{"id":7111,"date":"2016-02-16T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=7111"},"modified":"2016-02-15T13:06:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T19:06:06","slug":"country-music-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2016\/02\/16\/country-music-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Music Encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog may appear to be braggadocios. Folks may think that I\u2019m only concerned with name dropping. I see it differently and I hope by the end of this post, you will understand. When I think about sharing country music experiences with y\u2019all, I want to include some of the my most exciting moments. I love the genre and the artists. In fact, I really enjoy meeting celebrities, especially those whose music is woven into our collective culture. So for me, meeting some of my favorite artists has been a dream come true!<\/span><\/p>\n

It all started with Taylor Swift<\/a>. \u00a0I was a freshman in high school. This was back when Taylor Swift was considered country. I had <\/span>Fearless Tour<\/a> <\/span><\/i>floor seats. My friends and I arrived early with an elaborately decorated poster and entered first. \u00a0We had barely taken our seats when a producer came up and asked us questions. Next thing I knew, Taylor\u2019s Mom came out to meet us. Mrs. Swift took us on a backstage tour and into Taylor\u2019s Green Room<\/a>! Taylor visited with us and then we took some photos. It was definitely one of the best days of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"30815_1431253672104_2402769_n<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

The next country artist I met was the Rascal Flatts<\/a>. My friend, Ariella\u2019s Mom had been listening to the radio for chances to meet the band. After a week of calling the station, Landa won a pass for two! We met Rascal Flatts and participated in a live Q&A session that aired on 93Q! Both Ariella and I skipped class to go meet them. They were such nice guys! It was the best \u201csick\u201d day I had ever taken from school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"249692_1996474202264_5227610_n\"<\/a><\/span>I was also fortunate enough to meet Keith Urban<\/a>. This story is similar to my last one about the Rascal Flatts. Landa became\u00a0unstoppable at\u00a0winning prizes on the radio. She also gifted us with passes and a private concert with Keith Urban! After he performed a few of my favorite tunes we had a photo op. \u00a0Keith is kind and an incredible guitar player.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"574954_3714162983410_104620567_n\"<\/a><\/span>My most recent country celebrity encounter is my favorite. Last year I signed up for Grammy U, a program for college students who love music. I never went to any of the events until I got an email last semester about a free sound check for none other than the Zac Brown Band<\/a>! I got to the venue and was pleasantly surprised to find out that we were actually going on a backstage tour. The tour guide told us that in the past, the groups never had a chance to meet with Zac. However, lucky for us, Zac Brown himself joined our group and spoke with us for about 20 minutes! I stood right next to him while he explained his process in writing a new album. He even named some of the music he currently listens to, none of which is country. I mustered the courage to ask him if he ever gets tired of performing the same songs over and over for so many years. His response was that he loves performing his more popular singles because those are the songs fans respond to the most. The energy of the audience is what keeps Zac and his peers pumped on long tours. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture with him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My experiences in meeting these country music celebrities has enriched my love for the genre. I am grateful to the artists and my dear friends for these moments that I will always cherish. \u00a0I\u2019m also looking forward to my next country artist encounter!\"720x405-GettyImages-476926738\"<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog may appear to be braggadocios. Folks may think that I\u2019m only concerned with name dropping. I see it differently and I hope by the end of this post, you will understand. When I think about sharing country music … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,164,165,151,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post-2","category-keith-urban","category-rascal-flatts","category-taylor-swift","category-zac-brown-band"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7111"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7162,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions\/7162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}