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!
