The Cook Family: Live at The Shell...

So we practically lived at the Shell for the past 6 weeks or so. The Levitt Shell is an outdoor ampitheater in the middle of Overton Park in Midtown, very close to our home, and it is a great place to see live music. When I first moved to Memphis 8 years ago, we used to go to the Shell all the time to concerts, and it was so much fun. Sometime in the past couple of years the city decided that the Shell was in too poor condition to continue having shows there, so they shut it down and made all of us live music junkies very sad. Well, a grassroots effort got underway, and with a grant from the Levitt foundation, the Shell is now The Levitt Shell, and is bigger and better than ever! They refurbished the ampitheater, bathrooms, lighting, sound, took out the bench seating and made a beautiful rolling lawn, and added big screens on both sides of the stage. It is so nice! The best part is the foundation's commitment to put on 50 free shows a year! The Shell now has 25 shows (5 shows a week for 5 weeks) in the Spring/Summer season, and 25 shows in the Fall. The shows start at 7:00 p.m. and last until around 9:00 or 9:30. They have kids shows on Saturday afternoons, with music lessons for kids and lots of other fun stuff :) Everyone throws a blanket down, and you can bring your own cooler and picnic- there is no better way to spend a FREE night with your family! We just finished the Spring/Summer season, and we're anxiously waiting for the Fall season to be announced.

Surely Stella Grace is going to be a music fan- I don't know how she could get around it living in our home! She has seen more concerts in her 4 months (plus all the ones she heard while she was growing in her mama for 9 months!) than most people have seen in the past couple of years! Now we're not irresponsible about it folks- we sit in the back far away from the speakers, and we're on the hunt for some baby sound reducing headphones. She absolutely loves seeing concerts in the park- she is mesmerized by the lights flashing from the stage, loves dancing with her mama and daddy, and not to mention that she loves nothing better than being outside under the trees. Stella's very first live concert was at 2 months at the Shell- we saw The Brown Sisters- a gospel group of 5 sisters and large band- they were a ton of fun and definitely had the crowd jumping and feeling the spirit! We also saw Big Sam's Funky Nation (one of our favorite New Orleans bands), Todd Snider, Juke Joint Duo (Lightin' Malcom and Cedric Burnside), and Freeworld. We can't wait for September to get here so we can go see more live music at The Shell!