Concert Review: CMC ROCKS FESTIVAL (Day 2), Ipswich, QLD, Australia

Before you begin, make sure to check out my Day 1 review here!

Day two started off on a much better note, with the lovely Jillian Jacqueline first on the lineup. I loved both her well-written fun songs like Shady, Bleachers, Holier Than Thou and Reasons, as well as her lovely voice, which reminded me of Maren Morris, whose music I’m a big fan of. Jillian herself proclaimed that she’s no good at writing happy songs – just look at some of her titles: Hate Me, Sad Girls, Tragic – but she did stick one happy song into her set in the form of Somebody which was great fun to sing and dance along to. In spite of the demure subject matter of most of her songs, I still found myself smiling throughout her set and wishing her way more success than she currently has, as it’s certainly well deserved. A definite highlight of my weekend.

We moved from pop country to a mix of honky tonk, blues and rock with Aussie Jedd Hughes, who hails from the amazingly-named Quorn in South Australia. If you’re less of a fan of modern pop country than I am, Jedd’s songs like Big Blue Sky and Hollywood might well be for you, and again showed the variety of country music available at the festival.

Next up was Danielle Bradbery, again someone who I think deserves a lot more success than she currently had. I had been disappointed that her set the day before had been cancelled thanks to the weather, but was glad that at least we would get to see her perform once. She seemed pretty tired as she started her set (jetlag, maybe?) but picked up energy as she went along, performing hit after hit including my favourite of hers Red Wine + White Couch, Can’t Stay Mad and Goodbye Summer, all songs which you can’t help but bop along to, something I think is absolutely necessary at a music festival. We also got the more ballad-y side of Danielle as she sang Potential and a killer cover of Ariana Grande’s God Is A Woman, which merged beautifully into Messy.

I appreciated that Danielle took a moment to introduce herself to the crowd, explaining her career had started at the ripe old age of sixteen when she won The Voice TV talent show which led to the release of her first album which included the next song she sang for us, Wild Boy. Before all of this though, she had just been a shy girl singing into her hairbrush and looking up to country queen Carrie Underwood, whose So Small she then performed. The sun started to come out as she finished her set with Heart of Dixie, Sway and Worth It. The crowd has swelled during Danielle’s set, and for good reason. I could easily have watched her perform twice – damn you, extreme Australian weather!

The next act was introduced as ‘the streaming king’, and out walked 22-year-old heartthrob Noah Schnacky who, unsurprisingly, got a pretty big scream from the women in the audience. He began with new song That Guy, a super catchy pop song due to be released soon. He smartly chose to fill most of his set with covers, having not released many tracks himself. Songs like Old Dominion’s Break Up With Him, Jake Owen’s Barefoot Blue Jean Night, Sam Hunt’s House Party, and Dan + Shay’s Tequila gave us a good idea of what type of music to expect from him as well as show off his vocal range. Of course, there were a few originals in their too, including Maybe We Will and Hello Beautiful. Indeed, he added to the swoon-worthy nature of the latter track by producing a rose to offer to the ‘most excited girl in the crowd’. Quite cleverly, he chose a young girl who no doubt will be putting posters of him up on her wall in a few years time.

We moved in quite a different direction for the next act – Ashley McBryde, who revived a similar set to the day prior, thankfully without the awful weather. Her vocals really are quite something as she played songs like El Dorado, Home Sweet Highway and first hit A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega. The crowd particularly enjoyed a song she had written for her graduating class, who she told ‘I think it’s an awesome song, but I don’t think you will’ – the amusing Fat and Famous (as in ‘you got fat, I got famous’) and of course Girl Goin’ Nowhere, the crowd screaming as she sang ‘I hear the crowd / I look around / And I can’t find an empty chair / Not bad for a girl goin’ nowhere’

Lindsay Ell brought the rock ‘n’ roll back with her rocky set full of slamming guitars and gritty vocals on songs like Wildfire, Mint, Waiting On You and Castle. Whilst her style wasn’t necessarily up my street (you can probably tell by now that I’m more into pop country – indeed, my favourite of Lindsay’s songs is the poppy By The Way), there was no denying her excellent guitar playing whilst she showed off on ‘the song that started it all’ Criminal. I’d say her and The Sisterhood Band would put on an excellent rock-country show.

Another new-for-me act was next up with perhaps one of Australia’s proudest country artists, Troy Cassar-Daley, who has an impressive 31 number one songs on Australian country radio – that’s a lot. We got to hear plenty of them throughout his set, including Take A Walk In My Country, Country Is, V8 Town, Dream Out Loud, Big Big Love and River Boy, for which he popped on a cowboy hat, much to the delight of the crowd. He was certainly more at the traditional end of the country spectrum, but clearly a big favourite for Aussie fans.

