Highlights of Golf and Guitars 2010

I spent Tuesday afternoon at the Golf & Guitars charity event at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento. It was a generous lineup for the cost of a $25 ticket, with three or four acoustic songs apiece by Jack Ingram, Mark Wills, Chris Young, Josh Gracin, Justin Moore, Chuck Wicks, Chely Wright, Emily West, Radney Foster, BOMSHEL, Bryan White, One Flew South, John Berry, Love and Theft, The Band Perry, and Brian Sizensky.

Here are some of the highlights from the cheap seats:

• My uncanny ability to set up camp on what ends up being the noisiest, drunkest part of the lawn. My unwillingness to move from said area halfway into the show for fear of not finding a better spot.
• One bleach-blonde drunk girl’s comment that Josh Gracin looks almost exactly like Jake Owen.
• Requisite fortysomething drunk guys flirting with girls young enough to be their daughters.
• Jack Ingram’s hosting: “Well, that was cute” after The Band Perry, razzing Josh Gracin for being a fourth-place finisher on American Idol, telling the husband of a raffle winner to get his “lazy ass” onstage, etc.
• Radney Foster’s entire set, including cameos from Jack Ingram and Emily West.
  
• Size comparison: Chris Young and Justin Moore
  
• Female reactions during sets by Chris Young and Chuck Wicks. Also, Wicks’ resemblance to Rodney Atkins from far enough away. To wit:
  
• BOMSHEL and Emily West coming onstage to ogle Bryan White during his set. Jack Ingram quipped afterwards that it was like a reenactment of their teenage pajama parties.
  
• Mark Wills doing “Jacob’s Ladder.” Ahhh, the ’90s…
  
• Chely Wright’s conversational set, highlighted by “Something Positive and Hopeful” and banter with a tiny raffle ticket salesboy she pulled onstage.
  
• One Flew South had a doozy in the humorous song “Two Nights in a Row.” The guy in the middle had a doozy in his whole-head (minus sunglasses strip) sunburn.
  
• Jack Ingram inviting any “Barbie Dolls” from the audience to jump onstage with him for the encore. They answered the call:
  
• The best news is that everyone sang just as well live acoustic as they do on their records, which I suspect might not be the case in other genres of music. All in all, a good show for a great cause.

You can see all my pictures from the day on Country California’s Facebook page.