We're 15 days into January 2012, and I have yet to purchase my Country Concert 2012 ticket.
There's really no reason I haven't done so yet. The lineup for 2012? Fantastic. The price? Still "Best Buy" (until February 20th). So what's the holdup?
The holdup is the focus I've been putting not on the actual Concert seven months from now, but the creation of this blog and what it needs in its infancy: a clever name, a snappy picture, a witty byline. And now that's done: welcome to a scrapbook of my "letters home" from Camp 7103, the best three-day camp in the Midwest: County Concert--full of entertainment, shenanigans, sunshine, and...oh, some of the biggest county music stars in the world.
Throughout the next seven months (and beyond), I, Kaye (that's me on the right of your screen), hope to bring you, my readership, a look into my experiences at the annual Country Concert at Hickory Hill Lakes, a three-day festival of country music complete with camping, giant turkey legs, and polyester leisure suits.
So what makes my take on County Concert (or CC, as I like to abbreviate it) any sort of authoritative account? Well, nothing really, but as this is the only blog I know of of it's kind, it's all you got right now, so to speak.
I do have a few credentials to offer, however. As a resident of the Village of Fort Loramie, Ohio, I live mere minutes from Hickory Hills--in fact I pass by several times a week as I travel to work or the closest shopping center or wherever else I might be going. I first went to CC with my family as a little girl when it was just a local show of local talent, and, as an adult, have been attending the entire event for the past ten straight years (at least). I have friends and family that work at and for the Concert year-round, have visited Hickory Hill Lakes when it was just a campground (or the occasional high school cross-county course), and, in the years I didn't attend, was able to sit and listen to the performers on stage from my backyard (when the wind was right).
Most importantly, however, CC is one of my favorite yearly events. The music is great, of course, but it's the experience of County Concert that keeps me going back: the rush of Gold Circle "Half-K," the pump of the bass when you're lucky enough to catch a show from the front row, the spectacle of that guy in his Speedo, the ice cold...beverages on a hot July day.
So stay tuned. I hope to give you a taste of the salty summer flavor of County Concert through stories, photos, myths, legends, and my own foggy memories. If you've never been to CC, perhaps this digest will persuade you to join me this year (July 5, 6 & 7, 2012), will help you prepare and pack, or will give you a better idea of what to expect when you get there 172 days from now. And on the flip-side, if you've been to CC for thirty straight years, I hope you can relate to and validate my tales, and maybe share a few of your own.
