Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 156 Music Festival

 After Mario and Reggie won the gold medal, Coach West also bought them two Porsche sports cars as a reward.

After having a sports car, the two often went out to race cars, and even secretly went to participate in underground racing in Everglades City. They were accidentally caught by the West Palm Beach County Police Department, Gameover, and were fined more than three thousand dollars, causing an unexpected incident. A minor scandal.

Link did not return to New York immediately after leaving Louisville. Instead, he took a tour bus to Nashville, Tennessee next door, a journey of more than three hours.

The annual country music festival CMA is being held in this city every year in April and May, for five days.

Taylor is one of the most popular female singers in the country music industry. She was also invited to perform and receive an award from the Country Music Association.

Country music is different from pop music, rock, hip-hop, and folk music. It is a kind of pop music with American national characteristics. It emerged in the southern United States and is a representative of the white national music in the United States.

 Mainly reflects the living conditions, love, lovelorn, home, etc. of the blue-collar working class. It is the music of the lower class, also known as 'blue-collar music'.

Representative figures include Johnny Denver, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Shania Twain, Taylor, etc. The last three are all beauties with beautiful voices and sweet songs, and they are also queen-level figures in the American music scene. .

 Taylor's first four albums were all in country music style. Later works added a large number of R&B, dance music, rock and other popular elements, which also made the content of country music more urban and colorful, becoming a kind of mainstream music in the world.

 What is national is what is world-wide, and it is most perfectly reflected in country music.

This country music festival was held in Cumberland Park in Nashville. According to media reports, this music festival attracted more than 800,000 visitors.

On the way here, Link met a lot of people who came to join in the fun. Most of them were in their twenties and thirties. They came from all directions in trains, buses, trucks, and motorcycles. It felt like the American people were all here. You don’t need to work to make money.

Seeing these people, Link felt that there was a reason for the decline of the United States.

When he arrived at the music festival, Taylor was singing on the middle stage, wearing a blond ponytail, an ordinary plaid shirt, blue jeans, holding a guitar, sitting in front of the microphone and singing the song "White Horse" from the second album .

This is the style of country music, with a simple stage, simple and plain costumes, simple musical accompaniment, and the singer sings to everyone as if telling a story.

There were no seats under the stage. Everyone stood on the grass, looking up at the singer on the stage, and listened to her singing quietly.

At a glance, you can see that there are endless people within two kilometers of the surrounding area. Fortunately, the on-site sound equipment is very good. Even if you don’t buy a ticket, you can hear it clearly outside the park.

After Taylor finished singing a song, a burst of warm applause and cheers broke out from the audience. Judging from the movement, the number of people was no less than 40,000.

 The audience shouted, "Tyler, one more song." Taylor stood up, took a sip of his drink, and continued singing.

Her sweet and warm singing voice continues to play on the speakers. This voice can give people pleasure and gentle enjoyment. It is very contagious and can be called a "straight male killer" singer.

This is not the first time Link has come to see Taylor's concert. He has seen it seven or eight times in his past life.

Now as an audience, standing in the dense crowd, looking at the tall, energetic **** the stage, who is now his girlfriend, I feel very strange, a little proud, but also worried about gains and losses.

 “Wife! Wife! One more song!”

 Suddenly, several male fans nearby shouted.

Link's face turned dark. That's my wife, not yours. You dare to call Taylor's wife in front of me. This is too shameless.

 “Link, where are you?”

While watching the performance, he received a call from Mrs. Andrea. Link told the other party the location. Then Taylor's assistant Emily came over from the crowd and welcomed him to the singer's lounge area.

Link followed Emily to the simple awning next to the stage. There were many bands and members, singers and staff, and hundreds of people coming and going.

 Because he was wearing a baseball cap, no one recognized him. “Link, do you want to go up and lay flowers?”

Mrs. Andrea looked at the bouquet in his hand. It was a large bouquet of pink, red and purple irises. It looked particularly gorgeous, attracting everyone around to look over. Mrs. Andrea sighed to herself, "Straight man" 's romance'.

 “Taylor is singing, I will give it to her when she gets off the stage.”

There are a lot of irises in Tennessee in the spring and summer. On the way here, I saw them in many flower shops. They can buy ten for one dollar. He directly ordered a hundred. They didn't weigh much in his hand, but they were just stared at. A little flamboyant.

Taylor sang three songs on stage and waved off the stage amidst the cheers of fans. When he came to the awning, he saw Link holding a bouquet. Taylor was stunned for a moment and looked at him in surprise.

 “Why are you here?”

Taylor came over, looked at him and smiled.

“After watching the game in Louisville yesterday, I thought it was not far from you, so I came over to see your concert.”

 “Oh, I understand, I came by the way.”

Tyler raised his eyebrows, not satisfied with his answer.

“Of course not, the main reason is that I miss you so much and want to see you earlier.”

Link held her hips and smiled.

 “Hmph, you are right.”

Tyler kissed him.

 Other singers also recognized him after he took off his hat and came over to say hello one after another. Taylor also introduced Link to a group of country music singers.

Tim McGraw, the famous country music star in the 1990s, and his wife Faith Hill, whose representative work is the theme song "There You'll Be" from "Pearl Harbor";

 Alison Krauss, the leader of "bluegrass music", won 25 Grammy Awards from 1990 to 2009. She is a must-win nomination and is also the female singer who has won the most Grammy Awards;

Keith Urban, the second husband of Nicole Kidman, is also a very famous country music singer. He has sold tens of millions of records worldwide and won two Grammy Awards.

There are also Carrie Underwood, who won the Best Female Country Music Vocalist Award at the Grammys last year; South Carolina singer Josh Turner, Antebellum, 'White Teeth' Luke Bryan, etc. .

There are many talents in the country music circle, and Link is not a big name among them.

Everyone sat on the grass together, drank beer and talked about music. Whoever's turn it was to perform on the stage would sing with an instrument, and the others would be the audience in the audience.

 “Link, do you want to go up and sing?”

Tyler drank a little beer, his cheeks flushed, and he leaned on his shoulder and asked.

From her intimate gesture, Link could also feel that Taylor was very happy about his arrival, and he felt that he could have more surprises like this in the future.

 “Can I go up there without rehearsal?”

"Country music does not require rehearsal, and it doesn't matter if you sing wrong. The first half is performed by invited guests on stage one after another, and the next hour or so is given to newcomers to perform. This is also the most watched part of the music festival over the years. As long as you are brave enough , everyone can go up and sing their own story.”

Taylor explained.

Link thought for a moment and shook his head.

He had rarely listened to this kind of slow-paced music before. Except for classic old songs such as "500 Miles", "Country Road Take Me Home", "Eagle Song" and "Lemon Tree", he had never heard other country songs. Nothing to sing about.

 (End of this chapter)