Sunday night I rounded out my weekend of fun by attending the Girls with Guitars concert at the Hippodrome with my friends Kristen and Lauren. I’m glad to have made some country music loving friends in the past few years so now I can go to country concerts as well. The Girls with Guitars concert is a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund and this year featured Jennifer Nettles (of Sugarland), Sheryl Crow, Kellie Pickler, Cassadee Pope, and the band American Young. I am kind of curious about the whatever behind the scenes stuff led up to American Young being on the bill since they were never advertised as part of the show, but then were there. I don’t really care. I liked them. I am just curious.

The concert was basically a bunch of people with guitars sitting up on the stage together taking turns playing music. The artists all sat in front with their backing guitarists sitting in back of them. Guitars were pretty much the only instrument on the stage save for the opening song played by Jennifer Nettles on a keyboard and one of the backing players sometimes playing a mandolin and one occasionally playing a bass, which I guess is technically still a guitar. Jennifer Nettles was the host for the evening. She is a big goof and was a lot of fun. She started things off and then everyone rotated through playing an additional 3 songs each round robin style. Then they ended the show singing a song together. Each artist shared some sort of story prior to playing each of their songs, which as you know if you read this blog is something I like. Some people would prefer if musicians would just shut up and play, but I like it when they talk to the audience. There was a lot of fun interaction between the artists, and it was fun seeing some of the younger artists seems so awed about being on stage with people they had been listening to since they were kids.

It was a great concert despite the fact that I didn’t know 90% of the music that was played during the show. All of the artists played stuff mostly from forthcoming albums or recently released albums that I haven’t heard yet. I am sad that Sugarland isn’t playing together at the moment and so was wary of what the music off Jennifer Nettles’ solo album was going to be like, but I really enjoyed what she played. I was never a Sheryl Crow fan in the past for the most part, but I’m really digging her foray into country music proper so far. I wasn’t very familiar with the other 3 artists. I have never watched American Idol or the Voice, so I wasn’t familiar with Kellie Pickler or Cassadee Pope from those shows. I had heard their singles on the radio, but I didn’t know any of their other music. I wasn’t familiar at all with American Young before the concert, but as I said I did enjoy their music as well.

It was an enjoyable evening, and I’m really glad I got the chance to go. Now I have some new music to look forward to listening to in the near future.