Post by beckyvee on Dec 8, 2012 21:17:45 GMT -4
Jason Castro gives the BEST hugs... 
This is the play by play of my night at the Lufkin, TX concert for Toys for Tots headlining Jason (actually he was the only act)
I found out about this on twitter from a young girl who tweeted that Jason was going to be in her home town on her birthday. I immediately checked her profile and found out that her home town was Lufkin which is about 70 miles from Tyler but only about 30 miles from where I work in Rusk, TX. I decide, hey, what the heck. I'll turn left onto the hiway after work instead of right and go see Jason.
So, I leave work and drive the 40 minutes to Lufkin and find the venue (a church just on the outskirts of town) pretty easily. I pull into the parking lot to scout it out. Jason's not there yet. (I got here around 3) I go in and start talking to one of the radio station djs who's pretty much coordinating the whole thing. We're talking about Jason and she tells me that Jason had pretty much decided not to do any shows in December but when he found out about Toys for Tots in Lufkin, he basically volunteered to come do an acoustic concert. I was telling her that I was hoping he brought his ukulele because I wanted him to play White Christmas. She said he was definitely bringing the uke. She also said that originally Mandy and Maddie and Mandy's parents were going to come too, but Mandy was just too worn out from all the traveling. I kinda figured that would be the case. Well, I told her I was going to go in search of food and would be back when the doors were scheduled to be opened.
I got back around 4:30 but the doors weren't opening until 5:30 so I just sat in the car, played WWF, kept my phone plugged up so it wouldn't give out on me, checked FB and twitter. One person came up to the front door and sat down and waited. At about 5:15 I got out and went up where a few others were loitering around waiting. Everyone had toys to put in the boxes inside. Well, anyway, after a short delay, they opened the doors. By this time quite a line had formed outside the church at both entrances. I made it to the first row, along with a family with the cutest little eight year old boy who was SO EXCITED to be seeing Jason. He kept talking about how he was his favorite singer and he just couldn't wait to meet him. He kept chanting JA-SON CAS-TRO. I told him I was going to tell Jason he was his biggest fan.
So okay, we are waiting for the show to start and I decide I better make a little trip to the ladies room before it starts. When I come out I see the dj and she tells another of the radio peeps that I'm Jason's biggest fan. Then she asks me what my name is and I tell her Becky. She says, "Oh okay. Well, I told Jason about one of his fans requesting White Christmas, and he said it was probably you or someone named Winnie." (Are we that notorious?)
The show was MARVELOUS!! Jason did about 8 or 9 songs including Gloria and I got about 4 of them on video, including White Christmas in which Jason butchers the lyrics (kinda does an OTR with them ) But at least he butchered them with consistency. You can hear me laughing during the vid. When he finished, I called up to him "Thank you, Jason" and he looked out and said "You're welcome, Becky" Made me feel so special.
So, okay. The purpose of this concert, of course, was to collect at many toys as possible. The Marine Corps sponsors this and they were on hand. The guy in charge introduced the show and talked about how there were almost twice as many children's names submitted this year compared to last year, and they were having several other events also to raise the toys they needed. (I think the number of children was something like 2400) After Jason sang Hallelujah, he came back out on stage with a troop of Marine retirees who worked the show, and he said "It's hard to make a Marine cry" (his voice was cracking) "but I want you to know that there are a not quite a thousand people here, but we have collected over 1000 toys tonight." This was almost 2 1/2 times what they got last year at the same type of event. Later in the lobby I heard him talking to the radio people about getting Jason and the full band next year. I'm fine with that... Lufkin is just up the road... I'll be there.
Any way, I stayed til the last person got their pic/autograph and then I went and got my aforementioned HUG and a pic. I also asked Jason if he was doing any other December shows (NO) and if he was going to have another CD release concert in Jan (he said it's not planned) I think he's going to be pretty busy with WinterJam and promos for the CD...
