Jennifer's Birmingham Recap

I am on such a Taylor high right now.

Ok, let’s get this out front we are just crazy for Taylor. My girlfriend Kathy and I were driven to the concert by her husband, Hunter, so props to him upfront. We arrived about 45 minutes early so we were chatting to the people around us asking who their favorite idol was, ignoring the Soul Patrol, Hicks Chicks, and Taylor shirts, to start conversation early on. We were kind of letting people know we were probably going to go crazy when “the man” came out. Surprisingly, they were fine with that (humor) because they intended to go crazy as well. Although, I will have to say that several people around us loved them some E and we also saw some Disa shirts and our friend Candace is wild for Bucky, she scored 4th row seats yesterday. (she’s in heaven).

If you are from the Birmingham area you will know who this is, I sat by Rick from “Rick and Bubba” on the 12th row. We had great seats, it was Rick near us by the aisle. That becomes important later on.

Ok, here we go. First up Mandisa. She was beautiful. She had on a red silk top with black quarter pants. Yep, she has really lost some weight. Her hair was up and she could belt. We really enjoyed her didn’t mind the Ruben comments.  We were wishing the Velvet Teddy Bear would make an appearance for her. She hollered out "I know there are some Ruben cousins or kin folk somewhere in this audience, just tell him I want to talk to him, that’s all, just talk. I have a crush on him."  Anyway we liked her a lot.

ACE, damn. He is so pretty. It took us a minute to get over that. When his chest started the in and out thingy, we just looked at each other and laughed. Mind you, we are both in our 30’s so we found it cheesy but fun. He unbuttoned one button and girls screamed, off came the jacket. It was great. He also made a flying leap that was kind of exciting if he doesn’t kill himself doing it. He made one to the other side while they were saying their goodbyes. His voice was fine, not great but good. He sounded really good on Patience. I always liked Father Figure so we enjoyed him. And if I didn’t mention it he is one pretty man.

BUCKY. We yelled like hell for him. He is adorable. He moved ok on the stage, his dancing was kind of wild and jerky. I liked Drift Away a lot, but I really like that song anyway. Superstition was good too. We kept thinking about Candace on that 4th row in her Bucky shirt and yelled that much louder for him. She called after the concert to tell us she caught one of his picks. She’s in her own Bucky heaven. I could get some of these out of order because I am still floating , but I will try to mention them all anyway.

KELLIE came out and they sang, You're the One That I Want. It was cute. She also sang, Come to my Window. To be honest we really didn’t enjoy her that much. She didn’t tell any funny stories or anything like that, and her voice was maybe the worst of the night. Still, maybe she is having problems with it. She had on a red shirt as well, with really tight jeans and black boots.

I remember LISA next. Young is the first thought that comes to mind, and that she is tiny. She wore a Michael Jackson shirt. I know innocent until, yada yada yada. Still…. She played the piano and her songs were great on some parts but just ok at other times. The surprise of the night to us anyway was PARIS. We really enjoyed her. The duet with Lisa was fun.  Midnight Train to Georgia was good, but not like Taylor’s is good Her performance was just fun. Then she DANCED. She called out to one middle-aged lady in the audience that was dancing, “ I see you up there in the pink shirt, everyone turned to look, and she froze. It was like a deer in the headlight thing. LOL.

I know that some of y’all Elliott and Chris fans won’t believe this but I can’t remember who sang first. Sorry. I can clearly remember them singing but there you go…It’s not a groove thing, it’s not a country twang, it’s a simple refrain it’s a soouull thing… Drifting here a little bit.

Ok, I think maybe ELLIOT was next. He had on his Alabama baseball cap. Loving that. He also had gum in his mouth. I know, I know picky, picky, but I could see it and he was a smacking it. Elliot has a great voice, he needs better stage presence. He skips and makes me think of a little boy frolicking around or Peter Pan.  Anyway, that being said, I still think he’s cool (hey I never said how I felt made sense), and with time that presence will build. However when he sings “Moody's Mood for Love” it is tooo lonnggg.  The Trouble song was entertaining to us “not seeing E as EVIL”, but we yelled and shouted out for the E- man. You just got to love Elliot.

CHRIS: You see, once upon a time my friend was voting for Taylor but loving her some Chris on the side so to speak.  Not me I’m a loyal kind of girl, Tay all the way from the beginning. I can remember conversations where she assured me Chris sang better than Taylor and was sexier… Let me say NOT !!! That being said Chris is Howt… Howdy, howdy, lordy lordy pass the taters we have meat on the table. My problem with Chris has been from the beginning that he sounds the same, time after time. Like the same song but with different words. Does that make sense? I don’t want to offend any Chris fans, this is just my opinion, and well sh*t my recap, and I’m tired so my tongue is looser than usual. We enjoyed Dead or Alive when Bon Jovi sang it so we enjoyed it tonight too. He sang some song I didn’t know.  Kathy said it was a Fuel song, whatever… I liked R though, and the crowd did shout out for Chris.

