The British Country Music Festival – Day 2

Well, unfortunately, I’m not able to cover everyone today. If we did that we would have a blog the length of a novel.

So the first person I would like to talk about to Mike Ross who we caught in Gillows bar. His music reminded me of a Chris Stapleton. With powerful vocals complementing a simple two guitar setup on stage to produce a slower, set that plays as a perfect contrast to some of the other styles of country music. An old university teacher once told me, keep it simple but make it special. If there was ever an example of this in action then it’s this set from Mike Ross.

Next artist I want to mention is O&O duo who was on one of the smaller arena stages. Growing up as a Dixie Chick fan I’ve grown to love vocal groups and harmony vocals. So I was pleasantly surprised by these two. When you listen to their lyrics you can see the chemistry between them on stage as they supplement each other’s performance. If you are a fan of vocal groups and well-produced harmony vocals then check these out…

Now I can’t cover everyone so shout outs to Recovering Satellites, Megan Louise, Jeannie Brown and Rosenblum who also performed some amazing stuff today. That round out our trip on the festival stages.

So moving into the main stage the first act we caught was Twinne. I’ve seen her a few times opening for Cassadee Pope, Lauren Alaina. She was good then but tonight she took her performance to the next level. She delivered the performance of the weekend so far. Going from a somber Ballard in the form of “Lie to Me” to dancing around the stage full of energy during “Social Babies” and others. Twinne stole the show tonight.

The Adelaides are a band that are right up my ally. As I mentioned earlier in the blog I grew up as a massive Dixie Chicks Fan. I’m a fan for vocal groups and harmonies. That one of the reasons I fell in love with Runaway June at Country to Country and why I fell in love with the Adelaides tonight. The set featured a great cover of “Need you now”. And also delivered maybe the funnest line in a song I’ve ever heard in “That Rocket in your pocket is just a jelly Baby” It led to a did they just say that moment. If you need some context in this then go look it up.. They finished the set with “Good Love” a song that will be getting lots of Apple Music plays over the next few weeks. Great work from these girls.

Rounding out the evening was Ward Thomas. Who showed why they are headliners and why they have had so much success. With a set that combined some old favourites like “Guilty Flowers” and an acoustic version of “Cartwheels” a fantastic new song about there uncle that has never been played to a selection of songs from the Restless Minds album including my favourite Ward Thomas song “Hopeless” they were top class and the perfect band to round out an evening of music and send me home happy.

Now it’s off to day three with another blog tomorrow so stay tuned.