If you count up all the nights I’ve laid my head on a pillow to sleep in various states, after Georgia and Florida the state of Illinois would come in third. That’s a little unusual for a boy who doesn’t venture much out of the South. Next week, I will once again be heading to the Land of Lincoln for a week.

I have a strange, but sentimental connection to Illinois from all my past trips. When Sufjan Stevens released Come On! Feel The Illinois!, I couldn’t resist buying the album, because of all the references to the state. I said “I’ve been there!” when he mentioned the Sangamon River, the Superman statue in Metropolis, and the city of Chicago. I had to pull over and stop my car when I heard “Casimir Pulaski Day” for the first time because I was so overcome. The first time I heard “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I understood why this album has been so loudly trumpted by my friends. I wonder if I like the album more because of my sentimental connections to Illinois or because of Stevens’ musical prowess. We’ll see when he releases his next state album.

I have great memories of Illinois. I remember driving through corn fields at night as waves of fireflies followed the car. I remember standing on the top floor of the John Hancock Building and watching fireworks explode below me. I remember going to Wrigley Field for the first time. I remember watching the storms miles away across the flat farms of central Illinois. Oh, and all the Cornerstone Festivals. I could write books about my trips to Cornerstone.

I’ll be at Cornerstone Festival for a yearly dose of rock and hopefully, God will make an appearance a couple of times, too. I first went to Cornerstone Festival in 1998. I had been thinking about going for years, but when my friend Joel said he was going and all I had to do was fly to Chicago, I was there. During that weekend, all of these bands that rarely toured in Atlanta and heretofore were almost essentially mythical were now real and I could see them in concert. I saw artists like Over the Rhine, Sixpence None the Richer, Lost Dogs, Vigilantes of Love, Terry Taylor, and such and I could never return to CCM again. I was hooked.

I drove up with my friend David in 2000 and then I rode a couple more times in Jerry’s K-Rad Aztec in the following years and soon it became an annual tradition that the year revolved around. I took a year off last year, but this year I’ll be heading back. I’m ready for all the fun and all the craziness in the bowl in front of mainstage. I’m ready to wander the campgrounds and see what crazy things the youth groups are doing. I’m ready to wander from tent to tent in the Cornerstone village and sample different musical genres like a giant buffet. I’ll have my camera, recorder, and I might even be blogging from the festival, so I should be returning with a ton of good stuff.