I am upset & sad about the exodus of so many core members of the NATION and I hope that all of my Brothers & Sisters will make a posting here to voice your support for SKYNYRD but to also voice your fustrations about how the Fan Club is being run.
(I know that most of you have done this in other threads, but this will hopefully be a place to tie it all together.)

Things that I want addressed:
--membership renewal process
--ability to post pictures/videos
--purchasing of concert tickets
--perks at concerts for being a preimum fan club member

It was a GREAT night at the Gwinnett Center in Atlanta, GA!! I was very moved by the whole experience, and I encourage everyone to try and attend a Freedom concert. It was a celebration of America & very patriotic. I don't know when I have been to a concert and was so emotional--I cried several times. YES, I cried!! I just don't see how you couldn't be moved by the stories of fallen soldiers, disabled soldiers, and their children.
Here are my memories from the night:
*Charlie Daniels preformed first. He put on quite a show. Hannity came out right before "Devil Went Down To GA" and he stayed on stage with the band. Hannity sang, played drums & the fiddle. Now that was "host participation"!!
*Next, Bill Bennett spoke.
*Michael W. Smith preformed after that. I was curious how his preformance would go over with a crowd there to also see CDB & Skynyrd......it was different, but wonderful! He told about his friendship with George W. Bush (Bush calls him "the other W") and about how Bush asked him to write a song about 9/11. Michael said that about 6 months after that conversation, he was out on his farm in TN and he looked up and saw his large American flag that he has on his property. Then, he began to write "There She Stands". It was a very moving song!! He also had the crowd stand & sing "America the Beautiful" with him. This is one of the moments that I cried. To top it all off, Hannity came out and asked him to preform "Amazing Grace". Can you imagine a crowd that large singing "Amazing Grace"? Another tearful moment & a moment to be proud to be an American.
*Hannity then showed 4 videos that were entered into a patriotic contest that he sponsored. The winning video was done by a 22 year old. Pretty amazing. Check it out:
http://www.hannity.com/pages/great-american-video-contest-winner
*Oliver North spoke next. He told about the Freedom Alliance & the money raised for college tuition for children of 100% disabled veterans or for the children of fallen soldiers. Two of these recipients were brought onto stage.

**Now it was Skynyrd's turn.................
Great videos to go along with the music. (Some I had seen at other concerts and also some new ones.)
Set List:
Skynyrd Nation
What's Your Name
Saturday Night Special
Down South Junkin
That Smell
Simple Man
Give Me Back My Bullets
Tuesday's Gone
That Ain't My America
Gimmie 3 Steps
Call Me The Breeze
Sweet Home AL (Hannity was on stage with them.)
and of course.........FREEBIRD
It was somewhat of a different experience. The crowd was more subdued--and this was because it was a different mix of people. I did find it funny to see the "elderly, Lawerence Welk" crowd leaving during Skynyrd's performance. To me, a true Skynyrd fan, it was almost disrespectful. But, I guess I can't be too hard on them. It was probably just too overwhelming--they had gotten all quite and calm with Michael W. Smith....and then "Skynyrd's in the house". HA!!

If you missed Skynyrd on this TV show, you need to try and find it online or a rerun on TV. I had to miss the end of the show but what I did see........All band members played several songs, and Johnny, Rickey & Gary were interviewed.
I loved their "shout-out" to the Nation!!

For all the members of Skynyrd Nation who will be on the cruise.............
we need to make plans for our own special "Meet & Greet". It would be great to put a face with each "site name", to shake a hand or to give a big 'ol Skynyrd hug to many of our FRYNDS from the message board. Now the ultimate experience on the cruise would be to have a time & place set aside for our special meet & greet AND to have Skynyrd drop by........a girl can dream, can't she??
I know that wont happen, but I do think that I am going to contact Sixthman to see about having a meet & greet time for the Nation--just as they do for the ones who post on the Sixthman board.

Maybe this can be an opportunity for Skynyrd to make-up for all of the VIP mishaps through AA/Skynyrd management. They usually set aside on the cruise a photo time with the band (for a lucky few), so why not have the exclusive members of the Nation get to have a group pic with the band on the cruise. That would be a great promo-shot to have on the home page of the fan club site. Some good PR never hurts.......

I had not posted about going to this event ('cause the friend I was going with just had 3 stints put in last Friday......but she insisted that we go.....I went under protest, but so glad I did). I can't begin to describe to everyone about this concert experience and how many artists they had to preform at ONE show. Each artist did 2 songs (a few just did one song) and Tim McGraw's band, The Dancehall Doctors, backed up all the artists--except for ZZ Top.

Skynyrd preformed very early in the evening and the crowd rose to their feet for the entire set. I will say this....it was a little "strange" to see them up there on stage without the girls, Michael, Peter and Robert. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing Skynyrd under any circumstance and I was proud that they donated their time to help raise $ for the flood victims of Nashville. Skynyrd played "What's Your Name" & "Sweet Home Alabama".

Surprise guest of the evening........Sandra Bullock (the following was from a news report):
Bullock, who was in "The Blind Side" with McGraw, came on stage late in the show to introduce Hill.
"So listen," she told the crowd. "They say a community is only as strong as it's weakest link, right? From the look of it, there are no weak links in this community."
Bullock said she told McGraw she could stage a wardrobe malfunction or a few comedic pieces for the crowd but soon realized she needed to do something more.
"I'm going to contribute some music and I'm going to bring the house down and I'm going to do it Nashville style," she said before strapping on an acoustic guitar and sitting in front of a microphone.
"If I can have some quiet please," she said.
She pieced out the opening riff of "Smoke On The Water" to some of the night's loudest cheers, before introducing Hill.

I can't remember which artist said this, but it was a great comment.........
They talked about how this disaster did not get the national attention from the media as other disasters have in the past. Then they told that the reason was because there was not any looting or fighting, etc. They said that in TN, neighbors took care of neighbors & no wonder that TN is called the "Volunteer State".

ZZ Top set the building on fire with their performance..........(from a news report):
ZZ Top put on one of the evening's most spirited performances, ripping through "Sharp Dressed Man," "La Grange" and "Tush." Guitarist Billy Gibbons noted the star power in the building.
"I'm saying that we ought to just fly this building from town to town and do it every night," he said. "We do things big in Texas, but tonight's gathering, this is really big."

Be proud that Skynyrd was a part of this event!!!!!!!!!!!