This is North Carolina.

Let me preface this by saying that this may sound ridiculously cliche, but I don’t really care.

Tonight I went to the Old Crow Medicine Show concert at Koka Booth Amphitheater, in Cary, NC. It was a unique tour in that each of the bands played their sets, but members of the other bands would periodically come out for a little jam session. At some points there were 10+ people on stage playing all my favorite instruments — fiddle, steel guitar, harmonica, banjo, guitar, upright bass, etc. It was fabulous. We were in the lawn seats, not in the pit, and were the ONLY ones standing. This made me mad, but I didn’t really care about the people around me. How could you NOT stand and dance to Old Crow and the Felice Brothers and David Rawlings?

I was with some of my favorite people. I took a bite of a delicious NC bbq sandwich with some sweet potato fries and some sweet tea.

I started becoming semi nostalgic about leaving NC in less than a month. So, when the entire crew of musicians started playing Wagon Wheel, I was epically connected. It was a STEAMING hot NC summer night — though it was 10pm it was still 100% humidity and 90 degrees. This should have bothered me, but I embraced it. The words, “if I die in Raleigh, at least I will die free” were that much more poignant in the heat. I felt connected to the band, connected to the sounds, and connected to my state. I love Old Crow, I love North Carolina. I will miss you NC. I will miss you Raleigh!