And so we came to our final Main Stage artists of C2C 2023 (check out what I got up to earlier in the day here!). First up was Lindsay Ell, representing the girls on the Headliner bill. Lindsay is just about as cool as they get – dressed in a black bodysuit and neon green nails, she proved that she’s absolutely phenomenal on vocals and on guitar. I loved hearing songs from her latest projects like Right On Time and how good (why are so many artists using lower-case titles these days?)
She got real with us as she shared the inspiration behind good on you – seeing her ex be happy without her and hating that she was happy for him, and a song about all the highs and lows and finding the Sweet Spot in between. She shredded on the guitar, she killed with vocals, and she proved she’s a worth Main Stage act. So cool. The only thing missing? A live performance of want me back.
From cool to Crashlanded, Madeline Edwards was next on the Spotlight Stage. She shared a performance of the title track of her debut album, followed by the powerful Hold My Horses and Mama, Dolly, Jesus. I’d say she’d be taking home a few new fans after that performance.
I had somewhere very exciting to be then – an interview with headliners Zac Brown Band! Both parts of the interview are now posted, so make sure you check them out J
I came back to watch Mitchell Tenpenny’s fun set. He made for a great addition to the Main Stage with his rocky style, rolling swiftly from song to song. The heavy-hitting Good Place was a great choice to start, kicking off the high-energy show on the right note. Mitchell could easily fall into the category of kind of vapid ‘bro-country’, but I find a lot of substance in his lyrics. If you really listen to songs like Always Something With You, Sleeping Alone, and We Got History, you’ll hear stories of love, heartbreak, and everything in between.
Sure, there are some very bro-ey songs in there – Whiskey Does and Bitches being noticeable examples, but there’s a lot of heart too. I thought Mitchell’s non-drinking songs about drinks are where he shone the brightest – Alcohol You Later and Drunk Me. This man certainly has quite the voice on him and great stage presence too. A good way to get us hyped up for the end of the night.
Up next on the Spotlight Stage act was Kameron Marlowe, another artist who’d been filling my playlists over the past few years. This is a voice that 100% deserves an Arena setting like this. Kameron completely captivated all 20,000 of us as he played Girl On Fire (which always makes me think of The Hunger Games) and Giving You Up. The highlight? Definitely his incredibly powerful cover of Folsom Prison Blues. I was awestruck.
I had known all of the C2C 2023 headliners, with the exception of one – Old Crow Medicine Show. Boy, did I have no idea of what I was getting myself into. This band is absolutely insane, but a good kind of crazy. I had no clue what was going on most of the time as they played songs like Cocaine Habit and Alabama HighTest, all I knew was that I was enjoying myself.
There was a lot of harmonica, a lot of yodelling, and a lot of dancing around. Various members of the band took turns singing for us, so we got a good deal of variety with songs like Humdinger, Down Home Girl, and 8 Dogs 8 Banjos. They had such good banter too – telling us ‘Nashville’s coming to London for one more night!’ and ‘Tennessee is so far away so we’re going to have to dance all the way there!’
Towards the end of the show, they crowded around a single microphone to play songs like The Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women and Stan Rogers’ Barrett’s Privateers, sounding straight like something out of O Brother, Where Art Thou? The biggest shock of it all? These are the men behind Wagon Wheel. I had no idea! Now that was fun.
The final Spotlight artist was my interviewee Amanda Shires (coming soon!) who, due to the length of her songs, only had time for two, but she made them count. Wowing on both the fiddle and with vocals, Amanda left The O2 Arena in silence as she well and truly sang her heart out on The Highwomen. It clearly went down well – shortly afterwards she announced she’d be returning to the UK later in the year for a headlining tour.
Now if Luke Combs had been the major pull for C2C 2022, I know a lot of people had come to C2C 2023 to see Zac Brown Band. After having interviewed them just a few hours earlier (check that out here!) I was excited to see them perform. Like Lady A the night before, it’s actually hard not to know the words to every ZBB song, and I found myself singing along to every word as the 9-piece band played their way through.
With such an extensive repertoire, we of course got plenty of trips down memory lane with songs like Homegrown and Knee Deep. I loved their campfire-style version of Free, interspersed with Van Morrison’s Into The Mystic. They took us to a burning inferno with the Kings of Leon’s Sex On Fire before bringing us to the islands with Keep Me In Mind. The crowd went absolutely feral at the first few notes of Toes, a song which I’m sure will keep paying all the members’ bills for many years to come.
We got the emotional My Old Man and As She’s Walking Away, as well as their take on the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black. The band were right when they said their show is all about the performance, because between the lights, visuals, and different instruments, they was always something new to discover, even when hearing songs you’d heard plenty of times before like Loving You Easy, Jump Right In and Sweet Annie.
Of course, it wasn’t all throwbacks, and we got song new songs too – feel good The Same Boat and the spooky Out In The Middle. We also got a new member, Caroline Jones, who was given her time to shine on a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Big Love, with Lindsay Ell coming out to shred some more guitar with her. We finished with a mashup of Colder Weather and Take It To The Limit and, of course, a little bit of Chicken Fried. What a way to go!
Three for three! My Day 3 highlights: Adam Doleac, Lindsay Ell, Zac Brown Band – who were yours?
There you have it, another year of C2C down – don’t worry, I already have my tickets for next year! I’d love to know your thoughts about this year’s Country 2 Country – get in touch on @CiarasCountry, and stay tuned for so many more interviews with artists you know and love!
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