I’m supposed to be packing for a real honest to goodness vacation I am taking this week to see a bunch of my family and see my awesome niece, Cathy, get married to a cool dude named Matt.  In Wisconsin.  After I fly to Albuquerque and collect my mom.  And then we drive to Minnesota to get my sister.  And THEN Wisconsin.  I haven’t family road tripped or been to the Midwest in eons.  BRING IT.

So instead of packing I’m reading old blog posts and remembering that I have had some amazing musical experiences over the years.  I consider myself fortunate to have seen and met some of my favorites…so why not recap?  That’s why I run this personal scrapbook of a blog anyway.

No order, just as they pop up in my brain, dates might be wrong…and these are non-work related concerts. I could write a book about all the cool stuff I’ve seen working with the people I work with…a different day.

Tori Amos
– Albuquerque 2005…my friend Laura was wearing a Tori shirt so some tour manager type dude gave us front row seats. It was amazing.

– SXSW 2009…my friend Elizabeth had given me a wristband for SXSW that year and we went to La Zona Rosa to see Tori debut tracks from The Beekeeper. Perez Hilton introduced her…weird.

Imogen Heap
– Austin 2006…Imogen played La Zona Rosa. I went by myself and the show BLEW MY MIND. I went again a year or two later and got to meet her outside her tour bus. So lovely, so British. She signed my iPhone case (it’s all I had) and it promptly rubbed off in a week.

Mary Chapin Carpenter
– I’ve seen MCC a lot. I’ve seen her play in Santa Fe, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Austin among others. I met her last fall. It was one of the best days ever. Her music has made me travel and I am forever grateful. The photo above is of MCC and Shawn Colvin at Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA.

Indigo Girls
– Kerrville Folk Festival 2009. I had a backstage pass and I used it when the Indigo Girls were playing. Terri Hendrix played a couple of songs with them and she introduced me to Amy Ray. I said nothing of importance because I couldn’t think, but I remember Amy was eating a peanut butter sandwich before playing. Superfood of folk?

SHeDAISY
– I still maintain these girls put out some of the smartest country pop of the 2000’s. They just haven’t recorded in a while…I hope they do again soon. I met them at a casino in Ruidoso, NM in 2005, because casinos in New Mexico get the touring acts for some reason.

Lady Gaga
– I’ve seen her stadium show twice over the years, and then I got to see Gaga close up at SXSW this year. Amazing. Roasting on a spit and all.

Kathleen Edwards
– One of my favorite writers period. My friend Ben and I went to see her in Santa Fe in 2004 or so when we were in college, in some bar. I don’t even remember where. We had seen her on Letterman the year before and were hooked. I haven’t had the chance to see her since but she’s put out some of my all time favorite albums.

Rose Cousins
– Folk Alliance 2011. The cool thing about the Folk Alliance gatherings is you see people from all over play acoustic sets in hotel rooms for 3 days. Rose has always been a favorite but she doesn’t make it to Texas much, so I followed her around (from a distance, non-creepily) at Folk Alliance. Gold.

Haim
Haim was about to blow up when I saw them at SXSW 2013 in a bar on 4th street. I was right in front of the stage and Este knocked her mic stand onto my head. Totally rock and roll.

Doing this list makes me want to buy tickets to more shows…I’ll be adding Fleetwood Mac to this list later this year. So excited!