Pampa and Maddie Go to a Concert

Maddie shows off her new prize.

Lady Annabellum sets the crowd to dancin'.

Maddie cranks up the enthusiasm.

Civic Center manager Robyn Schon and her new pal.

Lady A bigger than life.

Maddie and her favorite rock star editr.

Lady A winds it up.

Maddie and I went to her first rock-ish concert (and probably my last) Sunday night, taking in a group called Lady Annabellum, which is one of her faves. I'm familiar with a couple of Lady A songs--nice country tunes--but didn't hear anything like that last night. It was mostly a full volume rock concert and one of the preliminary groups was a whole lot closer to the head-busting hyper-volume stuff my son prefers. I like light jazz. I was not in my element.

When I worked for the daily in Roanoke some years ago, one of my beats was music and I took in a lot of concerts, heard a lot of good and bad and even some memorable. When my son was about Maddie's age now, 8, I took him to see KISS. It was a hoot, but not because of the music. Likewise, Lady Annabellum. I thoroughly enjoyed being there with her, seeing my friend Robyn Schon, who stopped by our very good box seat to say hello, liked watching Maddie's response. We both enjoyed studying the roadies and their NASCAR pit crew-like efficiency between shows. They elicited a couple of "Wows" from Mads.

As to my future with rock concerts, let's just give this one over to the god of old age and be done with it.