One last thought... Jason may not have won Season 7, but he is the real winner from that season, hands down, no argument. We picked the best!!
This is the play by play of my night at the Lufkin, TX concert for Toys for Tots headlining Jason (actually he was the only act)
I found out about this on twitter from a young girl who tweeted that Jason was going to be in her home town on her birthday. I immediately checked her profile and found out that her home town was Lufkin which is about 70 miles from Tyler but only about 30 miles from where I work in Rusk, TX. I decide, hey, what the heck. I'll turn left onto the hiway after work instead of right and go see Jason.
So, I leave work and drive the 40 minutes to Lufkin and find the venue (a church just on the outskirts of town) pretty easily. I pull into the parking lot to scout it out. Jason's not there yet. (I got here around 3) I go in and start talking to one of the radio station djs who's pretty much coordinating the whole thing. We're talking about Jason and she tells me that Jason had pretty much decided not to do any shows in December but when he found out about Toys for Tots in Lufkin, he basically volunteered to come do an acoustic concert. I was telling her that I was hoping he brought his ukulele because I wanted him to play White Christmas. She said he was definitely bringing the uke. She also said that originally Mandy and Maddie and Mandy's parents were going to come too, but Mandy was just too worn out from all the traveling. I kinda figured that would be the case. Well, I told her I was going to go in search of food and would be back when the doors were scheduled to be opened.
I got back around 4:30 but the doors weren't opening until 5:30 so I just sat in the car, played WWF, kept my phone plugged up so it wouldn't give out on me, checked FB and twitter. One person came up to the front door and sat down and waited. At about 5:15 I got out and went up where a few others were loitering around waiting. Everyone had toys to put in the boxes inside. Well, anyway, after a short delay, they opened the doors. By this time quite a line had formed outside the church at both entrances. I made it to the first row, along with a family with the cutest little eight year old boy who was SO EXCITED to be seeing Jason. He kept talking about how he was his favorite singer and he just couldn't wait to meet him. He kept chanting JA-SON CAS-TRO. I told him I was going to tell Jason he was his biggest fan.
So okay, we are waiting for the show to start and I decide I better make a little trip to the ladies room before it starts. When I come out I see the dj and she tells another of the radio peeps that I'm Jason's biggest fan. Then she asks me what my name is and I tell her Becky. She says, "Oh okay. Well, I told Jason about one of his fans requesting White Christmas, and he said it was probably you or someone named Winnie." (Are we that notorious?)
The show was MARVELOUS!! Jason did about 8 or 9 songs including Gloria and I got about 4 of them on video, including White Christmas in which Jason butchers the lyrics (kinda does an OTR with them
) But at least he butchered them with consistency. You can hear me laughing during the vid. When he finished, I called up to him "Thank you, Jason" and he looked out and said "You're welcome, Becky" Made me feel so special.So, okay. The purpose of this concert, of course, was to collect at many toys as possible. The Marine Corps sponsors this and they were on hand. The guy in charge introduced the show and talked about how there were almost twice as many children's names submitted this year compared to last year, and they were having several other events also to raise the toys they needed. (I think the number of children was something like 2400) After Jason sang Hallelujah, he came back out on stage with a troop of Marine retirees who worked the show, and he said "It's hard to make a Marine cry" (his voice was cracking) "but I want you to know that there are a not quite a thousand people here, but we have collected over 1000 toys tonight." This was almost 2 1/2 times what they got last year at the same type of event. Later in the lobby I heard him talking to the radio people about getting Jason and the full band next year. I'm fine with that... Lufkin is just up the road... I'll be there.
Any way, I stayed til the last person got their pic/autograph and then I went and got my aforementioned HUG and a pic. I also asked Jason if he was doing any other December shows (NO) and if he was going to have another CD release concert in Jan (he said it's not planned) I think he's going to be pretty busy with WinterJam and promos for the CD...
One last thought... Jason may not have won Season 7, but he is the real winner from that season, hands down, no argument. We picked the best!!
