A night with Aaron...

A friend offered us two tickets to go to the Alabama Symphony performance last night.

She and her husband were going to be in New York and she didn't want the tickets to go unused.So, Dave and I took her up on this extremely kind offer.

Now, I am sure many of you can identify with this feeling. You are so looking forward to going out until the actual night rolls around...and, suddenly staying home sounds so appealing...especially on a Friday night after a long week. It was a muggy night out...with thunderstorms on the way ahead of a strong cold front. But, despite all of this....and, after a bit of moaning and groaning, Dave and I got all spiffed up headed out for the evening.

First stop was our traditional dinner-out-before-the-Show place, The Fish Market. This local eatery is always filled to capacity and last night was no different. It's not a fancy place...in fact you stand in line, order you food...and then when your little doodad starts to light up...you go to a counter and pick up your food. There are a multitude of seafood offerings...with their Greek snapper being one of their specialties. With your entree, one can order from a variety of side dishes...and, believe me, no one leaves this place without feeling stuffed. The food is always good..

It turns out that there were three events going on at our Civic Center last night: the Symphony, an auto show, and Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson...and the long lines of traffic proved that this was going to be a tough parking night. So, we sat in a line of cars going up and up in a parking deck for, what seemed like, an eternity....finally reaching a spot way up near the top. This was not a great beginning to our evening out...and, I'm sure that Dave would have liked to have just driven right out of there at that point and headed home...but, we plodded on.

Dave got himself a little vodka and soda (probably to calm his nerves at this point!) and we headed to our seats. The tickets from my friend put us four rows back from the stage... smack dab in the center. Nice.

We had talked earlier about maybe just staying for the first half and leaving at intermission. Well, the conductor came out to introduce the evening's program and told us that the first half would be just the Symphony playing....leading up to the second half of the evening where Aaron Neville would be performing. Thus, the plan was off...and, we would "stick it out".

We settled back and the orchestra began to play. It was lovely...and, at times lively....but, very enjoyable. Dave sipped his drink...and, I began to unwind and relax.

After just a few songs, the lights went up and it was already intermission. Before we knew it, Aaron Neville was approaching the stage and the second part of the evening began.

Those of you familiar with this singer already know about his unique atyle of singing. He does this thing with his voice that is hard to describe...but, the results are beautiful. He sang his heart out last night including mellow tunes like: "Tell It Like It Is"--a hit from 1966-the year that I graduated high school...."Everybody Plays To Fool", and, my favorite "Don't Know Much", a song made famous in a duet with Linda Ronstadt.

Neville has been around for a long time and he isn't a youngster by any means...but, he still has "it"...and he belted out his songs for a couple of hours straight...ending with his own version of "Amazing Grace".

Amazing.

It was an incredible show...I am so grateful that my friend gave us this opportunity....and I am glad that we pushed ourselves to go.

Sometimes one has to do that to experience greatness like we did last night...