Day One At Bayou Country Superfest

It was a perfect day for day one of the Bayou Country Superfest and tailgating was the first order of the day. RVs lined the parking lot as fans cooked and drank anything you can imagine. Fan Fest outside of Tiger Stadium was the warm up for an afternoon and night of some of Country Music's best.

I'm sure Aaron Lewis was great but we did not get to our seats until after he had played. We did arrive in time for Thompson Square. We were lucky enough to be on the shady side of the stadium; but it was still rather warm. We grabbed some cold drinks and headed for our seats. Keifer and Shawna Thompson (Academy of Country Music's Duo of the Year for 2013) took the stage at the hottest time of the day. Comfort was essential for performing in that heat and Shawna had her hair pulled on top of her head in a tight almost bun like fashion. The husband and wife duo did all of their hits like "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not" and "If I Didn't Have You". The hits just kept coming for the rest of the night.

Next up was Darius Rucker. He walked on stage and started singing without much fanfare but he blew the crowd away doing all of his hits, covering some Hootie and the Blowfish songs and even doing some old Hank. The entire stadium sang along with "Family Tradition." Then he blew the crowd away with a version of "Purple Rain." The crowd was still singing "Wagon Wheel" long after he left the stage. The sun was setting by this time and the crowd was fire up for Miranda Lambert!

Miranda Lambert is true country through and through and the crowd ate her up.   Kris St. James and I both thought Miranda looked like she had lost weight ; but there was no lack of country girl attitude. The first hint that the attitude was coming was at the end of "Only Prettier" when she ran her hands through her hair and posed in true fashion model style while singing the last line of the song. There were some tears shed when she did a touching rendition of "Over You" and the crowd went completely crazy for "Mama's Broken Heart". I turned to Kris when one song began and said "Could that be "Get Back?" Three notes later I was answered. Miranda kicked on a version of the old Beatles classic.

There was a short break as a full moon rose over Tiger Stadium. The temperature dropped a few degrees and a pleasant breeze blew through as thin clouds passed in front of the moon. It was time for Lady Antebellum and a very pregnant Hillary Scott. Her vocals were perfect as were the rest of the band's. They put on quite a show working their way through hits like "Need You Now", "Just a Kiss", "We Owned the Night" and many more. It was certainly a sing along set. They blew the crowd away with a version of "Honkey Tonk Women" and at one point were joined on stage by Darius Rucker and "Thompson Square."  At one point Charles Kelly was out in front of the stage on the runway sitting down and said "I'm sitting in the middle of Tiger Stadium ... that's pretty cool." That statement pretty much wrapped up everybody's feelings about the first night of the Bayou Country Superfest. Night two is tonight! There are still tickets available.