Music, Booze, and Cowgirls Galore

Last year, I happened to be driving on I-70 in western Colorado going by the little town of Mack.  Looking out my driver’s side window, I could see a large gathering of sorts in the distance.  As I got closer and passed by, I saw a big stage, lots of people, tents, cars, and parked RV’s. In fact, it was acres and acres of people, cars, and RV’s.

“That looks like a music festival”, I said to my son.  Later that day, I found out that I had passed by the Country Jam Ranch in Mack and caught a glimpse of Country Jam 2015 underway.

I enjoy going to music festivals.  It’s a great way to immerse yourself into music and see a several artists perform over a few days.  I’ve been attending at least 2-3 music festivals each year for the past 16+ years.  When I looked up Country Jam with Mr. Google, I found out that it’s one of the largest and best country music festivals.  And, it’s been held every June in little ol’ Mack for the past 25 years.

This cowboy enjoys country music and since I was going to be in western Colorado again in June, I figured perhaps.  Then I saw that Brad Paisley would be a headliner and said what the heck.  I got my self an early bird ticket for $99 and put it on the schedule to be part of this years Colorado Roadtrip adventure.

Festival Logistics

Country Jam is 4 days long – Thursday through Sunday.  In addition to a 4 day general admission ticket to see the biggest and best music performances (which I  bought), you can also buy a ticket to camp on the festival grounds.  In fact, there are lots of a la cart things you can buy.  There’s VIP seating, Reserved seating, Country Club seating, and special performance specific on stage seating. There’s also premium parking and you can rent your very own porta-john for the weekend.

Given the very hot weather in western Colorado during June, I opted to camp offsite at the Colorado River State Park where I had electricity to run my AC.  I also wanted a descent shower and some peace and quiet which is typical is short supply when camping at a music festival.  The State Park, just 8 miles away was a great choice.

I bought a Premium Parking pass which was worth every penny of the $45 I spent.  I got to park right by the west entrance and had an easy in and out of the festival grounds.  Regular day parking was $10 each day and about a mile away by bus.

One last comment on the festival logistics.  It was dusty.  Very dusty.  Cake your hair, clog your nostrils, dirt in your ears type of dusty.  The 20,000 or so cars driving in and out on dusty fields paths created clouds of dust.  The festival staff did their best using water trucks on the roads, but in the dry weather it didn’t last very long.

Then add 50,000 attendees walking around kicking up dust.  By the evening performances even the performers were commenting – “How you doin in all this dust?”. A bandana over the face was a common sight.  I had a coughing fit each night just trying to clear the dust out of my throat.

Music

It’s why most of us came.  To hear the music and see the performers.  This years headliners, where Brad Paisley, Lee Brice, Blake Shelton, and Zac Brown.  Some of the biggest names in country music. The B list acts included Joe Nichols, Daryl Worley, Trace Adkins, and Big and Rich. Then there were other acts playing on the secondary stages.  All in all over 35 bands played at County Jam.

Most of the music came on after 5 pm when the weather started to cool down and ran until midnight.  The sound and productions were all great.  The headlines sang all their hits and gave great performances.  With a daily throng of 50,000, it was tough for a general admission ticket guy sitting in a field to get up close.  But thanks to a huge jumbo tron, I got to see the performers.

Highlights for me were;

• Being a big Brad Paisley fan, seeing him sing almost every hit song he wrote.  The guy plays a great twangy Telecaster.
• I like Trace Adkins.  He’s got a unique deep baritone voice and he sang his best hits – “I Married for Money”, “I Left Something Turned on at Home”, etc.
• Blake Shelton singing a duet with girlfriend Gwen Stefani.
• Zac Brown singing his hits and doing some amazing covers from Metallica, Led Zepplin, and Charlie Daniels.

Booze

Drinking and music festivals seems to go together like peanut butter and jelly.  With some festivals, you can bring your own into the festival grounds.  In others like Country Jam, you can’t bring it in and must buy it from the vendors.  There where numerous tents and pavilions set up where you could to buy booze but it was pretty much limited to mostly beer and whiskey (you could buy some canned Margarita type drinks and one vodka drink)

All the beer was pretty much either Bud or Bud Light and it was $7.50 for a 16 oz can.  Pretty much major sporting venue prices.  Then there were the beer hawkers going up and down the seating areas.  Same price as the tents.  If you wanted a cold beer, you didn’t have to leave your seat.  All you had to do was yell – “Hey, beer Dude!”

The whiskey thing was a new one for me.  There seemed to be as many Jack Daniels (JD) tents as beer tents. I guess country music fans like their JD.  Straight on ice or mixed it was $8.00 for a 8 oz cup and JD was the only choice.

Not being a big drinker, I was the DD on most nights so my son could enjoy a few $7.50 beers.  But, I did treat myself to a Jack and Coke on Father’s Day.  One of my worse hangovers ever was numerous years ago when I was working.  I entertained some clients one night who liked doing shots of JD.  I’ve never touched the stuff since and was reminded on this Father’s Day that JD is still “bad medicine” for this cowboy.

Overall, I didn’t see any drunk folks in the festival grounds.  I think the prices put a damper on it and it was just too damn hot to drink booze.  Water was the preferred drink.  I easily pounded down 4-6 bottles of water each day.  Free water spigots were set up in couple of locations.

Cowgirls

By far, the second most entertaining part of Country Jam was people watching.  With 50,000 attendees there was lots to see.  Country Jam is an event and it seems like people came to see the music performers and to be seen.

Big events all seems to have their own tribal wardrobes.  At MLB, NBA, or NFL games it’s the jerseys of favorite players.  At NASCAR races it’s a hat or tee-shirt with your favorite drivers numbers.

Country Jam has its own wardrobe.  First and fore most is patriotic clothing.  Stuff with the stars and stripes.  You name it – hats, hat bands, shirts, shorts, socks, and bikini tops.  Next comes cowboy hats, belt buckles, and boots.  That one is pretty obvious.  Next comes tattered shorts or pants.  The more rips and tears the better.

Cowgirls – Exhibit A

But the one people watching thing that struck me was the sheer number of young women at this festival.  My guesstimate is that the girls outnumbered guys by more than 3-1.  While there were folks of all ages there, young women seemed to be the most prevalent.  I’m not sure what drew so many women.  It might have been the mostly hunky all male performer line up.  Or it could be all the shirtless beefcake cowboys walking around.  What ever it was, I was not complaining.  And my single son, thought he’d died and gone to heaven.

And even with all the dust, most were in the attractive to gosh darn beautiful category.  The standard cowgirl outfit seem to be:  a cowboy hat, boots, tattered Daisy Duke short shorts, aviator sunglasses, and either a halter or bikini top.  There were lots of style variations and personal bling accessories.

Look at my pictures and you’ll mostly women in the crowds.  And the girls seemed to travel in small packs.

One awkward place that I stumbled into was the Merchandise Tent.  I went in to see about getting a Country Jam or artist tee-shirt.  I walked into the big tent and quickly realized I was the only guy in the tent.  Also, there were lots of woman taking off their shirts and trying on new shirts.  I felt like I had walked into a large woman’s dressing room.  And the next thought was that I (an old gray beard geezer) should probably not linger here and quietly exited.  So much for getting a tee-shirt.

Summary

Overall, I had a good time at Country Jam.  The music was great, the food options were plenty, the seating area was fine, the staff did a good job with the venue and crowd control, and the people watching was an unexpected benefit.

I’m glad that I went and got to experience a big country music festival.  For $99, I got to see some of the biggest country performers packed into 4 days of music.  It was well worth it and it was a unique experience.