CMA Award Week Wrap Up!

Hey everyone,

It was CMA week in Nashville, so I have been very busy. I hit the ground running on Monday morning around 9 a.m. We had a lot of different interviews at various locations. We filmed a lot of videos for CMT Canada's website and got some really great footage. Later in the day, I had a fitting at Flavour to get me set up for the CMA Red Carpet and Awards show. I finished off Monday night by doing a full band performance at the Tin Roof, which is a pretty famous Nashville club. There was probably over 200 people at the show, mostly consisting of radio and label people, which was good. We all had a blast! Shortly after that, I headed back to my loft and called it a night.

Tuesday morning I had an insanely early morning. I started off at 6:15 a.m. and did the radio remotes at the Hilton. For all of you who are unsure of what radio remotes are, basically it is when all the radio station across the country set up in one room and broadcast live while the artists go from table to table doing interviews. I did about 70 interviews on Tuesday. As tiring as it may be or sound, I know it is a very important thing to do. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to catch up with all the radio folks I've met the past few months on the radio tour. My night ended with a get together at my manager's loft. There were about 100 people or so at his place. There was a jam session and I played few acoustic songs. I left the party at 12:15 a.m. and tried to get some sleep before starting another long day on Wednesday. By that time, I was pretty much a zombie, lol.

Wednesday started off early again for Shelley, Barry, Lawrence, a couple of my band members and myself. At 6:15 a.m. we left to do more radio remotes, which actually didn't last as long as Tuesday's, but we were able to get a lot done. I also did a bunch of interviews at the CMT building. I really got lucky.. On Wednesday, parts of downtown Nashville lost power. I got out of the remotes just before Nashville had the power outage. A couple of artists weren't so lucky and were stuck because the elevators didn't work. The funny thing is that when I did my interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada, we seemed to be the only ones on the street with power. Rest assured though, it wasn't me that knocked out the power.. I don't require that much lighting, just a lot of sound, haha. After that, I had to get ready for the CMA awards Red Carpet, so I headed back to my loft, had a shower and got into my wardrobe. Thanks again to Amy at Flavour for helping me get my wardrobe together. I was super happy with it! Lawrence, Christy and I walked the Red Carpet and I did a ton of interviews. When the Red Carpet stuff was done, we headed in and found our seats and got settled for the 3 hour show that was ahead of us. What a great show it was!! We were second row on the right so when The Eagles, Kellie Pickler, Keith Urban, and Taylor Swift performed, we were right there. I was really impressed with Carrie Underwood's performance. Not only did she sing great, but I think what got me the most was when the lady came out and spoke of the loss of her husband who was in the armed forces. I'm not ashamed to say that that brought a tear to my eye. Then Carrie started into her song, so "wow" is all I can say to that!

After the show, I went to Legends to attend a Carl Black Chevrolet after party. I played a song on my guitar, broke a string and then covered my back by singing a song acapella, lol. Following that, we headed back to the Sommet Center, where we attended my label, Big Machine's after party. There were a lot of people there. For about an hour or so, I mingled with everyone. The bus picked us up from the party at 12:30 a.m. so we could head to Grand Rapids, Michigan for my show the next day. Man was it good to get on the bus and get some sleep, hah. The band and I had our show tonight at The Intersection here in Grand Rapids. It was a great time and great turnout! I got to see Doug and Dave from B-93 again. They have been incredibly supportive towards my music. Now were all on the bus getting ready to go to Chicago for another show tomorrow night. I will talk to y'all soon. Hope you've been doing well. God Bless!

ag)