Last night, rosepurr and I went to the Ryman and saw the Americana Music Association Awards.

It was awesome. My fanboy is still jumping up and down.

We had great seats right on the floor. John Hiatt sat six rows directly in front of me. I sat at the aisle. He walked by. A few moments later, Joan Baez walked by.

Jim Lauderdale was a fantastic emcee for the event. He kept the evening moving and entertaining. He played a song of his own and joined in the finale, an all-star jam tribute to Jerry Garcia.

There are several articles and web pages that will tell you who won in the individual awards (links here, here, and here), but it was really the performances that made the evening. All the emerging artist nominees performed (you can get their names through the links) as did such greats as James McMurtry, Steve Earle and Alison Moorer, Sam Bush, Levon Helm, Chris Thile (if you don't know him, you should - he is quite possibly the most amazing mandalin player in the world) and Edgar Myer. Jason and the Scorchers busted out the country rockabilly punk and threatened to burn the house down (the Ryman, you'll be happy to learn, survived). At a grand piano, John Hiatt sang "Have a Little Faith in Me" and rosepurr and I snuggled in. Joan Baez has a new record coming out, produced by Steve Earle, and she sang a Tom Waits song. Buddy Miller starts playing the blues with an awesome band and Robert Plant joins them onstage to sing. FRIGGIN' ROBERT PLANT!!!!!

The fanboy needs to calm down.

Unbelievably amazing. A great night of music. I still haven't calmed down after almost 24 hours. It was a truly Nashville experience that I couldn't have had anywhere else in the world. And it was just that much better for sharing it with my wonderful wife.