WEDNESDAY, JULY 9th AND THURSDAY, JULY 10TH, 2025 – NASHVILLE TO SANDANE, NORWAY WITH “LOTS” OF ENTERTAINERS FOR THE NORSK COUNTRY TREFF:
THIS IS DEFINITELY THE FIRST TIME I HAVE NOT HAD EVEN ONE MINUTE TO WRITE A ROAD REPORT – MUCH LESS POST IT. SO GETTING EVERYTHING I CAN “REMEMBER” TOGETHER AND SENDING NOW!
Left today for Breim,Norway for the 30th Annual Norsk CountryTreff. I have 7 artists performing this year! Have headliners on Friday and Saturday nights on the main stage and 5 artists performing on side stages at the festival and throughout the town. I am traveling with James Carothers and Taylor Hunnicutt and meeting up with Easton Corbin, Raelynn, Erin Kinsey, Jesse Daniel, and Pixie and the Partygrass Boys.
After the nightmare situation with Delta a week ago and getting stuck in JFK on the flight to Zurich and the flight home from Zurich, I immediately started calling Delta to reroute me and James. They wanted $5,000 just to change my flight! Thankfully my travel agent pulled strings and got us routed through Atlanta. I just checked and if we had stayed in the JFK flight the same thing would have happened. The Nashville flight departed several hours late so we would have missed the connection into Amsterdam!!
James and I met at the Delta Skycap desk and got checked in. I ran in the lounge to continue my ongoing battle to get my seat changed on the long flight. Over a week ago Delta had an aircraft change. Of course they didn’t notify any of the passengers and I found out through a 3rd party app that is much better than the Delta app. I called immediately to change my seat and the answer was a firm “no”! Delta hauled out an old aircraft that has not had the interior reconfigured. Passengers who paid a fortune for first class were the ones who got screwed. The aircraft is a 2-2-2 configuration which I haven’t seen in decades. That means that everyone in a window seat has to crawl over the person in the aisle seat to get out because they are all lay flat seats. I was trying to get moved to one of the seats in the middle section because I plan to sleep the entire flight.
After asking at every Delta counter, every lounge and calling the Million Miler line, I was ready to give up. Then the desk agent in Atlanta called a “red coat” for me. He was so nice but again confirmed he could not move me. I told him in my flight from Nashville to Atlanta, the lady sitting by me was traveling with 3 other people. When they arrived at the airport, Delta had changed all their seats so no one was together. And they did thus after they had all checked in online the day before! Nothing they could do about it!
James and I were standing in line to board and the sweet red coat walked up smiling with a new boarding pass in his hand. I gave him Goo Goo candy and took a photo with him.
We boarded on time and I am in The bulkhead seat. None of the seats have any storage space in the actual seat because the plane is so obsolete. But I am not complaining! The worst part was the fact that the galley is literally right at my feet. It was almost impossible to sleep because of the constant chatter of the flight attendants and passengers using the restroom.
Also, we sat at the gate for over an hour waiting for bags to be loaded! No idea what the problem was. Since we had boarded an hour prior to departure, that meant it took 2 hours to load bags! Now our connection in Amsterdam is at risk.
Have I mentioned that flying anywhere these days really sucks??? One of the guys in Taylor’s band had a flight delayed so we got him a hotel room and he waited for the bus to pick up the group tomorrow. Also got word that Easton’s flight Nashville to JFK was deiayed (imagine that – JFK!!!) so they were rerouting through Copenhagen. They would arrive at 1 pm instead of 10 am.
We landed in Amsterdam and had longer than expected to make the flight. Passport line was long as expected. We still had about an hour to kill before we had to go to the gate. James and I went in the Delta lounge until time to board.
Once we boarded, I had hoped to sleep that hour and a half flight, but there were two men in front of me with aisle seats across from each other. They never quit talking loudly the whole flight.
We landed on time and I realized I had forgotten to check my Delta app to make sure my bags were on the plane. I checked two bags and checked one for James. The app was only showing that one bag was loaded on the plane. I was hoping the app was wrong, but it wasn’t. KLM says that the bags are in Amsterdam and being flown to Bergen and put on the next flight up to Sandane. KLM says we will have them tonight. I knew that was a lie. I have a tile in my bag and it was showing that it’s still in Atlanta!
