I recently drove all the way to Cleveland to see Ryan Adams play. I have been listening to his music for about 2 1/2 years and I was thrilled to see that he is touring again, so when I saw that Cleveland might be the closest place for me to see him (I didn’t see the Toronto date before it sold out), I decided to bite the bullet and make the drive. Thankfully the weather was perfect for the long drive, and the concert was wonderful. Just Ryan Adams, 2 guitars, 3 harmonicas, and a piano.

For pictures, all I had with me was my phone (Droid Incredible) and the venue was VERY strict about no photography during the performance (they had ushers stationed everywhere!) so I didn’t even attempt any pictures while he was on stage, but here are a few pictures to show where I was sitting (3rd row center, picture taken after concert ended and they were packing up), his guitars, and the exterior of the venue (Playhouse Square Ohio Theatre).

I wish I had taken a pen & paper to write down the setlist, but I did not. Thankfully a friend of mine pointed out that there are others in the world who come prepared, so a quick search of ryanadamsarchive.com yielded the following:

Oh my Sweet Carolina
Ashes and fire
Damn sam
Dirty rain
My winding wheel
Sweet lil gal (piano)
Invisible riverside
Everybody knows
Firecracker
Let it ride
Sylvia plath (piano)
English girls
Lucky now
Wonderwall
Improv: Mr. Cat
New york (piano)
Crossed out name
Please do not let me go
Rescue blues (piano)
Chains of love
16 days
Improv: Danzig
—
Come pick me up

“What does this have to do with photography?” you ask. I am writing all of this to say that I am 100% dead serious that I will offer $50 off the balance due to any 2012 wedding couple (already contracted or yet to book) who commits to using Ryan Adams’ “I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say” as the first dance song.

Live Version: Ryan Adams \"I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say\"
Alternate Live Version: Ryan Adams \"I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say\"

It has to be the first dance song, not just played sometime during the reception. If anyone is interested in taking me up on this offer, just email me. I reserve the right to limit if I somehow get a slew of interest, but I know first dance is a very personal decision so I am not expecting to be overwhelmed with emails. Seriously though, I’m serious.

My little pansies are still hanging on. I took this photo on Tuesday. I was going to save it for a Wendy Wednesday sometime during the winter, but I decided I wanted to share their beauty after seeing snowflakes in the air this morning!

This year is the first year we’ve bought a pumpkin to carve. We got one on our way home from Becker Farms, and Nathan and I did a Google image search to find a face that he wanted to put on the pumpkin (one simple enough for daddy to do easily!). We printed one out, and Joe carved it up!

We took it down into the basement (the darkest place in the house) to light it up and make sure it looked just right. Shot at ISO 4000. Hello, noiseware!

Even though it was sprinkling a little bit, we went outside after dark and lit the candle to show off our jack-o-lantern to all the cars passing by. These pictures are with our family point & shoot (Canon Elph Powershot SD800 IS) – the last picture is how it looks from the road.