Show Reviews

 

COUNTRY MUSIC HAS HEART

Presented by Nashville's Most Wanted

Ft. Trent Tomlinson, Jerrod Niemann, Love and Theft, Cody Purvis, Trey Lewis and more!

Tuesday March 29, 2022

@ Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

 

We’ve been to a lot of the Nashville’s Most Wanted shows on Tuesday nights at Scoreboard Bar & Grill, but this one stands a bit taller than the rest – and not only because of all the great music.

The gathering of amazing artists that contributed to one heck of a lineup included Trent Tomlinson, Jerrod Niemann, Love and Theft, Cody Purvis, Trey Lewis, Marty Raybon and more, but this night – sub-titled as “Country Music Has Heart” – was about such an important cause that the artists were simply the bonus attraction while the spotlight shined brightly on raising awareness for Congenital Heart Defects (CHD), and specifically, an adorable little girl named Harper.

Of course, being as though we’re a country music website, we’re going to shift our focus to the performances and try to bring you the front row of the show itself through this write-up, but please do also make sure to take the time to check out the amazing Facebook page for 'Harper's Journey: Life with HLHS' at https://www.facebook.com/HarperARhody/

Being the opening act on such a big night is never an easy task; especially when it’s for the early bird, 5 o’clock crowd. However, with his mostly up-tempo, 90’s country kissed vibe, Shelby Lee Lowe rose to the occasion and pulled the early arrivers into his 50-minute time slot with a healthy balance of storytelling and song.

“Y’all know who George Strait is?” Lowe asked as he was met with a cheer from the crowd. “That’s good, because if you don’t know who he is then this song doesn’t make any sense,” he finished as he opened his set with “King For A Day,” before proceeding to take the audience on a ride through his catalog.

From his 2021 album release Stubborn Heart, Lowe invited the crowd into his latest efforts by playing “Things That Make Me Smile” and “Miss Tennessee,” the latter which he said before playing was his fiancés favorite song and since she was there, he of course had to play it.

Travelling then back to his 2020 Something In Me EP, Lowe spliced “You’re Not Gone” into the first part of his set, secured the middle of it with the slower paced title track that he said to be one of his favorites to come out of the writing sessions he had during the 2020 lockdown, and perfectly placed “Could’ve Fooled Me” towards the end of his set, capturing an already enthralled audience even deeper and pulling them in for a closer listen.

But he didn’t just stick to the more recently released of his material either, rather he bookended all of this by bringing the crowd way back to his earliest days with Double Wide Love,” “History,” and the toe-tapping “Honky Tonk Race,” while filtering in the newest of songs that he had written but not even recorded as of yet with “Where There’s Country” and set closer “I’m No Good (But I’m Good At It).”

Marty Raybon of Shenandoah, who absolutely needed no introduction to the Tuesday night traditional country loving crowd, took the stage adorned with an acoustic guitar and his unmistakable voice, and immediately paid homage to one of his heroes by playing Merle Haggard’s “I Take A Lot of Pride In What I Am”; An influence that he revisited again when he played “It’s All in the Movies” just a few songs later, and then towards the end of his set with “Silver Wings.”

However, this nearly hour long setlist was mostly built around highlighting the two different sides of Marty Raybon’s career. 

In recent years Raybon has delivered strong Christian based country as a solo artist, and as he so often does during any of his performances, he didn’t shy away from playing those songs and delivering the good message and talking about his love of the Lord and His love for us.

In that realm of his setlist, Raybon went back to his 2006 album When the Sand Runs Out for “Come Early Morning,” and delivered a show-stopping, stellar version of the standard gospel song, “It Is Well With My Soul.” 

But as is the case with any Marty Raybon show, the fans will naturally want to hear those classic hits from his Shenandoah catalog.

“I’m gonna play some the Shenandoah songs and I think you’ll remember some of them,” Raybon said about midway through his set while being met with a rousing ovation as he played a smattering of their biggest hits and quickly had the entire venue singing along.

While softer paced songs such as “Mama Knows,” “Moon Over Georgia,” and “Two Dozen Roses” took everyone to the edge of their seats as they swayed along with the familiar pace of the melodies, songs such as “Next To You Next To Me” and set closer “Church on Cumberland Road” kept everyone’s shoulders dancing and heads bobbing as Raybon led them in a rafter shaking, sing-a-long competition between he and the crowd.

The direct support songwriter’s round was a feature of some of Nashville’s strongest emerging talent including Nashville’s Most Wanted host Cody Purvis, Jesse Keith Whitley, and Trey Lewis.

With a strong showing of support for our men and women of the armed forces, both from the artists on stage and the good folks in the crowd, Cody Purvis shared “Boots on the Ground” to open the round, while Jesse Keith Whitley would later show the same support when he  played his next single “Red White and Blue.”

The three longtime friends had an undeniable chemistry that flowed through their round together that radiated such a cool vibe that it instantaneously pulled the packed crowd intently into each song they played.

