2008 CMA Music Festival - Saturday, June 7th
Hey Everyone! Before we head over to the Out Rock the Band Sweepstakes at Paradise Park Trailer Resort, I wanted to share with you some comments from Jennifer Hanson. She was in the fashion show on Wednesday night and wanted to tell you all about her experience in it...
I've never done a fashion show before, so I was a little nervous at first, but when I got to the Wildhorse, everyone was so great to work with and made me feel really comfortable. In fact, I had a blast -- it was lots of fun to pretend to be a high fashion model, walking the runway. My only concern, I think both my outfits were a little short. But what the heck... we had a great time! What made the entire event even more fun was they had us all lined up in order, ready to take the runway and I had Jeff Cook (My Uncle Cookie) right behind me. Since my dad played in Alabama's band, Jeff has known me since I was 12 years old. He was really funny at the fashion show. He kept showing me his outfits saying 'look what I get to wear!' I was also in line near Sarah Buxton and Emily West. I adore both of them and was happy we got a little hand time that night. I also got a chance to meet a lot of people I had never had the opportunity to meet before, so all said -- I had a great time at the Country Weekly Fashion Show!
Now stay tuned as we head down to go rock it with Lady A!
Well, we're four days into the 2008 CMA Music Festival and this thing isn't showing any signs of slowing down! In fact, it revved up at noon today when Lady Antebellum and CMT.com took on all comers at the Out Rock the Band Sweepstakes at Paradise Park Trailer Park. After a smokin' performance by Lady Antebellum, contestants from all over the country tried to prove they were better at Rock Band than a real band as they went against Lady A's Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood in showdown to see who had the chops in the popular music-based video game. Since the last video game I played was Pong, I geezer so CMT.com's own intrepid reporter and video game aficionado Jen Morrison was on hand to bring you the scoop on this exciting event. Here's Jen's report:
First off, I am not a video game aficionado however, I can tell you what I saw! People started crowding in around noon and filling the place up. The audience was standing on tables, chairs and bar seats just to get a glimpse at Lady Antebellum. Each sweepstakes "team" went up and played two songs. One team tried their hardest but just couldn't make it through the difficult game of Rock Band and failed out. Last up to compete was Lady Antebellum... And for only playing two times, they rocked it! Hillary was banging on the drums looking very concentrated as Charles got his rocker on taking lead vocals and sang "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. Dave took the roll he loves best in his aviators... The guitar.
After each band had played, the winner was announced. It was our second and very 
outspoken team that played, The Punishers. They did not have that name when they walked through the door, one of the audience members yelled that out and it stuck. They were then presented with a Epiphone acoustic guitar signed by Lady Antebellum.
Finally -- everyone got what they had been waiting for... A performance by Lady A themselves. They started out with their first hit single, "Love Don't Live Here," and ended with their flirty current single "Looking For a Good Time." They interacted with the crowd and said their good-byes. Charles grabbed a marker and signed a few autographs on their way out of the bar and then they were whisked away to start traveling again. Oh the life of a Rock Band!
On our way back from the Lady A event, we decided to stop in the Nashville Convention Center to see how good ole' 
Taylor Swift was doing with her all day signing. And from the looks of it, pretty good! She had a huge crowd around her just waiting to get an autograph, picture or anything! We manage to snap one shot of her with a fan... It was just too crazy in there! We also stopped to see Carrie Underwood signing some autographs for fans. But again, there were soooooo many people in there, we just decided we should come back here and report to you all!
And now we are going to fast forward to Sunday, June 8th! We have Carolina Rain who wanted to tell you how it was to play in front of fans like you:
"Wow!! What else can I say about the thousands of screaming fans passionately singing the lyrics to our songs right along with us as we took the river stage at CMA Music Fest 2008 Sunday. We wanted to take them all home! Music is special and the CMA Music Fest brings together those of us who truly love the expression of emotion that we call country music...artist and fans alike. Thank you for bringing us together with all of our fans!!"
Thank you all for joining us this week and weekend for our coverage of the 2008 CMA Music Festival. We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to our next live blog! Drive safe now!
Click to see more live blog photos from the 2008 CMA Music Festival
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of 
Kevin Brandenburg says:
hello folks well this is Kevin from the rock the band contest I was the guitar player in Crystie Houstons Rockateers this was one of the funest times I have ever had after walking off the stage I truly felt like a rock star lol even if my guitar was plastic with 5 buttons vs strings
There is no ride or no event I have ever done in life that was more exciting I do feel compelled to say a couple things missing…. not to deminish the expierance what so ever
1st no one was available to help us get personal pictures to show what a fun time we truly had.
2nd I would have been truly gratefull to have had the time to get autographs from the band Lady Antebellum which we clearly whipped. my last words to them would be something along the lines of “Lady Antebellum bowed their head because they knew that they had been beat.
They laid that golden guitar on the ground at the wrong teams feet.
The Rocketeers said: “Lady Antebellum just come on back if you ever want to try again.
“I told you once, you son of a gun, were the best that’s ever been!
Kim says:
Shane, I love your comedy and so I wanted to share with you my funniest moment this past week at the CMA Festival (it’s also posted on my personal blog at www.myspace.com/november1983 if you want to see some of my “Fan Fair” photos.
So I’m waiting in a line at the Fan Fair convention center to meet Ben “Cooter” Jones, you know, the guy from Dukes of Hazzard. He has a new book out called “Redneck Boy in the Promised Land,” which according to a book review in NashvilleScene sounded like a really good read, or at the least a suitable Father’s Day present for my dad, who of course is also a “Good Ol’ Boy.”
So I’m waiting in line (I said that already but it was a long long line,) and I ran into one of my friends and we got to chatting about who all we had gotten autographs from and I mentioned that I had just seen Sara Evans. Just then, this guy behind us with the longest blonde mullet you had ever seen, says with a big smile on his face,
“Oh, I’d like to mate her!”
And I’m thinking What????!!!!! Are you the world’s sleaziest guy or what? I just wanted to slap him for making such a sexist comment. Me and my friend just looked at each other like, “is this guy for real?” And then I think well someone needs to call Jay Barker to come teach this guy a lesson on how to be more respectful toward women! But then his friend (no mullet by the way), says,
“Oh yeah, I’d really like to meet her too!”
Oops, I forget that everything sounds different with a southern drawl ! Sorry guys, I hope one day you get to mate Sara Evans too!
p.s. I ended up talking to these guys and they turned out to be pretty nice, from Alabama I think. I’m not from the south but I do love it here, so this was not meant to offend anyone. I hope Sara gets a kick out of it if she ever hears about it. She really made my day when she signed a picture for my daughter!
DJ Hooter says:
Kevin Brandenburg, I say to you one time: Scoreboard
AlexM says:
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!