Can't wait to see your pics Julie!
In the meantime here's a review I found: (I love the part where he say's you'd think the President or Elvis entered the building)...
No flash, just good country music
Kentucky's Sarah Johns delivers inspired set
By Walter Tunis CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC
Mark Cornelison | Staff
George Strait got a thunderous reception from the roughly 15,500 fans in attendance Friday night in Rupp Arena.
Mark Cornelison | Staff
Jessamine County native Sarah Johns gave an impressive half-hour performance to lead off the night. Little Big Town followed before Strait took the stage.
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Sarah Johns won't have to pay this time to see George Strait at Rupp
A benevolent ruler In an age when country music concerts come equipped with enough bells, whistles and gaudy flash to pass for a Kiss show, George Strait continues with music and a performance presentation that seems comparatively homemade.
Take the Texas singer's entrance last night at Rupp Arena for his first local show since 1996. There were no symphonic, synthesized preludes or splashy video intros. Strait didn't pop up from the floor, fly down from the ceiling or get hoisted to the stage on some magic carpet-style platform. He just walked across the arena floor to a square, in-the-round Rupp stage. What a simple deal.
And yet, given the thunderous reception of the 15,500 fans on hand and the blinding showers of camera flashes that greeted him, you would think the president has just entered the building. Or perhaps Elvis.
True to form, Strait remained the ultimate arena country traditionalist in performance with a subtle but profound country tenor that preferred a conversational tone. Sure, when the right song called for a dramatic turn, as in I Hate Everything, the singer modestly matched the mood. But there was never a trace of grandstanding.
How deep did Strait's tradition flow? Shoot, the guy walked onstage to the tune of Deep in the Heart of Texas, for crying out loud. Later, he nailed the Webb Pierce classic There Stands the Glass with the honky-tonk help of his 11-member Ace in the Hole band. Let's see Rascal Flatts swing that.
Jessamine County native Sarah Johns opened the performance with a swiftly paced half-hour set that presented her own hearty slant on country tradition. Much of the material from her Sony debut album, Big Love in a Small Town, all of which she co-wrote, served as vehicles for an exuberant and wide vocal range. The rootsier passages of Johns' more narrative singing, however, recalled the feistier stride of Loretta Lynn's early recordings.
The depth of Johns' traditionalism was revealed fully in her set's final three songs: the poppish Fishin' in the Dark, a '80s hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band which the singer reinvented with giddy barroom fervor; the Patsy Cline epic She's Got You, which Johns took readily to; and her own fun and playfully self-mocking hit He Hates Me.
Impressive stuff, all of it. You can wrap this set up as one of the great home state country Rupp outings and place it alongside The Judds' opening set for Conway Twitty in the '80s and, more recently, Montgomery Gentry's support slot for Kenny Chesney. It was that strong.
The hit -- and, at times, oddly contemporary -- country-pop quartet Little Big Town was sandwiched between the two traditionalists last night. The harmonies were airtight and immensely decorative. But when placed between two assured traditional acts, they seemed a touch too