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| Charlie Worsham |
A popular feature of the Country to Country Festival is the
pop up stages that frequent the outer ring of the O2 Arena over the course of
the weekend. Each year these continue to expand to the extent where the
periphery has been extended to ticketed events, converted venues and special
promotions, in addition to the core free stages. With this year’s festival
growing from two to three days, there was a mini explosion of artists from both
sides of the Atlantic happy to see their application turn into an invitation to
perform. Another development from attending the event for the first two years
is that the alternative schedule progresses well into the evening, thus
creating a viable choice for those not wanting to invest in the pricey arena
shows. Inevitably any individual can only see a finite number of acts and the
pre-festival dilemma is whether to play safe with artists you know or take a
gamble of seeking out new talent. For many the best of both these worlds is
usually the case and 2016 was no exception for me.
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| Ashley Campbell |
Between arriving at the festival on Friday afternoon and
entering the arena for the final time almost exactly 48 hours later, fifteen
artists had their sets intensely watched, periodically punctuated by the odd slightly
over priced liquid refreshment. While there is a tendency for many artists from
the UK country pop wing to dominate the fringes, it doesn’t take too much
digging to find something slightly alternative. Two artists who are well known
to me played thirty minute sets on the Big Entrance Stage on Saturday and
provided a timely reminder of the style which acts as my bread and butter for
fifty one weekends of the year. Ben Folke Thomas, minus his band on this
occasion, was probably the only artist all the weekend to introduce a song
based on Swedish war time resistance and it was re-assuring to be in familiar engaging
song territory. Later in the afternoon on the same stage, Pete Gow introduced
his band Case Hardin as probably the ‘least country act you’ll see all weekend’.
Depending on your interpretation, this was far from the case as modern trends
re-define the genre in populist terms.
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| Ben Folke Thomas |
A decision was made on Friday afternoon to catch two artists
play extended sets back to back in the Brooklyn Bowl. Part of the logic to spending
nearly two hours in a venue within a venue was to get more of a gig feel to the
day after spending a near fortune to see the main show that evening. It was
certainly an upbeat start to my festival with Jess and the Bandits bounding
onto the stage with gusty vigour and keeping up the pace for forty five
minutes. The more established US country artist Phil Vassar entered the stage
upon Jess’s departure and played an entertaining set to seemingly many fans.
Possibly unique to this festival was Phil playing country rock ‘n’ roll piano
during the entirety of his time on stage and presenting many songs that edged
up towards the upper echelons of the country music charts in his heyday.
While staying on the Friday evening, two further acts were
caught just before entering the main arena and both were known to me to
differing extents. All the way from Northern Ireland, The Rising played a
rousing set of predominately rock infused music and came across as an
impressive live act with plenty of passionate spirit within a line-up
containing the usual drums, keys and guitars. Emma Stevens easily won the
battle between her and Thomas Rhett for my attention and she carried on as seen
twice before with a breezy batch of catchy folk pop songs. Maybe brave to try a
little bluegrass in its infancy, but Emma is forever ‘moving’ when venturing
into the territory of the songs that frame her reason for playing.
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| Case Hardin |
Jumping ahead a little and onto Sunday afternoon where the
Town Square Stage housed two American artists back to back who have created
quite a stir on this current visit to our country. Moving out of her family
shadow is always going to be a challenge for Ashley Campbell, but she showed
the genes haven’t gone astray with a smart ear for a tune and the musical
expertise heading in the banjo direction. Her set was an enticing introduction with
a view to checking out her material sometime in the near future. A similar
feeling was reserved for Charlie Worsham who lit up a stage surrounded by many
of your usual festival stores with an exalted performance of charismatic song
and guitar presentation. The potential is there, with the next stage to check
out how this talent is being channelled in the recording world.
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| Lori McKenna |
Although Lori McKenna does occasionally venture into the
recording world, she earns her crust in the song writing circles and does
exceedingly well. A large crowd assembled around the Big Entrance Stage to hang
onto the words of Lori in more than one way. It was interesting to learn of
both her background and those of her songs which have proved rather successful
in their commercial state. Lori hails from the north east part of the US in
contrast to Texas Martha and the House of Twang, who you’ve guessed come from
way out west. In fact Martha finds the European country music circuit quite
favourable in the summer months basing herself in France and she possesses an
authentic honky tonk sound which is synonymous with the Lone Star State.
Completing an American trilogy on a stage which in my opinion had a better
sound quality than its larger Town Square counterpart, was the forever feisty Sonia
Leigh. Backed by a new and impressive band, Sonia was fired up to play some
rock ‘n’ roll and crikey her voice gets more delightfully bruised and harsh
with each listen. She continues to evolve as the real deal with absolutely
nothing fake about her act.
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| Paul Carella and Caddy Cooper |
The finishing line is getting closer and let’s get there
with four home grown acts which embody the very essence of this being a
festival bringing the music of two countries together. Make that three when on
Saturday morning the Big Entrance Stage opened up with the wonderful Aussie, Caddy
Cooper making a duet appearance alongside the billed Paul Carella. Song names
have been deliberately omitted from this feature, but it would be remiss to not
casually refer to the duet featured on Caddy’s latest album that sounded
blissful upon hearing it live for the first time. That wraps up the Big
Entrance acts caught live, leaving just three more which played the Town Square
Stage. Red Sky July proved a big hit with me with the release of their second
album two years ago and this appearance at the O2 was very much focussed on
their upcoming follow up release. The trio of Aly, Shelly and Charity continue
to make beautiful music spanning the sounds of folk, Americana and country,
making them extremely attractive for my ears. Callaghan is another vocalist
with a gorgeous voice and while this wasn’t the best environment for it to
flourish, she optimised the moment to continue to spread the word about her
wide appealing songs. One band also determined to capture the moment was Dexeter and
they too were keen not to waste the opportunity to engage with an enthusiastic
and populous gathering.
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| Sonia Leigh |
Looking back at the programme, and reality dawns of how many
other venues, set ups and artists were missed, but only a snapshot is
practically viable. Outside of the two arena shows that were attended (Saturday
was not really my cup of tea), the pop ups played a valuable part in making
this a successful weekend as you have the choice of hitting them hard or
accepting them as a casual backdrop. It was noted that many base their weekend
entirely around the pop ups, although this would probably not warrant a lengthy
journey. However the pop up fringe seems to set to play a regular role in the
Country to Country Festival weekend and it is without doubt that the
application line will be jammed in twelve months. To what extent they develop remains to be seen especially with the roll out to other venues within the O2 arena and specifically the continual evolution of Bob Harris's Under the Apple Tree project. Interesting times indeed.
