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Trace and Martina, First Big Girl Concert
Submitted by: Jim Ford - 05/13/10 10:08 am

Trace and Martina, First Big Girl Concert
Martina McBride is Haley’s all-time favorite singer and I found out in the fall that she was coming to Little Rock with Dad’s old student, Trace Adkins. I took off from work the first day tickets went on sale in November and got us some great seats. Over the next month and a half before Christmas, during weekend visits we'd pass Verizon Arena with the concert promo on their big jumbotron. I'd sadly lament to her that tickets were SOO expensive. I wish I could take you Haley Beth. Wouldn't that be awesome to go to? She wanted to go so badly but knew our financial situation. She'd sweetly respond like the kind-hearted girl she is, "It's okay Daddy, we'll go someday together". Please click on each picture to see an expanded view with more detail.

Finally Christmas came (read story and see the pics at Dear Santa, Sign Here - Christmas 2009) and she was shocked and super excited to get not only a new CD, picture, and tour t-shirt, but 2 great seats to the concert! Woo hoo! She called every person she knew, she was so excited! Of course, at 10, she knows maybe a dozen people. Lol.

As the concert date drew closer, I contacted another of Dad’s old students, Mark Horne, who drives one of Trace’s tour buses. He hooked us up with a couple of meet-n-greet passes for Trace. The concert was January 22nd, Haley’s first “Big Girl” concert. I tell her Cheetah Girls and Miley Cyrus don’t count as real music. She loved her pass and was nervous to go behind the scenes. The closer we got in line, the more nervous she became. I could almost hear her heart pounding!

It was finally our turn and she walked up. He is a HUGE HUGE guy. In the picture he is scrunching down. I prodded her to say something to him and she very meekly asked, “Did my Papaw really teach you guitar?”. And in a voice about as deep and syrupy as it gets he responded, “Well who is your Papaw honey?” Haley – “John Ford Senior”. Trace – “He sure did honey! How is your Papaw, is he still in Nashville? Tell him hi for me.” I thought she was going to burst she was so excited. I couldn't believe but he actually remembered inviting me up to play drums on 3 songs at a club in Nashville right when he was signed to his record label. Back then he was still Tracey Adkins and the Bayou Boys. Just a super nice guy. A few minutes later they whisked him onstage where he rocked it out! Haley couldn't get over how much better it was than Jonas Brothers! Ha ha. He played all of his hits. Haley sang Honkey Tonk Badonkadonk like her life depended on it and showed everyone around us her pictures with Trace.

Trace finished and we watched all the ignorant drunks trying to navigate the steps beside us. I'll never get an aisle seat again, lemme tell ya! After the set was moved around, Martina rose out of the floor to smoke, lights, and lots of pyrotechnics. I thought Haley was gonna die. I mean, for Haley this was like seeing Elvis, Michael Jackson, or whoever your musical idol was. She LOOOOOVED it. She knew EVERY word to EVERY Martina song because we sing them together daily and have since she was 2 or 3 years old. At one point Martina disappears briefly then reappears sitting on top of a neon crescent moon, gliding high above the audience to all the way to the back of the arena to serenade the cheap seats, singing Concrete Angels and others. Haley was mesmerized. Heck, so was I!

We rawwked out all night and danced together to several songs right there in the aisle. Apparently we make an endearing Daddy-Daughter couple because Mom's and other women were taking our picture and and saying how precious we looked. I don't know about all that but we sure do have fun together, like peas and carrots I tell ya! During one of Martina's ballads that Haley loves, Haley turned and gave me that look that just melts me. That look of "I love you" mixed with "this is the greatest thing ever". Think she has me wrapped around her finger or what?

A few weeks later for Valentines Day I took her to Cracker Barrel for lunch. She opened up her bag of Valentines Day goodies to find a collage of pictures, tickets, autograph, passes, etc. I put together for her. She keeps it by her bed at her Mom's house. I LOVE that Haley shares the joy of music with me and that we have that in common. I hope to be able to take her to many more concerts in the future, passing on my knowledge of music, stage production, and entertainment to her.

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