what a great few days!

Life has been busy--good, but busy. Outside of the holiday parties and merriment, I have had two concerts I played in and one I attended. And let's not forget about the free tickets from my uncle to the Redskins game. Damn, I hate me some Eagles fans. They're real jerks.

The Community Band I'm in played for a group of about a thousand the other night. Regretfully, most of them were non-discerning ears that couldn't wait for their marching band son/daughter to get on stage. But I don't mind saying that we absolutely rocked. I've heard from other community band members that it was the best concert they ever played. I'd like to think it's because of my excellent skillz---sike. It was very sad though that for the first time in my life I didn't have a single soul for me in the audience. Not one person was there to see KB and only KB play. I hope that doesn't happen too many more times.

Then last night we went to Largo Landing and played a concert for a group of elderly people. What a wonderful experience to see them bobbing their heads in the audience as we played a trio of Sousa marches and Gershwin and had a Christmas sing-along. The most inspiring part was definitely when a woman stood up to thank us from the bottom of all of their hearts for coming and playing, and she wanted to make sure we all knew how much we had improved....hahaha. Of course Wakefield inserts "See how important every note you play is".

On Monday night I treated hubby to an early birthday present--Ray LaMontange at the 9:30 club. And boy, it was a present for both of us. It is unbelievable how his voice can truly envelop you. As I was leaving the concert I was trying to think of how to describe the emotion he conveys and how you experience his music. It's almost like his voice is so outstanding that it pierces you, except it's not a pierce. It's like you're moving in jelly you're so overcome by him. Did I mention I enjoyed it? My coworkers so wonderfully informed me that you all can experience this too--I highly encourage you to visit NPR's website and take advantage of hearing his concert for free. I bet your feet and back will hurt less than mine.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599923

I'm so happy he sang Jolene. What a killer. And the last song--perfect ending. Literally, all the hairs on your body will stand up for the whole concert. Yowza.