By Haley Lamb
“I gotta leave this country. I think I’m going crazy. The outlook’s gettin’ fuzzy. Thing’s are gettin’ hazy. I tried to cross the borders, tried to jump the fences. I never made it further than the smelly parts of Kansas.”
Ah, bluegrass. Even better, ah Big Smith. This is a snippet of lyrics from the song “Backwater” off the album Big Rock on Mayapple Records. And it is very important to this story. Why you ask? Because it’s what Big Smith opened with on February 9th, the night I got engaged.
Big Smith hails from Springfield, Missouri, about four hours south of Saint Joseph. Formed in 1996, they have several albums out, including a two-disk children’s CD called From Hay to ZZZZ Songs for Hillbilly Kids. (Go ahead, ask my son to sing Cheese Enchilada to you, he will.)
I myself currently own and actively listen to four of the albums they have out now. My favorite so far has to be Big Rock which just happens to be the album they got the majority of their play list from the night I saw them live.
The place was Knuckleheads Saloon in K.C. Forgive me if the details get a bit fuzzy from time to time. There was a lot of excitement that night.
It was an open jam session before any of the show started. People were getting up, grabbing an instrument and playing with the house band. I remember seeing a younger kid, maybe 12 years old up on stage playing the bongo drums. I thought to myself, “How do they pay this kid? In French Fries?”
Then, around 9:30 or so I had to get up to use the restroom. When I came out to wash my hands there was a very large gentleman by the name of Rik, wearing Big Smith overalls standing in front of the sink.
I said “You’re from Big Smith aren’t you?”
He smiled a proud smile and in a little voice said “Yes, I am.”
Then I asked him if they were going to play “Let’s Me In.” (It’s a beautiful song and by far one of my favorites.) “I’m sorry, that’s not on our play list for tonight. But I’ll see what I can do.” I sat down and griped, still excited though being there to see Big Smith.
All the while, my boyfriend, Nathan had in his head that when they played “Let’s Me In” he was going to ask me to marry him. I can only imagine the thought in his head at the time, “Oh no, what am I going to do. Now I’m going to have to do the cheesy standard proposal, dinner, flowers…Haley hates that. Oh no. Oh no.”
I say “Baby, you should go up there and request that song, because maybe, just maybe if they have more than one request for it, they will play it.” Nathan thinks this is a good idea, but looking back on it now, I realize that’s because it’s a good excuse to get him to talk to the band. Not because his girlfriend is brilliant. He walks up and talks to the singer, Mark.
He said, “Hey man, my girlfriend just came up and asked if you guys were going to play a song.”
Mark replied, “Uh-huh.”
Nathan continued, “Well, could you please play it? You see, I’m planning on asking her to marry me during that song.”
Mark looked up at Nathan with a huge smile, “Well then, heck yes we’ll play it!” Nathan came back over to our table and tells me that they are going to play the song. I was so excited, I still had no idea.
The show started, it was so amazing. So energetic, you couldn’t help but get up and dance. And that’s exactly what I did; I kicked off my shoes and started dancing! I wound up cutting my toe on a beer bottle; still, I did not care. It was blood and bluegrass. It was perfection. I looked back only to see Nathan sitting at the table not moving. I went back to him and asked him to get up and dance with me. He said that his stomach was hurting, then I could not understand why, but now I can. He was nervous. I was talking to Mike, Nathan’s best friend, when I heard the opening chords to the song. The floor had cleared; I was the only one standing up front. A few verses into the song the crowd gathered again, but I was right there up front singing and swaying. I remember turning around because I wanted to dance with Nathan. He was gone. The person I wound up dancing with was some random very intoxicated woman who grabbed me, would not leave me alone and kept trying to kiss me.
During my ordeal Nathan was having one of his own. He was in the restroom when he said he heard the opening chords to the song too. He thought to himself that he and his stomach woes were going to screw this one up. But Gabby, Mike’s girlfriend, had other plans; she ran through the crowd, burst open the bathroom door, grabbed Nathan and brought him to me. I was being accosted by this woman, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I heard something but was unsure what, when I turned around, there was Nathan and he said in my ear,
“Will you marry me?”
I can’t remember exactly what I did; I was in utter shock. I started nodding my head up and down and saying “Yes!” out loud.
Mark yelled to the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen we just had a marriage proposal in the audience!”
The crowd jumped up and roared.
I have gotten a message from Big Smith on my Myspace saying that night was special to them too because no one has ever gotten engaged at one of their shows before, they thanked us for letting them be a part of it. I would like to take the time to thank them for giving me something to remember for a lifetime.
Since that time Nathan and I have reveled in telling this story. You see, Nathan had asked me to marry him at least 3 times before, and I always said no. Not because I don’t love him but because I wanted it to be special: not while I’m in the middle of cleaning muck off of my son’s face, or standing in the kitchen in sweatpants cooking dinner. I wanted it to be something I will, no WE will, always remember. And now, it is.