Purvis, not a man of too many words on stage, delivered his newest single “Overnight,” a personal favorite from his catalog with “Whiskey,” and “Drinkin’ Terms,” the song he described as the game changer that earned him substantial amounts of success at both CMT and SiriusXM radio.

Whitley was able to quickly grab the classic country lovers in the crowd when he covered his father’s “I’m Over You” and immediately had them singing along. But then he very wisely chose to move away from his famous father’s catalog and transparently took us inside a dark place that he found himself in that inspired “Feelin’ Coming On,” and put on a clinic bent on showcasing his grit on “Forever Know My Name.”  

And what can be said about Trey Lewis. His star is on the rise, and he has the “it” factor written all over him and it clearly showed as the crowd welcomed him to the stage with a thunderous applause as he performed “Whatever She Sees in Me,” capturing the audience straight away with an amazing song about wanting to be the person that his mom sees in him.

But beyond his great songs, crisp voice, and ultra-addictive personality….he never shied away from being completely open while sharing parts of his life with the crowd; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

He told the story of a fight that he and his girlfriend had that left her storming out of the house the night before the writing session that birthed “Single Again,” then flipped the script when he openly talked about how he entered therapy in January as his career was shifting to new heights and how he started realizing that the same girl he had lost that inspired “Single Again” was actually the right one for him, which inspired him to write “Living Under A Rock,” the song that would win her back!

“If you have any kids in here tonight with you,” Lewis began as a knowingness hushed over the crowd. “Now is probably the time to take them outside for the next 5 minutes if you don’t want them to hear cussing,” he finished as he turned to the crowd and began strumming the opening notes of “Dicked Down in Dallas,” the final song of their writer’s round that left the crowd screaming back the lyrics with him to end a great hour of music.

With the crowd now packed in shoulder to shoulder, the headlining songwriter’s round featured what can best be described as an “Only In Nashville” moment as country music heavyweights Love and Theft, Trent Tomlinson, and Jerrod Niemann took the stage.

“Are you ready?” asked Stephen Barker Liles as Love and Theft as they opened the round with their smash hit “Angel Eyes” and got the crowd singing along with them as they set the tone for the entire round right out of the gate. 

Hit after hit song then flowed from all three of the incredible songwriters on stage.

While Love and Theft placed some focus on their newest music with “Accidently On Purpose” and “Better Off,” they also delivered their most impactful, career defining songs as well with “Runaway” and “Whiskey On My Breath,” the latter which not only had the crowd listening in stunned silence to the incredible lyrics and harmonies, but also featured co-writer Trent Tomlinson on the second verse.

Jerrod Niemann, who sat in the third chair meaning he was the last person of the round to play, focused his set on his biggest songs, whether it was pulling the crowd in through lyrical masterpieces such as “Only God Can Love You More” and “What Do You Want,” or by leading rousing sing-alongs on “Lover Lover,” “One More Drinking Song,” and “Drink To That All Night.” 

Niemann, though he didn’t talk too much and mostly allowed his songs to speak for him, did showcase his personality and the connection between his songs and the crowd multiple times; raising a glass in the air and connecting with the party crowd for the up-tempo anthems, showing his witty personality by introducing “What Do You Want” as a song that falls somewhere between a butt dial and a booty call, or by grateful speaking of how supportive his family was when he first moved to Nashville to be a songwriter, a town he described as crazy, but how he couldn’t have done it without them. 

The centerpiece to the round, however, was Trent Tomlinson.

The seasoned artist/songwriter found the perfect balance in his set to tap into the right moments that told the stories behind his songs, but then allowed his incredible voice and lyrics to pack the necessary punch of them.

He bookended his spot in the round with two of his biggest original songs, “Just Might Have Her Radio On,” and “One Wing in The Fire,” but it’s what he accomplished between these songs that elevated the whole round.

It’s always one thing to hear the songs that were cut and love them on the radio by the artist who recorded them, but it’s a completely other thing to hear straight from the songwriter why they wrote the song and to then feel their emotions attached to them.

“I met this girl who shared my infinity for George Strait music; the guy who is my hero. We danced to Marina Del Rey for the first time and what we had was really beautiful for about a month and a half,” Tomlinson said with a smile. “I never thought there would ever come a time where I would hear George Strait on the radio and turn it off, but that’s what happened,” he explained. “I’m very grateful for a guy named Scotty McCreery for taking this song and running with it,” he finished as he delivered an ultra-powerful version of “Damn Strait.”

As like during the previous song he played, Tomlinson vulnerably told before playing “In Case You Didn’t Know,” that he wrote the song at 3:30AM when he was drunk off his ass in Mexico and then quizzically asked, “who would’ve thought that moment would have changed my life and so many other lives?”

But the overall feel of the entire night came when Tomlinson encouraged those in the crowd who were artists and songwriters trying to make it in town right now when he offered before “One Wing In The Fire”:

“You can write the best songs, but if you're not writing from your heart then you’re missing the boat. It doesn't matter how great a singer you are, but it does matter that you have something to say.”

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