Kathy said later on the way home that except for Taylor, the Chris response was the loudest. I didn’t agree, I thought it was Bucky or Ace. We saw one little girl she looked about 12 put her hands on her face and SCREAM when Chris came out, al la Clay lookalike. She was definitely loving her some Chris. Me, I sat down for every song of Chris’s except Dead or Alive. ( Chris had: tight jeans, black shirt, chain) He kept throwing picks. They didn’t seem to get anywhere. By the way Ace threw three skull caps, I think, I know he threw two, but I think he threw one more during goodbyes. Let me tell you Ace gave his caps a good throw they went way into the audience. Practice Chris and one day you too can throw picks like Bucky. LOL I don’t mean to pound Chris but he needs to lighten up, and stop asking for lighters and cellphone lights.

KAT. Man oh man she is beautiful. I mean drop dead. She appeared on the stage singing BHCT. It was fine. She had on a black dress that she needs to pay attention to when she gets up from the top of the stage, I thought we might have us a Janet Jackson moment. She aggravated me though. I know she was kidding, but she said with a fake southern accent, "It’s good to be in the south ( paraphrase) so I am getting me a southern accent too." WHATEVER… then she said, "I don’t blame y’all I would have voted for Taylor too."  Wtf was that about. Then she sang SWOR and it was pretty. Then she left and we were glad because it was Taylor time…. Hey I forgot to mention the guys singing Patience--it was great. Ace really stood out but they were all good. I liked seeing Bucky and Chris playing the guitar.

When the guards came around and told us all on the aisle that Taylor was coming beside us and not to touch him, I told Rick, Taylor is coming right there.  He said I know and I said I hope I don’t hurt ya. He just laughs. It gets really dark then you can hear the music, but you can’t see or hear him yet. Then the voice and everyone is going CRAZY. I mean welcome home Taylor we luv ya crazy. First I spot the top of his head, (headlight you know) coming down the stairs, then “the jacket” He did save it for B’ham. It doesn’t look purple it is more maroony and velvet. He gets down the stairs and starts our way and Kathy looks at me and screams with hands half way in the air, I scream back at her, then we see him, I mean up close could have touched him close (if I hadn’t been told not to and if Rick wasn’t in the way.)  I heard some got high 5s.  I didn’t see that or I would have tried. Let me say, he is one remarkably handsome man. Not man pretty like Ace. Taylor is handsome and extremely SEXY. His skin is beautiful. Smooth and rough( freshly shaven but looks like he needs one, ok maybe that’s just my thing) at the same time and olive. He had a good bit of makeup on, I guess they all do, but he was a sight to behold. Nice jeans, and cyber friends and neighbors I am not that much of an a$$ person, but Tay has a fine one. He was really smiling as he sung up the aisle.

Now it was on. He never stopped. He strapped on his guitar and we were off to the beach. He pouted those lips and shook what his mama gave him. He said he was glad to be home, and I hope he was because we were all glad. I finally got to see the Mick Jagger reference as he walked down the ramp on stage, he would do his hand and swanker down. He dedicated DIMYP to the troops and we stood and sang with him like it was Stairway to Heaven. He told us to raise our hands by gesturing his up in the air,… ah we did it. He told us to clap over our heads by demonstrating what he wanted… ah we did it. He would cuff his hand for us to get louder… and you guessed it.. ah we did it. It was great. He had us in the palm of his hands. He teased us with the harmonica then he went to town, even getting on the floor at one time. He went to the top of the stage and did his dance, winding up his arms and twirling. He was so giving back to us. He would pause during DIMYP to get our response: that hell yes you make us proud Taylor.

I did see him point once or twice to individuals in the audience. He thanked us all, shouted out to the Soul Patrol of course and did his signature bend and smile. I hope he was loving it as much as we were. He played the tambourine hitting it against his chest and dancing like the devil. He pointed in the direction of people including where some of his family was sitting, but not like pointing one finger except those two times that I saw. He was never still. He asked for acknowledgment for the band and gave Elliot the three finger side gesture for us to give E some love and noise as he sang during the goodbye song. Elliot did the same thing to Chris. If Chris would look down or turn to one side E would motion for us to get louder for him. This was during their duet. (Which was quite good and I had forgot about it until now.) Really nice fellows.

Taylor yelled Roll Tide and War Eagle as he left the stage knowing that is an important topic in these parts anyways. He clearly mouthed to the crowd, I love you twice and held up his finger that B’ham was #1, pumping his arm in the air. . Then he took crowd pictures, I thought maybe for his book or not it doesn’t matter why. He was better than we expected (and we expected a lot based on this blog and others and AI and City Stages) and gave above and beyond any entertainer that I have ever experienced. I didn’t make it into Workplay; although we tried real hard (after they moved the date) and I can’t wait for his solo tour, but I feel like I have experienced some of Taylor’s magic, and in his home town which is my home town. . Damn that’s hard to beat. Oh yeah, Taylor did his moonwalk then he and Kat did the Bump. Looked like they like each other just fine. Got pictures, my friend took them I will try to post them soon. Signing off…. I know I have forgotten lots of things . Singing… Heaven I’m in heaven…