Show Reviews

 

CASH CREEK CLUB – Live

Ft. Richie McDonald, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, RT Johnson, Donny Lee, and more!

Wednesday October 6, 2021

@ The Nashville Palace in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Cash Creek – the band made up of some of Nashville’s most sought after players, Kimo Forrest, Monty DeVita, and Jim Blaylock – have really hit their stride in a big way over the past few months with their Cash Creek Club Live music series.

The show, which plays out like a who’s who of country music and tapes for streaming on The Nashville Country Television Network, invites country music lovers to be part of the live audience as it takes over the stage at the famous Nashville Palace in the Music Valley area of Nashville every month.

The popular group always welcomes some of the hottest emerging talent to the show, while giving those new acts the opportunity to shine alongside some of the biggest (and most influential) talent that’s helped shape the country music genre into the popular format that it is today.

In the past, the Cash Creek Club has welcomed Mark Wills, T. Graham Brown, Bryan White, Tim Rushlow, Heath Wright of Ricochet, Megan Mullins, and many more! And on this night, they welcomed back two past favorites of the show as its headliners: Richie McDonald and Carolyn Dawn Johnson – who had filled in at the last minute for a sick Jamie O’Neal.

As with any Cash Creek Club Live, the guys in Cash Creek play the role of backing band for all the acts that come on stage, while utilizing Jamey D in his normal hype man position, but also sometimes as a front man to help get the crowd revved up musicwise as they did when Jamey donned the acoustic guitar for “Good Girl at Home,” a song from his forthcoming EP.

Lee Gibson, a prolific singer/songwriter, and the first of 6 acts Cash Creek welcomed to the stage, pulled songs from his 2015 Self-Titled album to offer the crowd “40 Acres,” “Long Slow Night,” and “On a Night Like Tonight.”

FULL SET LIST (Lee Gibson)

1) 4O Acres

2) Long Slow Night

3) On A Night Like Tonight

Isaac Cole hit the stage next, who many will remember from his stint on American Idol, and he delivered a very strong performance that left it all out on the stage while leaving the crowd clamoring for more. Cole pulled his song selection from his newest album The Fifth to offer “This Ain’t That Song, “Hypnotized,” and the classic country bent storyteller, “Cain and Abel’s Cove.”

When an artist can instantly make a crowd sit up straighter in their chairs, put down their phones, and lean in to listen that much more attentively, that’s when you know - especially when this happens in Nashville - that an artist is really onto something with their music; Issac Cole accomplished that with his quick and mostly energetic 3-song set.

FULL SET LIST (Isaac Cole)

1) This Ain’t That Song

2) Hypnotized

3) Cain and Abel’s Cove

Carolyn Dawn Johnson, who filled in at the last minute for a sick Jamie O’Neal, delivered a set that mirrored what she did on the Cash Creek Club – Live stage two months ago, but that doesn’t diminish her incredible set here on this night in any way whatsoever. Her songs are catchy earworms (as Kimo Forrest of Cash Creek stated), and they stay stuck with you long after their final notes are played.

Whether it was the snappy opening song “Simple Life,” her first #1 as a songwriter with Chely Wright’s “Single White Female,” or the set closer, “I Don’t Want You To Go,” Carolyn Dawn Johnson perfectly pulled in the audience with her outstanding vocals and toe-tapping, tempo driven songs, but then expertly spliced in songwriting masterpieces, “Georgia” and “Complicated,” between them while she already had the audience’s attention fully captured.

FULL SET LIST (Carolyn Dawn Johnson)

1) Simple Life

2) Georgia

3) Single White Female

4) Complicated

5) I Don’t Want You To Go

Donny Lee, a Canadian based artist who grew up just miles away from Carolyn Dawn Johnson and has had a wild amount of success in his home country, was next to grace the stage.

Focusing his set on what he’s released over the past year, Lee offered the crowd his modern kissed 90’s country infused sound as he stayed on the tempo driven side of things with the autobiographical “Garage Band,” his first proper US single “Got Me This Far,” and “Small Towns,” the latter which he dedicated to those in the audience that grew up in a small town.

FULL SET LIST (Donny Lee)

1) Garage Band

2) Got Me This Far

3) Small Towns

CCB Nashville recording artist RT Johnson took the stage next and quickly showed everyone what the buzz surrounding him is all about and why he has a song currently charting, and moving up with a bullet, on the MusicRow CountryBreakout chart.

Opening with the up-tempo “Thirsty Weather,” a song from his 2019 Man I Made EP, instantly pulled the crowd into his set and got everyone bopping along, before he turned the page and showcased the other side of his artistry when he pulled out a stone country gem with “Your Love Won’t Let Me Cheat,” which he dedicated to the songs writers, who were both in attendance.

In a scene that reminded me of the movie That Thing You Do, Johnson closed his set with his chart-climbing, current single “Feel Good Again.” When I first saw RT Johnson play back in May, he was an act that absolutely caught mine, and everyone else’s attention. However, in just 5 short months, you can see how much more attention Johnson has earned just by looking at a crowd at any show that he plays as most of the audience can be seen singing along with him as he plays this song – a great indication that good things are on the horizon!

FULL SET LIST (RT JOHNSON)

1) Thirsty Weather

2) Your Love Won’t Let Me Cheat

3) Feel Good Again

“You may know him as the former lead singer for Lonestar,” began Jamey D. “Or you may recognize him from his group The Frontmen of Country with Tim Rushlow and Larry Stewart. Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for Richie McDonald.”

McDonald opened his set in quite a similar way that Lonestar has done it many times prior by playing “No News,” the group’s first #1 charting country song.

“I wrote this next one about a little carrot top and a blue eyed blonde,” began McDonald in his introduction to “My Front Porch Looking In.” “Hard to believe it, but she just graduated from WKU recently,” he proudly finished as the opening notes of the 2003 #1 song began to play and got the crowd singing and dancing along with it.

“We’re gonna slow it down for a song now,” stated McDonald. “I wrote this one years ago after a phone conversation I h0ad with my wife and son when I was out on the road. At the end of the phone call, my son asked me “daddy, when are you coming home,” he finished as the crowd quieted to the point where you could hear a pin drop and listened intently to the heartfelt “I’m Already There,” the third #1 song from Lonestar’s catalog that McDonald would play on this night. 

“Well, I guess this would be the perfect place to do a drinking song,” laughed McDonald, before dedicating “Tequila Talkin’” to anyone in the audience who was drinking Tequila.

“You know I wrote this next song as a tribute to all the moms out there. I found out years ago that my wife had the hardest job in the world watching the kids while I was out there on the road eating pizza and drinking beer,” McDonald said with a smile. “This song is for all you incredible moms out there,” he finished as he had the crowd bopping and singing along again with “Mr. Mom,” before closing his set with the signature Lonestar song, “Amazed,” in which he introduced by humbly stating:

“We had no idea that this song was going to do what it did when we released it. It went #1 on one chart. Then it went #1 on another chart. Then it crossed over and went #1 on a pop chart. We had no idea any of that would happen!”

FULL SET LIST (RICHIE MCDONALD)

1) No News

2) My Front Porch Looking In

3) I’m Already There

4) Tequila Talkin’

5) Mr. Mom

6) Amazed

 

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