Nashville certainly
has a dedicated fanbase. Having ran for many years on the ABC Network, it was
announced that the show would be cancelled after 4 seasons. However, the fans
wouldn’t let this happen, with the #BringBackNashville petition receiving over
174,000 and encouraging showrunners to find a new home for the series on CMT,
where it has run ever since. With a response like this, it’s no surprise that UK
fans relished the opportunity to welcome back the cast for farewell shows.
The show began with a video montage lighting up the screens
and showing images of last years Nashville In Concert gig at The Royal Albert
Hall, which I’m sure many of that night’s attendees had been to. The montage
finished with cast members saying “London, let’s get ready to party!” The tone
for the night was set and the performers for the tour – Clare Bowen, Chris
Carmack, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson and Sam Palladio – rushed to the stage
for the first song we ever heard on Nashville, Even If It Breaks Your Heart.
The format of the evening involved a rota of each performer
taking to the stage to play one or two of their characters (or their own)
songs. We started with Jonathan Jackson, who stars as bad boy gone good Avery
Barkley who kicked off with the rocky Keep
Asking Why. He handed over to Chris Carmack, who plays rising country star
Will Lexington, for the sultry I’m On It and
What If I Was Willing. I was a big
fan of Chris’ style and thought he’d be a great headliner himself, but as the
night transpired it became clear that each of these artists could easily hold
an entire show on their own.
Chris was joined by Englishman Sam Palladio, aka Gunnar
Scott, who received a great welcome home from the crowd. He offered us a behind
the scenes insight to life on the show, saying that hands down the best part of
being a cast member was the great friendships he’d built over the shows 6
years, such as that with Chris. The duo treated us with a new song from the
shows latest and final season, Right
Where You Want Me.
This being the farewell tour, Sam took the opportunity to
say goodbye to the character he’d dedicated the majority of his career to (and
which the crowd seemed to have difficulty distinguishing him, with shouts of ‘Love
you Gunnar!’ emanating every so often from the audience) with the touching Adios Old Friend which research tells me
was co-written by Brett Eldredge – they certainly had fantastic songwriters
throughout the shows history!
The Hell Of It showed
off Gunnar’s rockier side, as well as Sam’s musical prowess, as he took a seat
at the drum kit for an awesome solo. Again, I was struck by how multitalented
these performers were, being actors, singers and musicians who could easily
switch from one talk to another. Jonathan returned to the stage for This Old Town and a cover of Simple
Minds Belfast Child, the Celtic tones
of which I’m sure have gone down very well on the other tour dates this side of
the pond.
This was followed by Clare Bowen, the shows Scarlett O’Connor,
who burst on to the stage like an ethereal fairy, barefoot in a flowing white
dress with feathers in her hair. I liked the fact that we got to see the
performers as themselves rather than just their character, with Clare’s stage
presence reminding me of Jennifer Nettles, albeit a more introverted version,
as she spoke very softly into the microphone. The artists were offered the
opportunity to play their own songs, with Clare choosing one from her upcoming
album, the joyous Let It Rain,
complete with multicoloured tambourine dancing.
Her announcement that she would next sing the haunting Black Roses received tumultuous applause,
which only continued throughout her raw performance. She finished with a
powerful vibrato, leading to a standing ovation which went on and on, leaving
Clare shellshocked on the stage. Before we all start crying, she invited
Charles Esten, perhaps Nashville’s most
famous character Deacon Claybourne, on for the happy Hand To Hold.
He continues with the first song Deacon ever sang about long
time love interest Rayna James, and one of my favourites from the show, Sideshow. It is songs like this that I
think show that Nashville did country
music proud, representing the genre as one full of meaningful lyrics like this,
and so I was pleased to hear this performed live. It is evident as well juts
how much these characters mean to their actors, who spoke very fondly of them,
treating their stories as their own, as Charles did sitting down at the piano
for Good Rain or Jesus.
I enjoyed the sections where the performers came together,
with Chris and Sam following this with Don’t
Come Easy and the bluesy Moving On
Never Felt So Good. Sam continued with one of his own tracks written about
his grandfather, who coincidentally met a girl from Nashville whilst in
training for the war. The story goes he told her to meet him on the platform of
Nashville station as his train rolled through from Pensacola to Edward Island
in Canada. Tipping the train conductor to wake him up on time, it transpires
that this promise was forgotten as he was woken up at 4am to be told it was too
late, a scenario which later inspired Sam to write Wake Me Up In Nashville. Whilst a touching story, Sam put a
positive spin on the tearjerker by reminding us that had such a mistake not
occurred, he would not be standing there today!
As well as writing songs for their own records, some of
their self-penned tracks even made it on to the show, with Sam writing Gunnar’s
final song of the series Going Electric
highlighting a different version of the character from the one we first met
playing slow songs at The Bluebird Café. However, it’s clear that plenty has
changed over the course of the series as the next song Go With It comes from Gunnar, Will and Avery’s newly formed band ‘The
Lost Highways’ – a trio I doubt any of us would have predicted when we first
met their characters.
Jonathan then took the opportunity to surprise us with the
good news that he would be returned to London to play Omeara with his band on
May 19th, and I for one would certainly recommend attending, as he
offered sneak peeks of songs we might expect like the rocky A Shock To The System, and an absolutely
earth shattering rendition of Unchain
Melody with such a vocal range as I’d never heard before. In spite of not
actually being a song from Nashville,
this was a true highlight of the show for me, and many others if the standing
ovation is anything to go by.
He was joined again by Clare and Sam for the fun Borrow My Heart before the latter two
treated us to perhaps their characters most famous song Fade Into You. There are songs from this show that I know for
certain will be listened to again and again for years to come, and this is certainly
one of them.
Clare jumped in with another of her own songs Tide Rolls In before declaring she ought
to play a pretty song, this time another crowd favourite When The Right One Comes Along, which ended up being another of my
highlights from the show.
There was no one better to finish up the show than Charles,
who played some of his own songs inspired by Deacon’s relationship with Rayna, including
Whisky Lips and the awfully fun He Ain’t Me, as well as the
thought-provoking Sanctuary from the
show, reminding us of the terrible atrocities that occurred at music events
last year and that music itself can provide sanctuary.
The ensemble returned to the stage for their final song, and
a more apt song could not have been picked than A Life That’s Good. All in all, I doubt any Nashville fans would have gone away disappointed after such a fun
night. Sure, you could argue that there were some notable exceptions to the
cast in the forms of Hayden Panettiere, Connie Britton and Lennon & Maisy
Stella who would have been welcome additions to the tour, but the variety of
voices and characters we heard throughout the night was enough to make any Nashville fan, and indeed any country
music fan, proud.
Luckily for us, whilst the live show may be over, there’s
still a few more episodes of the series left as well as plenty of soundtracks
to keep us occupied. Just listening to the Season 6 Volume 1 soundtrack has me
excited for what’s to come from the show, and indeed what we might expect at
the Nashville In Concert Revival Tour. I’m ever hopeful!
I hope you enjoyed today's concert review! Are you a Nashville fan? If so, what's been your favourite song of the series? I'll always have a special place in my heart for 'A Life That's Good'! Stay tuned for more concert reviews coming soon, and drop me a follow on Twitter @CiarasCountry to ensure you don't miss any of the latest country music news!
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