LETTER TO MY MOM ABOUT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Festival: Second Stage, Day Two!!!

Ok, I’ve told my mom I was going to copy exactly what I wrote to her about yesterday’s show so here’s the scoop!
Thanks to everyone who I’ve forgotten to mention…what a beautiful day, what amazing people..I hope you got to be there!!!
Love,
Sara

LETTER TO MY MOM ABOUT ACL FESTIVAL’S SHOW YESTERDAY ON THE AUSTIN VENTURES STAGE:

Mommy!

It was so exciting! I was going to wear a hat, and then I didn’t wear a hat and just let my hair blow around
and it felt so GOOD! Everyone in the band was so NICE to work with, so PROFESSIONAL, and we only had TWO REHEARSALS and they aced
everything!! The horn players were so so so talented and great, and having them on stage just made it so bouncy! And David Grissom,
the guitarist, who is a LEGEND, well, not only is he GREAT as a player, but very generous and fun on stage to play off of…Kristin and
Lorrie looked laid back and Austin-y in their cute tops; they sang their pa-tooties off! Eddy played keys and he had all the string parts down,
wow…he looked cool in these black shades, too!

I took tee shirts and Kristin came over early yesterday and helped tie ribbons on them so we threw them from the stage during the show…
I also took beach balls which my dear, dear friend Nina helped me blow up (it was her BIRTHDAY and she still wouldn’t let me blow
them up! and we wrote THANK YOU and SARA HICKMAN’S LOVE FEST all over them in black markers)…We threw those from the
stage too…they were bouncing high up in the audience during the show! One even came right at me during a song, and I just kept strumming, jumped from the mic, kicked it back out in the audience, back on the mic! Woo-hoo!

Thankfully, the stage covered all 10 of us from the blazing sun, but the poor audience was out in it, sweating away…they didn’t care!
They were grooving and listening and laughing and singing along…Not sure how many people, maybe 1200 or so, but it was shifting
among the 70,00 + people so couldn’t really tell, but it was A LOT! I brought the video cam Milo gave us on stage and had the
entire crowd say “AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL!” and when I asked, “Who rocks?” they yelled back, “WE DO!” so I have that all on
tape and it is hilarious and breathtaking to see it all from my vantage point on the stage.

…and Ado did a SUPERB job running sound and he came to all the rehearsals (Super Pal Universe AND adult
rehearsals…he just gave and gave and gave of himself!) and the girls got to sit on stage with Nina on the bleachers
under a canopy while Lance was out by Ado videotaping and I saw Jon Sullivan, Paul and Joan Hudson, Liz and
Duff Stuart (and their son, Adam) and Ingrid and Veronica and her mom and I had told the head of security that
Winker was my husband and to let him in so he could shoot photos and the head of security said, “Hey, I thought
I was your husband!” and I said, “Oh, of course, you’re my CURRENT husband!” and he laughed and let Winker in
with the papparazzi of six other photographers with these GIANT lenses aimed at me so, silly me!, I just had fun and
made faces and raced up to the edge of the stage playing my guitar and acting all rock-n-roll in my beautiful
crocheted (spelling?) dress I got from TJ MAXX (originally $189, boughtit for $39!!!) and my blue clunky heels with glass
crystal on top and the beautiful blue flower necklace Teresa lovingly gave me and my smile as big as Texas!!!

Paul Pearcy’s drums were crystaline, sparkly blue, too, and he just jammed away, with Glenn Fukunaga on bass
smiling bigger than ME! And, afterwards, Mark Murray was back stage telling me it was the BEST PERFORMANCE
he’d ever seen me give and the audience was SUPER, just loved eveyone so much! We were all sweaty and Pat,
the monitor man, had a cross around his neck and I asked him (before the show), “What church do you go to?”
and he said, “I go to Something-something Baptist!” (can’t remember the name right now) and I said, “Oh, I go to
First United Methodist!” and he grinned and said, “We’re all on the same team!” and I hugged him and I just felt so
much love from everyone’s prayers and I felt WORRY FREE! I just went for it, and if I
didn’t hit a note just right while I was singing, I had decided before hand I would just let it go in my mind right away…I had
decided I was going to be ALIVE and HAPPY and GRATEFUL to be on that stage! I even called Charlie Jones mother yesterday
(he is one of the founder’s of ACL Fest) to tell her THANK YOU for having such a great son and how excited and honored I was to
play on the bill….

So, there you have it. I couldn’t stop hugging everyone yesterday! Three of the Super Pal’s were in the front of the stage, and it
was fun to sing to them during the show….and Mollie and her very nice boyfriend, Pat, came and helped carry guitars and it was one
heck of a great time, one of the best festival experiences for me, ever. (I”ve had so many great Kerrville ones, but it is tremedous to
have this one for my memory bank…) Oh! And Jeff and Sam Carr were back stage, too….where was Kathy…? smile

I love you, you are a great mom, and I am blessed to call you mom and thanks for always supporting me in my dream, through
thick and thin. I would not be the woman I am today without your love and guidance and for all your help when I needed you.

XOX
Sara

One Comment “LETTER TO MY MOM ABOUT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Festival: Second Stage, Day Two!!!”

  • Shawna

    says:

    I am so jealous! Wish I could have been there! I have butterflies in my stomach just picturing how much fun you had. Congratulations—it sounds like you had a great time and picked up some new fans!

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