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Twenty acts, twenty songs of people that either played at this year’s C2C Country To Country or during the last three years, and with a wonderful array of talent is on show. One that ranges from older, established acts of Vince Gill, Martina McBride and Lee Ann Womack on through to vibrant performer Brad Paisley, who like Gill is a genuine guitar aficionado.
With a plethora of bands emerging, ranging from The Band Perry, Little Big Town, Lady Antebellum, Zac Brown Band, Florida Georgia Line and lesser, but no less talented hugely promising homegrown acts in The Shires and Ward Thomas to go with Nashville country male acts of Luke Byran, Darius Rucker (ex-Hootie & The Blowfish), Dierks Bentley, Chris Young and new kid on the block Kip Moore. Though far from new, late developer, and till recently a man who was only a street musician, Doug Seegers along with those listed at the beginning of my review he is one of those I would term as a country act.
Carrie Underwood for a couple of years could do no wrong. Her inclusion “Jesus Take The Wheel” along with Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried”, Seegers’ Hank Williams-esque lonesome “Going Down To The River”, Young’s “Tomorrow” and Paisley’s “Letter To Me” coupled with Gill’s “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away” for me edge the rest. Although The Shires’ “Nashville Grey Skies” would on most days squeeze in as one of the best songs on this Nashville Country Sampler.
UK acts Alan West and Glasgow band Raintown like the above homespun acts made an impression on one of the festivals Pop-Up stages. With The Shires gaining a US recorded, and produced album for the first time in years it looks like we have an act capable of gaining an audience across the pond.
Maurice Hope