Dolly Parton Concert

It's Monday and I'm finally getting around to recapping the Dolly Parton concert I attended last Wednesday.  Those of you who know me, know that I had been waiting on this for so long! My love for Dolly Parton came about several years ago when she was one of the few "voices" that would calm the colic of my first born and then later reading her fascinating life story.

This woman is so talented and put on an amazing show that included many of her hits like  "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors," "9 to 5," "Here You Come Again," "Islands in the Stream," "Little Sparrow" and  "I Will Always Love You", which of course she wrote and sang as the finale.  She also sang songs from her newer albums "Backwoods Barbie" and "Better Day" which were all so uplifting and fun!

She did a handful of cool covers like "Shine" by Collective Soul, "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin and songs by Tina Turner and Miley Cyrus.  (She happens to be Miley's godmother, surprise!)   She talked about her love of songwriting and how much she loved when others sang her songs and how much she enjoyed singing other people's songs too.  How sweet is that?  

The other surprising part of the show was how many instruments Dolly can play!  She showed her skills on the acoustic guitar, banjo, autoharp, piano and mandolin as well as a bit of harmonica and saxophone.  She may be little but she packs a lot of talent!  She also poked fun at herself making jokes about her wigs, plastic surgery and such.  Other than the music, my favorite part of the show was the story telling she did between songs.  Is there anything better than a good rags to riches story?  

And for those of you wondering how many times she changed outfits....the number was two.  I was hoping for a little more but I'm certainly not disappointed.  I have no idea how she managed to keep her cool on one of the hottest days of the year!  

And yes, Mom certainly enjoyed her first concert experience!  Cute huh?

Also can I give a shout out to my little Canon G9 for capturing these images! What an amazing little point and shoot camera.  

I hope ya'll had a wonderful weekend and thanks for letting me gush a little bit here.

Happy Birthday Dolly Parton

For those of you who know me, I'm a huge Dolly Parton fan.  Huge.  I can't think of any star I'd rather meet. I even tried to hunt her down during my last trip to Nashville.

I grew up listening to her music but I really fell in love with her after reading this book several years ago.  In 2008, I had tickets to see her in concert and she postponed the show due to back problems.  As fate would have it, she rescheduled the show during my trip to Tokyo.  Six months later, she was scheduled to play in Atlanta again and it just so happened that I was at a family wedding that weekend in St. Louis.

I'm still waiting for the day I get to see her live.  Until then, Happy Birthday Dolly!  You're a true style icon, a great business woman and a walking example of a "diamond in a rhinestone world."  

I'm gonna celebrate this week by watching Steel Magnolias and I'll definitely be sporting my Dolly Tshirt today.

Starstruck in Nashville

We're finally home from our fantastic trip to Nashville! We started the weekend with an amazing Snoop Dogg concert, to which I wore (drumroll......) jeans, a black tank, metallic heels and gold chandelier earrings.  I also carried a metallic clutch with a wrist strap so I could get my groove on and ya'll know I did! 

Since the concert was on campus at Vanderbilt, most of the people in attendance were college kids which made for great people watching. Apparently, very short, tight mini dresses are all the rage, as are ankle boots and skinny jeans. Did I mention how THIN the kids are these days? I didn't see a single girl in the place that looked like she had fallen victim to the freshman fifteen. I wondered whether the current generation was truly more health conscious or whether their size was a reflection of society's obsession with weight. Of course it could be that I'm just getting old, which is a good possibility. Here's some more highlights from the trip.

• I tried one of these delicious Southern treats for the first time.  They're made in Nashville!
• Discovered some new music by this band who opened for the DoggFather.  The college kids were going wild for them and I must admit, the lead singer had some amazing energy!
• Did some shopping here which is one of my favorite spots in Nashville.  It's a family owned local business and they're in the process of improving their website to offer more online shopping.
• Had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with this talented and adorable food blogger.

Of course all this was enough to send me home a happy girl but then I found out that our friends, who kindly hosted us, live within a stone's throw of Dolly Parton's Tennessee home.  Umm, don't you know I almost ran out the door that moment to try to catch a glimpse of her?!?!  For those of you who don't know, I am a huge, huge Dolly fan.  There aren't many stars who I'm "struck" by but she's one of them.  I've always been intrigued by her but after reading  this , I became a crazed Dolly fan.  I love her rags to riches story, her generosity and her positive perspective on life and fame.  So, long story short, and in true southern fashion, I went to Nashville to see Snoop Dogg and ending up stalking Dolly Parton.  I got a few shots of her home I want to share with ya'll but not in a creepy kind of way, I promise.  (wink, wink)

That's her house on top of the hill hidden behind the trees.  I love that she has an American flag flying proud out front.  I also love that she has a chain link fence around her entire property!  It cracked me up because you know she doesn't give two cents about what people think of her.

 

She also has a small chapel on the property.  This is the closer up photo but you can also see it in the far right hand side of the first picture.

And of course, she's got her fall decor on the gates out front.  Isn't that sweet?

The weekend was great fun and brought back a lot of memories of my younger years when my husband and I were dating.  After the Snoop Dogg concert, I commented to my husband that I felt like we had just renewed our wedding vows.  Romantic, right? Yes, we did get to hear (and dance to) the song we meet to back in 1994!  To top off a wonderful weekend, we enjoyed the gorgeous colors of fall on the ride home.

Thanks for sharing in my adventure and I hope you have a wonderful week!