Also got word that Easton’s rerouted flight was delayed again and he was now routing through Iceland and landing at 2:30 instead of 1:00 pm! Had to notify 3 different groups of the delay and coordinate with the bus driver.
Nice big bus for the trip to Sandane. But it took 5 hours including the ferry ride. By the time I got everyone checked into the hotel and rushed across the street to buy necessities because of my missing bag, it was time to go to the festival and see Erin Kinsey perform. All really nice people in her group and her crowd was huge. Actually the biggest crowd I have ever seen on Saloon stage. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was after midnight and 1:30 am before I got in bed with a 6 am wake up call.
Friday, July 11th – shows at Norsk CountryTreff:
These are probably going to be some of the shortest road reports in history. I’ve had absolutely no time to write anything as each day passed. I was in the lobby by 8 o’clock to start getting things ready to leave at the hotel since I’ll be at the venue most of the day.
Went over to sound check with Raelynn and her group at 9 o’clock. All super sweet people and easy to work with. She did a two hour sound check and then we drove by the waterfall that is so beautiful here. James Carothers was doing a rehearsal with his Norwegian band while I was over at Soundcheck with Raelynn. Took Raelynn’s group by the waterfall after her sound check and they were as amazed — as every group is!
I had sent a text to one of the guys that was staying at the Bergen airport hotel last night. I sent him a photo of our claim checks and the document that they gave us at the airport. My tile was saying that my bag was at the Bergen airport. I asked the musician to go over to the airport and insist that they turn the bags over to him. He did and the bags were sitting there, not ready to go out to anybody. Just as I expected. He was able to take both of them to his hotel room and keep them until the next day when Easton Corbin would be coming in.
Easton’s group had a lost bag and it was his amps and other musical equipment in it. I KNEW the festival could cover him…just not with Kemper Amps. But, he was flexible and we worked everything out.
Had a couple of hours at the hotel to find some lunch and more items I’m missing and need for the show tonight. But spent most of my time getting room keys pulled and leaving instructions for the group arriving from the Bergen Airport while I will be at the show tonight. Went back over to the festival site with James so he could do a one hour line check and then a one hour show. I had to leave halfway through his performance because Raelynn arrived and had to do a quick M&G backstage. Then ran back over to see the rest of James’s performance and rushed back over to the main stage for Raelynn’s performance. Both James and Raelynn had big crowds but a lot of the people were also sitting around the “sides” of the main area under cover where it was so much cooler.
Finally got back to the hotel at around midnight and had to get up at 6:00 to get ready for the BUSY day! Everyone is here now and we’re only missing the case of equipment. Iceland Airlines seemed to have no idea where it is!
SATURDAY, JULY 12TH – MORE SHOWS AT NORSK COUNTRY TREFF:
Seems like I only slept for a few minutes before the alarm went off. According to my fitness watch, I slept for 2 hours and 38 minutes.
Went downstairs for a very quick breakfast because I have no idea when I’ll have another meal. Weather is beautiful but with record high temperatures again. Did I mention the hotel is NOT air conditioned? I have a “fan” at least.
Went to the venue at 9:15 am with Easton and his group. What a nice young man he is!!! Sound check took 2 hours and then we made a quick trip to the waterfall – again a headlight for everyone. I had less than one hour back at the hotel before we had to go to the church for a concert. This is one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Several of the artists (Norwegian and US) sing two songs acoustically in a tiny, beautiful little church located on a lake at the base of majestic mountains. The artists loved performing there. I had a total of 5 performing.
After the church concert, one van took the artists who had not been to the waterfall by there and the other van took artists who had already seen it back to the hotel.
I went straight to the venue and Pixie and the Partygrass Boys were already doing their line check. Met all of them when they finished and really nice folks. They performed from 5-6 pm and the crowd really loved them. I rushed back to the Main stage to meet Easton Corbin who was enroute to have a M&G session backstage before performing. Before he took the stage, I presented the Festival with a special plaque which included a Certificate of Recognition for their 30 year anniversary and a special personal letter from Sarah Trahern the Executive Director of CMA. They were all so appreciative of the support and recognition. Easton Corbin performed from 8:30-10:00 pm and the only thing I would have done differently is waited even later for the sun to go down. Keep in mind that the sun only goes down for a few minutes, then it’s back up again. It gets “dusk” at around midnight but never gets totally dark. So many of the people watching his show were again sitting on the sidelines instead of standing in front of the stage and dancing because of the unbearable heat!
