it like I was, but I enjoyed swaying back and forth (by myself) to the music while Keith serenaded me.  My favorite part of the night was when Keith announced that his beautiful wife had accompanied him to the concert and that this was the first time on his tour that he would be singing his new song "Thank you".  He wrote it for Nicole and I just discovered it a few days before the concert and had been listening to it non stop.  I was hoping Nicole would come out on stage and grace us with her presence, but she chose to stay in the back while Keith sang to her.  I was a little disappointed that I only got a quick shot of her on the jumbo tron; but I will say, the smartest thing she ever did was get rid of crazy Tom and marry Keith.

Thank you for the early present, babe - even though you didn't enjoy it as much as I did:)

Here is his new song Thank You (sorry for the cheesy video)