Chris Cagle at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace

This past weekend, I drove 2 hours north and headed to Bakersfield to see Chris Cagle in concert at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. It was a GREAT show (and do I dare admit--((gulp))--my 36th time seeing him in concert?) Over the years I have seen the highs and lows of Cagle come and go, and I am pleased to say that this was defitinitely a high. The show was terrific--filled with lots of humor on Cagle's part. He joked with the crowd, did goofy little dances, acknowledged a heck of a lot of people who wanted to be acknowledged, (yeah, me too!) and smiled through the whole show. Loved that! I had a feeling it would be a great show. Right now Chris is riding into town on the back of a long-needed hit, "What Kind of Gone", and performed in a venue where he had a history of putting on a damn good show seven years ago.

So, here are some of my photos from the show...if you know Chris, then you know it's a rare occasion that he doesn't have on that black t-shirt...so stop by the photo album and take a look. He looked great--and sounded even better.

Follow the link below or on the margin at the right to check out the rest of the photos--and leave a comment or two--it's always fun to see what fans have to say about this photo or that one.

Chris Cagle Photo Album

Kenny Chesney at Starfest '96

So, I thought it would be fun to pull up some old concert photos, refresh them a bit, and share them again. It's been a long time since I have looked at any of these photo albums tucked in the back of my closet and a lot has changed since then. Cameras have evolved into digital wonders, scanners have really improved in quality, and hair (in Kenny's case) has gotten a "little bit" shorter.

When I took these photos twelve years ago, Kenny Chesney was just a fledging concert act trying to make it big--and boy did he ever. Who would have thought that the kid in the too-tight beige wranglers with the nasaly voice would become the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year for three years running? Certainly not I. I kid a lot about Kenny, but even I recognize the many years of hard work that led him to where he is today.

These photos were taken at "Starfest" in 1996. Starfest was the west coast's answer to Nashville's FanFair in the east. For three years in May, the Los Angeles County Fair Grounds in Pomona, California was taken over for a long weekend and invaded by country music stars and fans alike. Several stages were set up for performances and newer acts like LeAnn Rimes, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Tracy Lawrence, and Toby Keith sang their hearts out looking for a bigger audience to buy their records. Every radio station that could get its signal heard was there and buildings were packed with the artist's booth hawking autographs, photos, and assorted swag. It was a great time for everyone and seemed like a huge success to us, the fans, but unfortunately, Starfest collapsed during it's fourth year. Promoters claimed bankruptsy, took our money (after we pre-paid for our seats), and ran.

To see the individual photos, you can go to:

http://public.fotki.com/Cynfulthoughts/concert_photos_mcgr/photos-kenny-chesne/

For this lay-out, I used the kit "Summer Blues" which can be found at: digimom@digimomdesigns.com