I’m sure I will get some of the details wrong, but it was 30 years ago (can that really be?) that I met my dear Spanish teacher and friend Kelly.  And it was 27 years ago that she introduced me to the music of Amy Grant and her hyper opening act ~ Michael W. Smith.  (And yes, I think that is an actual brochure I picked up THAT night, pulled out of an old scrapbook of mine today.) She loaded up about 6 or 8 of us, and drove us from San Antonio to Austin, TX to Palmer Auditorium to see Amy’s “Straight Ahead” concert.  (Anybody remember the stoplight on the cassette cover?  “Angels Watchin’ Over Me” ?)  I had never heard their music, (or even knew there was such a thing as Christian music) but I still enjoyed the concert.  Seems like we were in the very last row, and I was mad at the guys who came along with us who kept their Walkmans (Walk”men” ?) going and headphones on.  (We didn’t have “earbuds” then, did we?) How rude! ; )

I don’t remember thinking about the concert much after that, but occasionally a part of a song about “Jehovah, I love you so” would pop into my head.  A few months later, I was visiting my hometown, Uvalde, TX, and was hanging out at a friend’s house.  We were listening to music, and I was browsing through her records and tapes.  When I came across the “stoplight” album cover, I asked my friend Shannan if she liked Amy Grant.  I told her I had been to see that concert fairly recently.  She said that she didn’t like her, that an older friend had given her the cassette tape, and that I was welcome to have it.  Well, I happily took it, discovered that the Jehovah song was indeed from that album, and proceeded to practically wear the thing out listening to it over and over again!  I was hooked, and I think it was also at this time that I became a confirmed religious geek by my MTV watching siblings. And I’m positive I was obnoxious about it at times, but they’ve forgiven me, and they eventually became Michael and Amy fans themselves.  In fact, I think Melissa now follows Michael on Twitter.  “Did you know he was having back problems?” she asked recently.  Ha!

 As you can see from the memorabilia, I don’t think I missed a Michael or Amy concert for the next several years. Is the above concert with Kathy Troccoli the one where we got a drumstick from the band, and then tried to follow Michael to his hotel?  (Help me out here, KKW!) We even branched out to Twila Paris, Petra, and Stephen Curtis Chapman eventually.  The music helped me understand the faith that I had already chosen, but didn’t have a lot of teaching on or role models in.  I couldn’t get enough.  When they played “Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them….” on the final night of cheerleading camp at SMU the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I called “Miss Riggs” from a payphone in my dorm to tell her, “THEY EVEN PLAYED A MICHAEL W. SMITH SONG HERE!”

 The above photo is from an Amy Grant & Phillip Bailey Concert at Southpark Meadows in Austin, TX.  (I must have been a freshman or sophomore here?!?  Melissa’s to the right of me, so she obviously wasn’t THAT opposed to the stuff!)  It rained, but somehow the concert went on.  It did make me sad today to see that I had written “Amy & Gary’s Anniversary”  as one of the captions. It was their wedding anniversary that day, and they performed together, but as you may already know, they didn’t have too many more anniversaries.  (Gary is the one in the turquoise shorts and yellow shirt whose head I cut off as I took this photo of my scrapbook album.)

Did the guys wear headphones at this concert nearly 3 years later?  I think they had them on hand, but opted for the music being performed live, and even possibly enjoyed themselves.  They played it cool, of course.

So then I married a youth minister and the concerts became all Audio Adrenaline, News Boys, and Point of Grace. I had to sit in the lobby of an Audio Adrenaline concert while pregnant with Kory.  He was bouncing all over my insides with the volume level, while our youth were banging their heads right next to the stage speakers! Robert and I also fell in love with the music of Wes King as well as Geoff Moore and the Distance.  My friend Sherri and I even cooked brisket and banana pudding for Geoff and band when we hosted them for a concert at our church.  They were kind enough to rave about our “home cooked meal.”

And how could I forget one of my all time favorite Christian groups ~ Acapella.   Not only are they absolutely incredible, but my friend and fellow journalist from high school, Wes, is their bass singer.  I still can’t bear to part with my old Acapella cassettes!

Why this trip down Christian concert memory lane?  Because TODAY it sort of comes full circle for me in that I’m picking up my friend Christie and heading to Boston to see none other than Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in concert together!  (Christie saw Bon Jovi there on Tuesday night, so this will be quite the extreme…) And I’m wondering if I am among the privileged few who saw them in that first “Straight Ahead” tour together AND in this “2 Friends” tour.

For that I have a dear friend and Spanish teacher to thank.

Friends are friends forever is the Lord’s the Lord of them.  And a friend will not say never, ’cause the welcome will not end….

A lifetime’s not too long to live as friends.