"I've Been Downhearted, Baby"

I hadn't heard much of the blues genre of music until I married D. I know he likes a variety of artists, but I still have yet to familiarize myself with the whole gamut. I did know one thing for sure: BB King is a master of the blues and so for Christmas I got D tickets to BB King and the concert was last night at The Depot. I love this venue; tickets to any show here are guaranteed winners as far as acoustics and view. The show was awesome as you can only imagine but D and I happened to be EXHAUSTED; just running on empty. Still enjoyed every second but we've kind of decided maybe we shouldn't spend money on concerts anymore! It is so much nicer to get a DVD of the musician we love and have it to keep and watch and examine any old time. Concerts are great but last night was GA and we got there minutes before the ol' B showed up so you can guess we didn't nab any of the seats on the floor... we stood the whole time. I definitely do not prefer to stand at concerts plus I like to be up close and personal with the musician and observe their facial expressions, sense their ora, whatever. Anyway that's just me. D too... maybe it is part of getting old but we are growing to love our DVD concerts the most as time goes on.

Well regardless we were very very lucky to get out last night together and thanks Nan and Grandpa for being with Crosby while we were at the concert! He loved spending time with you (;

I was quite surprised at how much talking Mr. King did; he told stories between songs about growing up in Mississippi and such. It was lovely but I thought I'd hear more music! Guess if he played for 2 hours straight it would wear him out since he is now 82! He wore a jacket last night that looked just like this:



I tried to go up to the front to get a phone camera pic, but, well... here it is:



He is a charming performer and it was a bit magical to be in his presence because you think of how long he has been doing this and he is a solid legend... when he came on stage he was kind of hunched over while walking but waved and bowed to the crowd. He took a seat with Lucille slung around to his side and said he had to sit because he's a diabetic with a bad back and knees. Once the blues filled the air, aw, it was amazing! Most musicians say thank you after an applause or what have you but Mr. King did this each time:



Here's the clincher: at the end he gave kudos to his band (which was an AWESOME band) and acted like he was going to leave but no... he stayed up there and signed autographs! If I only would have known... I was pretty bummed because there was no way I was going to make it through that tightly woven crowd. People had these posters for him to sign that they must have been selling and I thought well I could have him sign our tickets or even be the first white Mormon Utah girl to get her chest signed but no I stayed back in the shadows! But he kept signing so I talked some sense into myself and told D let's get up there... we made our way up... and would you believe it... that is exactly the moment he kissed Lucille (his guitar) and decided to leave. Hmf. Oh well maybe in another lifetime. See you in the next life, Mr. King! Hope he can hang in there for the rest of his tour (: