Here is a review of my 2006 Fan Fair week. I did not do any of the events associated with the event itself as I did not get a ticket and didn't want to pay just to go into the Convention Center.

Tuesday:
Went to bed around after 1am after finishing up packing for my trip and got up at 5am for a 8:30am flight via Southwest.

Had a layover in Baltimore of 3 hours and wound up figuring out the new terminal and concourse there. Decided to have a quick lunch at Phillips seafood before heading over to get in line for the flight to Nashville.

Got into Nashville around 1:10pm and went down to get my luggage which was not there but then an announcement was made that if the bags were not there from the flight from Baltimore, some did come in early and was over by there office and mine was one of them.

Got my car and headed over to Raffertys for lunch and headed over to the 100 Oaks mall to see if I could find some clothes that I did not pack.

Got to my hotel and went to open the curtain and found my rug soaked under the AC unit so I reported this on my was out back out to the car to get a few things.

Went out to the Bluebird Cafe for the 1st time this week for their 24th Birthday show with the Jay Patten Band and special guests Deborah Allen, Roberto Bianco, T. Graham Brown, Vickie Carrico, Nanci Griffith, Jimmy Hall, Hal Ketchum, Mark Germino and Jonell Mosser. The official show was over at 11:30 but they were only taking a break and had a jam session until 1am and during that time, Gary Nicholson came in for a song.

Got back to the hotel and see my curtains blowing all over the place. Tried to adjust them so they wont blow when the AC is on the noticed the AC was off and it was a fan on high speed to dry the floor off. Had to shut it off and open the window to let some cool air in so I could get some sleep. Was wide awake so I sent off a email to a friend and did a few other things so I finally went to bed at 4 and set the alarm for 8:30.

Wednesday:

Got up at 7:15 and couldn't get back to sleep. Didn't have any plans so I sat at the computer for a while to see what was going on in town. Headed downtown to the Hall of Fame to check out the XM studios and stop to say hi to Producer J who I had been messaging with over at XM411. Stayed there for a while and a friend just happened to come through so we chatted for a while until her tour bus picked her up. Stayed a little longer as the Grascals were in the studio then I decided to head up to Broadway to see what was going on and ran into friends who were in line and was able to add me to their reservation for a taping of Music City Connection: Heroes Behind the Hits with Lee Roy Parnell, Gary Nicholson and Donnie Fritts.

After that I went back to my room to find that the rug was dry so I put the AC back on and sent off one final email before my computer decided to act up and not allow me to send or receive anything for the rest of the week.

At 7:30 I headed back over to the Bluebird this time to see Victoria Shaw featuring Hillary Scott who I really like a lot. Was disappointed when I found out that Hillary would not be there due to she was on vacation in Florida. Sat with friends of mine who are from Colorado and we had made separate reservations. She did have a few guests including Jim Brickman who played a few tunes and others who I can not remember their names. The show was over at 11 and we had tickets for the Marty Stuart's Late Night Jam to see Kathy Mattea who was scheduled to be on the show. Found parking and got to our seats around 11:45 when Connie Smith was on. I knew that Kathy was not on yet as their instruments were still set up on stage. Finally part of the band came out to do two instrumentals plus Jim Brock doing his thing with the drum (Cant remember what the correct name is) that he does. Kathy came out and did four songs. We left right after that and I got back to the room around 3am after dropping my friend off at his hotel.

Thursday:
Got up late today. Went over to Wolf Camera to have some prints made from the night before at the Ryman of Kathy to have autographed at her fan club blunch on Friday.

Went to Shopery Mills to see if anything was going on there at Tower Records and to maybe do some racing at the Nascar place there. Didn't do much there so I went out to lunch at Raffertys and then went back to the hotel. Went to get my prints just before 7 and found out that the machine broke and mine was next to be done on Friday as they close at 7. Was told they have a location at the Cool Springs mall open til 9 so I had to get my camera back at the hotel and get down the mall and go through what I wanted printed up again. Photos were done in 30 minutes but when I got back to the hotel and opened the package, my 8x10s were only there which was the main thing I needed for the party. Went right back out as I had won VIP tickets last week for Rhythm on the River at the Hard Rock Cafe at 11PM with Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Bob DiPerio, Brett James and Bobby Pinson. The show started at 11:30 and was over a little after 1am where we were taken downstairs for the meet and greet with the artists. I bid on this as I am a fan of Carolyn's and was not able to go her party or her performance on the riverfront on Friday due to a schedule conflict.

Friday:
Headed over to Cheekwood for "The Blunch" with Kathy Mattea which starts at 11am and is scheduled to end at 5pm but Kathy's partys never end on time. The schedule for the day was to eat first, then have Kathy do a Q&A then Kathy made a speech about her life around music, then want on to play songs from the obscure setlist which was started last year and was only 1/3rd done. Then it was time for the meet and greet part of the day.

We all left after 6pm and a bunch of decided to go Outback for dinner which was good for me as I had to go back to the mall there to pickup the rest of my prints and CD of the photos to give to the Fan Club president so it can be used in the newsletter.

After leaving Outback, I headed back to the Bluebird to see Danny Flowers, Gary Nicholson, Jim Photoglo and Bill Lloyd.

Saturday:
Decided to head down to Chattanooga for Riverbend to see Beth Nielson Chapman, Gretchen Peters and Suzy Bogguss. Din not get to see Beth as she was on the same time as Gretchen as a different stage but did get to see Alison Brown instead. Drove back to Nashville tired with a few stops as I was falling asleep at the wheel but made it safely back. Did get an extra hour because of the time zone change between Chattanooga and Nashville.

Sunday:
Wanted to get up early so I could go to Phonoluxe and get breakfast at the Pancake Pantry (first time in a many years that I did not get there once during my trips to Nashville). Needless to say, I got up a little late and had to pack up and head over to the airport for my flight home which was a little bumpy but I slept through most of it or when I was awake, had my MyFi on and was switching between music and checking out a few baseball games.

On the way home, stopped at Red Robin for dinner and that ends my week.