I love dogs.  I love guys with dogs.  And I love Kenny Chesney.  So, you can imagine that this picture of Kenny Chesney with a dog pretty much made my day. 

Meet Pancho.  Pancho is Kenny's new Goldendoodle.  He was given to Kenny by a friend, who told Kenny that he has to "learn to attach to something" (ouch).  But I'm sure the friend had the best of intentions, and judging by the picture and the article in People, Kenny did indeed get attached.  Too cute!

If you want to read the entire article in People, here ya go!  http://www.peoplepets.com/people/pets/article/0,,20603110,00.html

Wow.  HOW COOL is Tim McGraw?  To donate even one home is outstanding.  He is donating 25 homes to military families.  TWENTY FIVE!

Way to go, Tim!!!  Way to go.

Below this HOT picture of Tim, there is a link to the entire article from the Washington Post if you would like to read it.  And oh... by the way... South 106.1 has your tickets to go see Tim with Kenny Chesney in Atlanta.  We'll give them away starting Monday (May 28th) in the 5pm hour.  The concert is Sunday, June 3rd.  I had to get that plug in there because I KNOW you want to go!!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/country-star-tim-mcgraw-to-give-away-25-homes-to-military-members-in-need-during-summer-tour/2012/05/24/gJQAdinkmU_story.html

As you can tell by my picture over to the left, I LOVE both Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan.  When I found out they were playing together in Atlanta, I HAD to go.  I saw them together about a year and a half ago in Birmingham (that's where the picture to the left was taken), and knew that I would be in for a good concert once again.

To say "good concert" was a major understatement.

I am a genuine fan of Country music, and one of my favorite things about my job is seeing a new artist and watching them develop over the years.  I have had the extreme pleasure of watching both of these guys develop.  I was in Lafayette, LA working for a station several years ago, and Luke Bryan played a festival there called The Cajun Heartland State Fair.  It was in the midst of his first single "All My Friends Say" and not a lot of people knew who he was just yet.  His set was very good... not great... but very good.  He definitely had potential.  After all, not many artists are superstars right out of the gate.  When I saw him a year and a half ago with Jason Aldean, he was even better.  He had absolutely grown as an artist and performer.  Last June, there was a concert in Birmingham called "Bama Rising" that was a benefit for tornado relief and the April 27th, 2011 tornado outbreak across the state.  There were a TON of artists on the bill... everybody from Luke to Brad Paisley to the Commodores to a reunited Alabama and more.  Each artist came out and played two songs.  Luke's were "All My Friends Say" and "Country Girl (Shake It For Me)," which had just hit radio.  Luke stole the show.  And then this past Saturday, Luke was nothing short of GREAT.  He has REALLY come a long way since that concert at the Cajun Heartland State Fair, which was very good to begin with!

And then there's Jason.  Following Jason's career over the years has been very similar.  I was working at a station in Jacksonville, FL when Jason hit the scene with "Hicktown" and  Jason was involved with a tour where they played concerts in various Wal-Mart parking lots.  The station I worked for had a VIP section blocked off for contest winners, and those contest winners got to eat at the Johnny Carino's right in front of Wal-Mart as part of the prize.  Jason knew we were doing this with our contest winners and not only did he come by Johnny Carino's to sign autographs and pose for pictures with all of our contest winners, but he sat down at the table with each and every one of them spent some time with them.  I thought that was SO incredibly cool that he would do that.  Not a lot of artists would spend so much individual time with radio contest winners.  VERY cool! 

Like Luke, Jason's set in the Wal-Mart parking lot that day was very good... not great... but very good.  I saw him a few years later open up for Keith Urban.  And like Luke, he had grown as an artist and performer, but wasn't quite yet to that "superstar" status just yet, but still, it was a very good show.  And then there was the aforementioned concert in Birmingham a year and a half ago.  Again, he had grown since the previous time I saw him and he was now headlining his own concerts, and as much as I LOVE his music, I left the show thinking that he was not quite yet to the caliber of the artists that get nominated for "Entertainer of the Year"... artists like Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, etc.  Jason was getting there... close... but he wasn't quite there just yet, ya know?  And then there was this past Saturday night in Atlanta... Jason Aldean has not only reached that status, but he has surpassed it.  HE IS A SUPERSTAR.

Heck, after what I saw Saturday night, Jason and Luke are BOTH superstars.  What a great show from start to finish!  Lauren Alaina came out and played a few songs first.  She has some sass to her!  Luke was on next.  He had a very high energy set that included lots of good dance moves on his part (side note... I think my knees got weak a few times.  I have SUCH a crush on him and watching him dance and wave his rear around, my head was singing "Luke Bryan, shake it for me, Luke... shake it for me, Luke... shake it for me..."  It kinda made my heart go "boom boom")  He had a part in his set where he played the piano and sang some cover songs including the Commodore's "Easy" and Adele's "Someone Like You," which was very cool.  When he did "All My Friends Say," he managed to work in Metallica's "Enter Sandman" in to the middle of it, which was AWESOME!  He performed a spectacular set from start to finish, all the while working the crowd like a superstar and sporting his Atlanta Braves hat, turning it forward and backward.

And then came Jason, and he just flat out rocked.  At one point in the set, Luke came back out and the two of them played a few acoustic songs together, including "Shenandoah's "Sunday In the South," Tracy Lawrence's "Time Marches On" (Tracy actually joined them in Birmingham last Thursday to play the song with them.  That would have been cool to see!), Alabama's "Dixieland Delight," and they capped off the acoustic set with Luke's second radio single "We Rode In Trucks."  VERY cool!  After Luke left the stage, Lauren Alaina came out a few songs later to join Jason on Kelly Clarkson's part of "Don't You Wanna Stay."  She nailed it!  And then Jason carried on with his set and kept on rockin'.  His encore included "Dirt Road Anthem."  The night before in Atlanta, I heard that Ludacris came out and performed their version of the song with Jason (if you don't know the version with Jason and Ludacris together, You Tube it.  Pretty cool stuff!).  I was REALLY hoping that Luda had stuck around for night two and would perform it again, but we weren't so lucky... but it doesn't matter... the concert was amazing without him!

I hope you got to see one of these concerts... hopefully you made the trek to Birmingham Thursday or to Atlanta Friday or Saturday.  What a phenomenal show from start to finish.  And furthermore, I hope that the people that vote for the CMA or ACM get to see one of these shows on this tour.  Jason is SO worthy of Entertainer of the Year.

What a pleasure it's been to watch these two over the years.  I can't wait to see what they have in store in the future for us fans.  I can tell you this... it's gonna be epic!  Not bad for a couple of boys from the great state of Georgia, huh? :)