Christmas Surprise!

Some musicians need special effects, backup dancers, fireworks, and backing tracks to make a good show.  

And some musicians can rely on their immense talent.  

Those are my favorite kind.  Give me lyrics that mean something and music that makes me feel something and I am a very happy girl.  

In that vein, there are a few artists that I really, really love.  

One of those is Duke Special.  I would do a lot to be able to see him in concert.  He is very, very talented.

The other is Johnny Boyd.  He puts out fantastic music.  Music that makes you feel something.  Music that you can dance to.  Music that matters.   

For whatever reason, he has been off the performing radar for a several years (maybe a decade?) but last year he released a new album.  And last year he toured.  And last year Husband took me to see him and his band.  Unfortunately I had a touch of the flu last year and I had just busted my knees and ankles with running. So while we went, I couldn't dance to the music as much as I would have liked.  However, the performance was excellent.      

This year, I saw that Johnny Boyd was coming through the area again and I wanted to go but with the new baby, I have been really reluctant to leave him with a sitter.

However, Husband surprised me with tickets.  I found a great person to watch all the boys and off we went.

I was feeling a little sick this year as well, fatigued and weak.  It's not contagious, just something I get sometimes.  Which is fine if you are going somewhere to listen to a show but harder if you want to go dance at a show.  

But Husband was great.  We swing danced when I could, picking some of the slower beat songs, and rested when my legs were ready to buckle.  We were extremely rusty at the dancing part - it is entirely possible that the last time we went swing dancing was last year when Johnny Boyd performed.  Oops!  

But it was really fun to listen to very talented musicians performing great music.

As part of my Christmas surprise, Husband got some shirts and a Johnny Boyd onesie for baby as well as a meet with Johnny.  

I was cool with the stuff, less okay with the meet.  I am very, very introverted and I have a hard time engaging in small talk with strangers.  I'm more of a long term, deep conversation girl.  Not great at insignificant chit-chat.  However, long-term friends always start as small talk so...you can see the conundrum for introverts.  Husband loves chit-chat and has never in our thirteen-year marriage understood my reluctance to interact with others.  That's probably why we make a good team.  We balance each other. 

Last year, Husband took me to see Duke Special and he insisted on taking a picture of me with Duke.  I was very uncomfortable with the idea but Duke was great and the picture turned out nice so it turned into a good memory.

This time, Husband pushed again and I relented.  We talked with Johnny and he is really a very nice conversationalist.  He mentioned that he might be doing more creating which makes me very happy. 

And then Husband insisted on pictures again.

Which in the end turned out very nice and made for a sweet memory.  

If you are looking for a great gift for someone, you might want to pick up one of Johnny Boyd's albums.  He performs under Johnny Boyd or Indigo Swing.  And while all four albums are unique and stand on their own, they compliment each other very nicely.

In fact, since the songs are written to cover the beginning, middles, and ends of relationships and interactions, the albums are even more interesting when combined in a certain order because the songs create full story arcs for several characters.  You can create your own musical!

He performed Some Eggs this year, which always reminds me of Uchtdorf's talk on worth.  And he performed Ruby Mae which is one of my absolute favorites.  Truly, all were good.  We had to leave in order to be home for the sitter by midnight (we ended up late because the 405 was shut down) so I don't know what all was included in the second set but someday it would be fun to see Stayin' Up Late with Sonny from the Red Light album because I think it is funny and I'm Still Here from the Never Been Blue album because it is very tender.   

Here is to hoping he tours again in 2014.