While Easton was performing, Jesse Daniel was doing his line check on the side stage. So, I was running back and forth between stages. Jesse had a huge crowd and he’s the only artist who sold merchandise. He had a long line for merch sales. While he was selling, Taylor Hunnicutt arrived and did her line check. She didn’t perform until 1 am until 2 am. By the time she finished, I was exhausted. But, she also had a huge crowd but one who had obviously been consuming alcohol most of the day. Thankfully, only beer and wine is sold at the festival – no whiskey/alcohol.
We got on the bus at 2:30 am and made it back to the hotel at 3:00 pm. I was in bed by 4:30 am and up again at 6 am.
SUNDAY, JULY 13th – SANDANE TO BERGEN:
I had to pack and have a meeting with Freddy and Vegar at 9 am to discuss 2026. We have already contracted 2 artists for the side stage and waiting on an answer from a potential headliner.
Everyone was loaded on the bus for the 5 hour drive to Bergen at 10 am. The bus driver kept insisting we “buckle up” and now I know why…..he took the curves so fast, we would have been thrown out of our seats! I tried to work but got so nauseous, I had to give up.
We made it to the hotel and I had called ahead to have our room keys pulled for us. We dropped bags and headed into Bergen on the Light Rail – which actually took about 30 minutes or more because of the number of stops enroute. James and I walked around the fish market and the tourist area and ended up eating at the Fish Market. He bought some Cloudberry Jam (YUM) and sausage. We headed back to the hotel at around 8 pm because we had to be back to order dinner before 9:30 pm. I had tried to find Marzipan chocolate but all the “good” stores were closed because it was Sunday.
Having a room with air conditioning was pure heaven! I was in bed by 12:30 am – a record for me this weekend. Dreading the flight delays that are sure to come tomorrow.
MONDAY, JULY 14TH – BERGEN TO NASHVILLE – EVENTUALLY!!
James and I met in the lobby at 8:15 am to walk over to the airport. We were already getting text messages about flight delays. We grabbed some last minute “food” gifts (I found the Marzipan Chocolate) and sat at the gate because the flight was delayed out of Bergen. We had over two hours for our layover in Amsterdam so figured we would still be okay. Then we started getting “delayed” messages about the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. Again, we had over a 3 hour connection time in Minneapolis so wasn’t worried at that time.
We went into the Lounge in Amsterdam and our flight kept getting “delayed” messages. At one point, we realized there was NO WAY we could make our Minneapolis connection and of course, that was the last flight out to Nashville. My travel agent protected us on the first flight out tomorrow. As we were sitting at the gate, the pilot came out and said we would know what was going to happen at 6:15 pm because the flight crew was running out of time to fly. I had already predicted that! A man sitting across from us told us that at least we would get compensation in the amount of anywhere between 300 and 600 Euros. Evidently, Europe has a rule that states if a flight is delayed for 3 hours or more and it is the airline’s fault (not weather or runway closures), then the airline has to compensate every passenger based on the distance being flown. I immediately googled and it’s true!
We were able to board and finally took off at 7:00 pm – rather than 3:10 pm. There was quite a bit of turbulence throughout the flight and I was convinced we would miss our connecting flight from Minneapolis to Nashville. We were not landing until 8:28 pm and the flight was due to take off at 8:25 pm. As we got closer to landing, I started getting messages that the flight was going to be delayed by about 1 hour.
James did not have Global Entry so I ran through Immigration and grabbed the bags off the belt. I sent him a text and told him I had the bags and he replied that he was next in line. Only he thought I meant I had already gone through Customs into the arrival hall with the bags. He ran right past me and I was stuck with 3 huge rolling bags and a duffle bag to try to maneuver through Customs. LOL. We dropped our bags, rushed through Security (no TSA pre-check in this area!!!) and started running for the gate. There was an employee with a cart nearby so I waved two $20 bills and he zipped us to the plane. They were already boarding but thankfully had not closed the door.
We made it home after midnight (an hour and a half late) and our bags made it, too.
It was a fantastic festival with amazing entertainers! The staff at this festival are so special to me. Honored to have been a part of this event since 1998!
I’m just not looking forward to flying again in less than 2 weeks.
