The Tumbleweeds and The Lumineers

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A little over a year ago, I came across a band that my friend had posted on Facebook. Immediately, I fell in love, looked up their tour dates and purchased tickets. Just like that. It turned out to be one of the best, most intimate, special moment, making history shows I have attended. (You can read about it, here.) The band – The Lumineers.

Surely, you’ve heard their music by now as they played on a commercial for a while and have been on a couple tv shows not to mention all over the radio. Regardless, their fan base has grown immensely. Just two weeks ago, I received an email from my concert buddy saying they were in town. Again – didn’t even hesitate buying tickets. I was excited except for the fact that since we were a little behind on finding out – our tickets were way in the back and high up. We’re usually front and center of the stage kind of people. (It was a little odd to be that far away to say the least.)

I’m going to apologize for the lack of pictures, the venue doesn’t approve of cameras and quite frankly – you wouldn’t want to see them from our view. At the same time, I think sometimes when we’re attending something, we have a tendency to have a camera stuck in front of our face and we really don’t enjoy it as much as we should. I’m incredibly guilty of this so it was really nice to just sit back and ENJOY.

First thing is first – openers: Sam Doores and The Tumbleweeds

I’m going to make a general public service announcement here. If you are planning a festival, Americana show, country show, bluegrass show… these guys NEED to be included. It’s a necessity. Don’t let them pass you by because a few years down the road you’re really going to kick yourself in the arse.
Yea – I said it. You will. Trust me.

A blend of Southern railway, blues, American, bluegrass all mixed together, these young men hail for New Orleans. They are authentic and vintage. If sights do anything for you, you would think they came right of the 70’s and old time country music from way back in the day and teleported to our era. The entire show, you will find yourself picking out inspirations in their music. There’s many, many. Absolutely amazing but I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The Headliners – The Lumineers

This is a really special moment for me and where the love of music comes full circle. On June 1st, 2012, I attended a show for the Lumineers at the Prophet Bar in Dallas. Small venue. History really. Their first sold out show. Their first encouraged encore request. It was intimate, it was personable. You could tell that they absolutely loved playing and did it strictly for the love of the art. Their lyrics touch you, speak to you and you become lost in the moment. I knew what I had experienced as soon as I left and knew I would never experience again. Truly special.

Fast forward ten month, I was right. This band has blown up in a short matter of time and I couldn’t be happier for them. It was absolutely amazing thinking back to that small venue less than a year ago and seeing thousands of people completely immersed in their music, and them just a short time later. More so, the fact that their show was the same, just on a much larger scale. They are headliners, supporting their opening acts, asking fans to put down their phones and cameras and to just “enjoy the moment” with them. They even came into the crowd and played a couple songs and went back on stage to finish their encore. I literally get goosebumps when they start playing, even more so when Neyla sings. They are truly a great example of succeeding in the music industry and staying true to yourselves and your fans.

The Lumineers played a majority of songs from their last album as well as some new songs for their next. If last night is any indication of what their new album will sound like, it’ll be wicked amazing!

(Video found on YouTube from last night’s show.)
(And here is my favorite!)

If you haven’t already – I highly encourage you to check them out. If you don’t, it’ll probably kick you in the arse later on too!

Hye, Texas

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I have a little story for you today… and it goes something like this.

A few years ago, my parents came into town to visit. My poor parents, I just kept them on the go the entire time because I wanted them to see everything that I get to experience (it really happens to everyone I know – sharing is caring, right?). So, I took them to the Dr. Pepper Festival in Dublin, TX. While we were there, my dad went and wandered around the little shops and came back with a couple pictures. One of them was this one…

I took a picture of the print. I hope you get the gist of it.

It’s a picture by George Boutwell who is a Texas artist. I’ve come to love his work through the two prints that I have. More importantly – how awesome are the tractor and the old truck in this picture?! People know me well!

On the back of the print, the following was written:
“HYE, TEXAS, is on U.S. Highway 290, between Johnson City and Stonewall, Texas and I’ve been itching to paint this store ever since I discovered it in 1973 on the same trip that I discovered Luckenbach. Rumor is that Lyndon Johnson was one of the regulars that hung out at Hye. – GEORGE BOUTWELL”

Well, I don’t know if it’s the traveler in me or just Curious George but I knew where U.S. Highway 290 was, Luckenbach is one of my favorite places in Texas and quite frankly there is a John Deere Tractor and old pickup in the photo. Next time I was headed that way, I was going to find this place.

So I did….

Here lies the Hye Post Office. The main building is closed. There is nothing there. This building is basically the town. It sits along side Highway 290 where cars literally fly though. I was a little nervous taking the pictures and had to be quick to take the photo. Across the street, looks like an old garage with some cars sitting out front but how awesome is it that I was able to capture a picture of this building that grabbed the attention of George Boutwell 40 years ago. The building still looks great.

Imagine the history. Between Johnson City where Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson were from, just down the road from Luckenbach where Willie and a ton of other musicians have crossed through. Highway 290 carries a lot of history in this great state. What a treasure! Think about it!

Oh Texas Bluebonnets!

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Over the past couple days, I’ve traveled about 700 miles. I’ve had a chance to see a wide range of Texas landscapes, towns, historical locations, met some great people and just had a fantastic overall experience. I’ll be writing all about it in the weeks to come. I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

One of my favorite things to do is drive (if you haven’t caught on already). Take a back road and you may come across something that you wouldn’t typically see. Life gives you surprises and beautiful views everyday, we just have to embrace it. This time of year in Texas, the greenery is absolutely magnificent. The green is starting to come out in the grass and in the trees but my favorite part are the flowers. Wildflowers and bluebonnets (Texas state flower) can be seen alongside the Texas roads throughout the entire state. I saw a ton of people parked on the side of the road on Sunday on the four hour drive home. I even took part at one point near the Enchanted Rock.

Checking this one off my bucket list – “Get my picture taken in Bluebonnets”!

Texas Tuesday link up with Amanda from Princess of the Panhandle and Crystal from Masons Mama. This is a chance for any blogger to participate in a post on the greatness of Texas! There’s so much to explore!