Mu-sak

Guys, I love music. LOVE it. If I could marry it, I probably would. I took a look at my music library and had a few revelations:

1. Apparently, I do like country music. SOME country music. More pop influenced than twang-influenced, I’ll tell you. I got no use for an overabundance of twang. For those of you that have tried to convert me over the years…congratulations. You win. Next time you see me, you can say “I told you so.”

2. I have very few albums, I mostly own individual songs. People, I tell you right now that the best invention in the history of the world is Shazaam (or Sound Hound, for those of you that lean that way). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me enlighten you. Shazaam is an app on my smartphone. When you open it up and push the button in the middle, the app listens to whatever music is playing and tells you what the song/artist is. My favorite part is that you can not only identify songs in the moment, but you can save the songs you’ve tagged so that you can go back later and download them. I use this app practically every day. With this app in my possession, I feel more powerful than I do when I use my power tools. (And that’s saying something.)

I’m constantly putting together new playlists with newly inspired entries. I don’t think I can explain to you how much I adore new music. WAIT. Think of soft puppies…and chocolate cake…and an unexpected bonus at work…okay, nope. I can’t explain how much I adore new music.

One of my very favorite artists is Sara Bareilles. The first song I ever downloaded (via Shazaam, thank you very much) was “Gravity”. The song is gorgeous and I would listen to it over and over and over on my playlist. Sometimes it still makes an appearance on my current playlist. So, I downloaded the two albums she had out and I was hooked. I don’t always agree with the sentiment of her songs, but her lyrics are brilliant, clever, emotion-evoking, and often sassy.

So when I heard that Sara was coming to Red Rocks in Denver to play a concert co-headlining with One Republic, it made my day. Scratch that, it made my week month year. I wasn’t AS big of a fan of One Republic, clearly, but I’d downloaded quite a few of their songs as well, so I was no novice. My friend Sarah drove and her sister Beth came, too, and we were all set.

Red Rocks, I should mention, is a legendary venue. For my California friends, it’s basically like going to the Hollywood Bowl, but instead of seeing the Hollywood sign, you see purple mountain majesty and you’re surrounded by red rocks. Plus, you’re breathing in fresh air and not smog. For my non-California friends, Red Rocks is an outdoor amphitheater hewn out of natural red rocks. Okay, can everyone picture it now?

I haven’t been to many concerts in my sheltered life. My favorite concerts have to be Chris Tomlin’s because they are just big worshipfests and they.are.awesome. But this was awesome in its own right. First of all, Sara is amazing in person and sang all of my favorite songs. The coolest part of her set was when she started to play her new single “Brave” and everyone sang out so loud. I’ll tell you, it was an epic moment.

And then, One Republic hit the stage. And I was blown away. The lead singer Ryan Tedder is a phenomenal musician and so charismatic on stage. I sang along to the songs I knew and then at one point during the set, a slight rain started to drift down. It wasn’t pouring, it was barely drizzling. But with flecks of rain on my face, the music surrounding me, and the pure joy I felt? Well, it was one of life’s perfect freeze-frame moments. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

The week after the concert, iTunes discounted One Republic’s new record “Native”. I downloaded it and when I hear certain songs that were played that night, it takes me back to the emotion of those moments and how music imitates life. I wish I could go to a concert every day.

Ahem. Anyway, I thought it was time that I shared an “Amy Colorado Adventure” with you since you won’t be hearing of my adventures in skiing anytime soon and that IS the name of my blog. I was at Red Rocks! And it rocked my face clean off.

XOXO,

Amy