Of the 10,000 things I love about my job, there are a few things that irk me. Today’s edition of Seriously, Seriously?!?!?! is “why do people buy a Windows machine and then decorate it with Apple stickers (more than likely from their iPods)?” Embrace your OS, people! Live and compute with pride! /rant

If I had a bank account with a few extra zeros at the end of the balance or a sugar daddy (just kidding… kinda), my financial splurge would be going to see concerts. I don’t drink… smoke… gamble. No, live music is my vice. In my musical daydreams, my concert buddies and I would see our favorite artists whenever they were in Arizona AND we’d see Willie Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl, Bonnie Raitt in Texas, Mayer in Atlanta, and U2… everywhere. But, alas, visions of sugar daddies and extra zeros are not in my future, so I have to be careful what shows I go see and where I spend my concert budget. This is why Ryan Adams playing with The Cardinals in Arizona was so phenomenal; they were in my parent’s backyard (figuratively). We didn’t have to fly to Chicago or drive to Salt Lake City like we had originally considered… we just hopped in the car Friday afternoon and headed home. Most days I dread the drive to Willcox because of the traffic and having to pass through both Phoenix and Tucson to get there. Ryan Adams was totally worth it.

Being the children of the Google generation, Zac had been scouting out the Ryan Adams’ setlists from the shows directly proceeding ours and informed the group late Wednesday night that RA had come out 45 minutes before his set was supposed to begin in Tulsa and played a short acoustic set without his band of unreleased songs from the new album. Naturally, Jeff and I changed our plans at the last minute and left Flagstaff without Jeff’s Gore friends (who had to stay a bit later at work…boo) and headed down the mountain to meet Zac for the show. There was no way Zac, Jeff or I were going to miss such a sneak-peak so after a quick dinner at Chipotle (our traditional concert dinner), we headed to the theatre to secure our spot with a view.

From the moment RA stepped on stage he had our attention. This was no Stevie Wonder or Eric Clapton. He wasn’t a rock star. Instead, he appeared to us as a shy geek who wanted us to believe his name was JJ Bouillabaisse and he was just there as the opener to play three simple songs. Most of the crowd hadn’t arrived and it was beyond intimate. There was nothing grandiose or egotistical about this artist opening for himself… He wasn’t showing off or stroking his own ego. He was gifting us with the chance to hear him unpolished and unproduced. Automatically, I fell in love with his second acoustic offering Go Easy with the lyric…”I will always love you. So go easy on yourself Even before the ‘real’ concert began, we were satisfied and had gotten our money’s worth.

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