Our fourth year at our favourite festival, and what a fantastic year it was yet again! While a touch controversial on the lineup side of things, the growing country-Americana-roots festival provides so much entertainment in one of the nicest environments around, and we had a blast from start to end. Join us in checking out everything that went down!
First, a very big thank you to every single member of not just the Long Road staffing, but also the wonderful Lime Tree Music. I was looked after all weekend and the staff all did a cracking job. The place was clean and full of smiles throughout, and the vibe of the festival is incredibly hard to top!
Our first foray into the festival came in two parts, really. First we headed up to the brand new Hitching Post stage. It’s an amazing addition to the festival, giving it the perfect space for things like the conversations with artists, the line dancing classes and plenty more. It fit the vibe and aesthetic of the festival perfectly, and it seems to be a very popular introduction. We caught our new friends Two Ways Home presenting their Round-Up. Sadly we didn’t manage to catch all of it, but saw a couple of their songs and loved it! We then headed over to the ever-awesome Buddy’s Good Time Bar to catch Madalitso Band. Sadly they were running late, so I could only stick around for a couple of their songs, too. However, they were also pretty damn enjoyable, and I wish I’d managed to stick around longer. Their talent and creativity is off the charts, and I know a few people pegged them as one of their favourites of the weekend.
After a quick interview we caught the first half of the first set on the Rhinestone stage, Liam St. John. I knew very little of his music heading into this, but came away as a huge fan! I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so heavy-blues which, as any sort of length reader of this site knows, is a big influence to me as a musician and a firm genre favourite. The guitar work was amazing, bringing a great/surprising amount of riffs on an early Friday, but his powerful, emotion-filled vocals were as much of a firm highlight. And the performance he put on matched it perfectly. Yeah, everything about this is awesome, and I immediately added his albums release date to our calendar as I definitely don’t want to miss diving deep into it! Hopefully it isn’t the last we see of him over here soon, as I’d LOVE to hear a full set, especially after the album’s release. Definitely a very nice surprise, and an early highlight!
After Liam we cut across to the Interstate stage for our good friends First Time Flyers. We’ve loved them since the last time they played a full set, and even had the chance to chat with them then. However, we sadly haven’t had the chance to see them since. Somehow, they have gotten even better! The harmonies have somehow gotten even tighter, and the band’s chemistry on stage is now undeniable. Their last outing at the festival was just their sixth live show together, and they have clearly grown and experienced a lot since then. And the new additions to the set were just as awesome as their old stuff, too! ‘Jump’ and ‘Stay’ were both amazing, while it’s incredibly easy to tell why ‘Primadonna’ is such a firm crowd favourite, it’s still stuck in my head days later! The band are getting one hell of a great reputation in the UK country scene, and with performances like this there is no wonder why! And this was set one of three over the weekend, so the fact that they put in so much energy and passion to this first set shows just how hard-working the quartet are. I said two years ago they are going to be a big band, and given the reception they got this last weekend, I think they are almost about there!
Back over to Buddy’s next, we saw the wonderful Janet Devlin. A far cry from nervous young girl from X Factor all those years back, Janet has battled through her demons and come out the other side a new woman. However, she has still maintained her amazing voice, and is one hell of a performer to boot. And the fact that she brought a lot of energy still to a more stripped-back, acoustic performance is great proof of that! Bringing her unique blend of traditional folk and modern country, the set was packed full of awesome songs, and some equally great stories told by the woman herself. I’d love to see her in a bigger setup with a full band, but I did also enjoy the more intimate setting here, and the crowd were loving it, too!
A brief trip out to the Front Porch stage and another couple of great tracks from Two Ways Home. Then, it was back into Buddy’s for a band that I was very excited for, Crowe Boys. Though it was just the titular brothers over without the full band backing them, with the sheer sound and emotion they produced you’d think they’d never need one! The sheer power of Ocie’s vocals, paired with Wes’ incredible harmonies, packs a phenomenal punch and packs out the sound around the guitar and banjo. And as I said, the emotion on display… ‘Brother Song’ honestly had me in tears and I’m so glad they played it! The band’s blend of Americana and indie music isn’t necessarily brand new, but the pair do it to perfection and it’s really awesome to see that as a genre it’s really gathering momentum. The small tent was packed and honestly hung on every word and note, it being a truly special experience. This band are gonna go hugely far, and it was an honour getting to see them in such an intimate setting. Another massive highlight of the weekend.
Now from one highlight to another, for two wildly different reasons! What more can I say about Drake Milligan that I haven’t already. He was maybe my favourite set of last year from any artist, and honestly he could very easily be the same again this year. I’ve never seen such a naturally charismatic performer before, so effortlessly holding a crowd in the palm of his hand. It’s one thing to do it to 1.5k people inside Manchester’s Ritz, it’s a whole other ballgame to do it to 10,000+ at an outdoor venue. And yet, here the 27-year old prodigy was, putting on a show the likes of which could rival the very best to ever do it. From opening on his hit ‘Sounds Like Something I’d Do’ (to the shock of most of the crowd) to riding through most of his album and EP, to some incredible covers of both Merle Haggard and of course Elvis, it was an hour and a half of incredible music. But everyone up on that stage worked their asses off, playing like their lives depended on it and looking like they genuinely had a blast doing so. The soloing was impeccable, and the ‘big band show’ element was very present. We even got some yet-unreleased ones, like already fan favourite ‘Slow Dancin’ to a Fast Song’ and the brand new (and set highlight) ‘Tumbleweed’. Everything about it was just incredible yet again, and I cannot recommend Drake more if I tried. Everyone should see him play live at least once in their lives, and he’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger with the performance he puts on.
To close our night off in chilled-out style, we got an acoustic set from California’s own Wells Ferrari on the Front Porch. Or should that be ‘We Are Wells Ferrari’? I feel like I’ve been indoctrinated into some sort of cult, and I for one am fine with it! The duo sounded great, playing and singing their hearts out and hitting some incredible harmonies. That really seems to be the theme of this year’s edition of the festival; fantastic vocal harmonies. The pair were great fun to watch as they had a great laugh and joke with the crowd throughout, definitely closing out the night in style! And, it helped that they plated some amazing songs, too!