I started lining up for Thomas Rhett’s signing at this point – yes, at CMC Rocks, even headliners do signings! – so watched Cam’s phenomenal set from the sidelines. She started off with the ‘the other woman’s perspective’ Diane, highlighting her spectacular vocals from the first note. We moved on to revenge song Runaway Train and the utterly beautiful unreleased Forgetting You When I’m Alone, which made me overly excited for the long-awaited release of her second album just so that I can listen to that song all the time.

Cam prides herself on being a sex-positive singer, and so treated us to a funny anecdote from her grandmother who used to say ‘sex is like a milkshake, once you have it, you’re always going to want it’ and two songs which embodied this sentiment – My Mistake and new Til There’s Nothing Left. We also had the fun Country Ain’t Never Been Pretty and a wonderful cover of Miley Cyrus’ Nothing Breaks Like A Heart which, if you know the song, you’ll know sounds a little like Dolly Parton’s Jolene, to which Cam did a mashup of. And of course, what to end on but Burning House, which I have no doubt will become Cam’s version of Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now – she’ll never not be allowed to play it.

Then, Thomas Rhett appeared at the signing desk and it was all go – a quick conversation, a hug and a signed CD later, and I could officially say that I’d met one of my favourite country artists. Brandy Clark returned to the stage as I moved to join the queue to meet Cam. Again, Brandy’s set was filled with amusing and satirical songs like Big Day In A Small Town, Love Can Go To Hell, Get High, and You’re Drunk. Satire is indeed a key part of country music and I’m glad Brandy was there to represent it.

I shuffled to the front of the queue and met Cam, who was absolutely lovely. We bonded over our shared jetlag having travelled from London just days earlier, and we joked that as this was the second festival I’d seen her perform at in as many weeks, maybe I’d see her at another the following week. A lovely woman and an incredible singer to boot – double check marks in my book.

Back on the Main Stage, Frankie Ballard began his set with the most intense guitar playing of the festival that I’d seen yet. I had fallen in love with his music a few years prior and maintain that he is another of the underrepresented artists who deserves so much more success (there seems to be a lot of those, eh?) so loved bopping along to his hits like Young and Crazy, Cigarette, It All Started With A Beer and Helluva Life.

Frankie was just as confused as I was as the crowd began shouted ‘Shoey! Shoey!’ which apparently means the artist has to chug a beer from their shoe, to which he gratefully obliged. We had a few new songs thrown in there too, including Long Live Love and Try To Be A Better Man. I look forward to hearing Frankie’s next album, and hope that appearing at CMC Rocks has helped build his fanbase as is deserved.

Michael Ray swaggered on to the Stampede Stage while singing Fan Girl. Frankly, I think Michael has a few too many ‘hey girl’ songs for my liking and (unpopular opinion) has made it this far in the industry more thanks to his looks than his vocals (I told you it was an unpopular opinion) but if the bra thrown on stage was anything to go by, others in the audience were certainly enjoying themselves as he worked he was through Kiss You In The Morning, Her World Or Mine, and One That Got Away, during which there was a bit of an awkward moment when he encouraged the crowd to sing along before realising that very few people knew the words; and a cover of Tim McGraw’s I Like It, I Love It, complete with OTT accent. I would’ve had Frankie Ballard or Cam much higher up the line-up in this pre-headliner slot, but if the aim was to get the crowd (and particularly the ladies) pumped up for the main event, Michael was as good an act as any.

We waited in suspense as DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win blared through the speakers before Thomas Rhett appeared from the dark to sing Leave Right Now. We only managed to get through three songs (T-Shirt and Get Me Some Of That) before Thomas succumbed to the calls of ‘Shoey!’, the crowd roaring in response as he downed a beer out of his new shoes. He brought Cam back on stage (yay!) for Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time which was something we were certainly all having as he sang hits old and new, including You Make Me Want To, Craving You, complete with music video playing the background, the lovely Star of the Show, and autobiographical Life Changes, with photos of Thomas throughout his life playing on the big screens.

It was clear that everyone in the audience was having a blast and a half, no one more so than ‘Tim from Brisbane’ who was invited onstage to sing Friends In Low Places, Thomas instructing him to pretend to play the guitar he’d draped around his neck ‘so you look cool’. We had another guest appearance from Michael Ray to sing Think A Little Less, which Thomas had actually penned. I hadn’t realised Thomas had written songs for other artists too, and it was nice he showed them off here, continuing with FGL’s Round Here (sadly no guest appearance from BK and Tyler). This being a shorter set than most headlining shows, we didn’t get to hear all the hits, but did of course get Marry Me, It Goes Like This and the cutesy Unforgettable, written for his wife; as well as brand new Look What God Gave Her, played for the very first time here. Let’s hope that means another new album on the horizon soon! 

I hope you enjoyed today's review! Make sure to leave me a message in the comments and follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for even more reviews and interviews coming soon - thanks for reading!