Independence Day Concert!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Last week, the Amarillo Symphony had a special summer concert in Palo Duro Canyon with country swing band "Asleep at the Wheel." We rehearsed on Saturday at WT and had a sound check and concert on Sunday night.

I fully intended to take my camera to the canyon with me, but didn't realize that I didn't have it until we were already in the park. I really wanted to take pictures of the canyon and document the experience. That evening would yield several "photo-worthy" events that would cause me to continually kick myself for forgetting that camera!

First, it would have been fun to take a picture of the four of us who commuted: myself, Brandon, Kristen and David. Then, it would have been great to get some pictures of the interior of the canyon and some pictures of the stage area. But, did I mention that I forgot my camera?

Then, the band that we played with, "Asleep at the Wheel," was very entertaining and are seasoned performers. I don't really care for the type of music that they play, but I really enjoyed hearing them because they are so good at what they do. It reminds me of the famous Duke Ellington quote: "There are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music." Having a picture of some of the band's rehearsal would have been cool.

But the most interesting thing to have had a picture of would have been the sporadic fires caused by the fireworks at the end of the show. We performed "Stars and Stripes Forever" to close the concert while fireworks shot behind us. When we were done, we looked behind us to see what was probably a dozen different small brush fires that had ignited. The drummer from "Asleep" would then comment to me that it's hard to remember every show that he's ever played, but he would for sure remember one where they had set the place on fire! Luckily, the Canyon Fire Dept. was on hand and put the fires out in no time.

It sure would have been cool to have had pictures of all of that...