This doesn’t look like the country is in a recession. In spite of what you hear on the news, America doesn’t appear to be in a recession. Hotels were booked solid throughout the region. To list the acts would be impossible. It was a “Country Music Who’s Who”. The weather cooperated nicely. The pre-sale for next year’s bash are up 4.5%. It doesn’t appear that changing the name of the festival has hurt it in any way. Fan Fair was good and a lot of folks feared changing the name would hurt it. Not so.

The smashing news that came out of the Festival is word that Jessica Simpson is “going country”. Doesn’t this exciting news thrill you to your toes? It amazes me that every pop artist wants to go country and every hillbilly wants to be a pop star. It has been that way for years and there’s no changing it now!

We were fortunate enough to skip out to Las Vegas for a couple of days. I was there in celebration of my birthday. Las Vegas has changed greatly since my last visit there years ago. Thousands of people flood the streets day and night. To me, it doesn’t appear we’re in a recession. Obviously, between seeing the crowds at the CMA Festival and the normal Las Vegas crowds, there appears to be plenty of money around. Major league baseball is setting new records in attendance this year so far, as well.