Show Reviews

 

JD SHELBURNE

2nd Annual New Year’s Eve Virtual Bash

Friday December 31, 2021

Live From Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)


Nashville throws a New Year’s Eve a party unlike any other that I’ve ever seen. All the many music venues across town are popping, every street downtown is packed with wall-to-wall people, the city itself hosts their official “Big Bash” (broadcasted nationwide on CBS this year), and you’re left with so many great options to choose from that it’s almost an impossible task to only want to be in one spot.

However, while all these different late-night parties always sound like such a great time, there are many people (including myself) who don’t want to be out amongst the crowds on New Year’s Eve and would much rather stay at home in their pajamas and steer clear of all the noise.

But these types of people still deserve a great party too, right?

For that at home partygoer, JD Shelburne delivered the goods via livestream from his music room with his 2nd annual New Year’s Eve Virtual Bash, presented by Karl Truman Law Office.

“Welcome to our 2nd annual New Year’s Eve virtual show,” began Shelburne as he then rolled through a list of achievements that the past year has held for him and his band, and as he thanked his fans for giving him those opportunities, he opened the show with the title track of his newest album, “Straight from Kentucky.”

“We’re playing some songs off my new album to kick this thing off tonight, and this song, I recorded back during the pandemic. It was written by my producer Phil O’ Donnell and it reminded me of back in my high school days,” Shelburne said as he played “Country Boys Girl.”

“We just shot a music video for this next song that should be out in just a few weeks,” Shelburne excitedly stated as he played “Fine by Me,” which included an incredible jam session at the end of the song that saw he and his band hit that very special zone together where everything just clicks right.

“We’ve got a special guest that’s going to come on before his bedtime,” Shelburne said with a smile as he was handed his 15-month-old son Jax to kiss him goodnight and tell him that he’d see him next year, before diving into the summery vibes of “Sunburn” and “Sun-Bleached Polaroid.”

“This is probably one of my favorite songs on the new record,” admitted Shelburne. “We shot the music video for it down the road about 20 miles at a drive-in, and it went #2 on the CMT Hot Country countdown and broke the Top 40 for us this summer,” he finished as they rolled into his most recent smash hit, “Hometown in My Headlights,” which was quickly followed by “Bottoms up Sundown.”

“I grew up in Taylorsville, KY, which is right outside of Louisville,” said Shelburne. “And Taylorsville has been such a great platform to tell my story about starting out playing guitar. I first started playing my hometown in 2002 and a lot has changed since then, but I always still revert back to writing songs about that place because I have a big heart for that place and love the people there. But when I heard this next song demo, I knew I had to record it because every word of it is true,” he explained as he took us straight to the middle of growing up in small-town USA with “In a Smalltown,” and then continued taking us on a nostalgic, hometown trip with “The Road I Grew Up On.”

“We’re gonna take you to church with this next song,” he preacherlike stated as the B-3 hummed in the background as they began “Church Pew Bar Stool,” a song which Shelburne said he was really proud of, and one which also had an accompanying music video that went straight to the #1 spot on CMT.

With a very humble heart and grateful tone to his voice, Shelburne thanked his fans for helping make his 2021 such an incredible year before sending a special shout-out to his family’s pastor and wife and letting them know that they’d see them on Sunday.

Sliding away from his latest album, Shelburne then dipped back to his 2014 Farmtown album to pull out “See You On the Radio” to kick off the second hour of the 3-hour show.

“We’re going to play a song that I almost recorded for my Straight From Kentucky record, but I didn’t,” Shelburne mused. “I was going through old songs on my computer, and I listened to it again and I said man, I should’ve recorded that one. So, maybe it’ll end up on my next album,” he teased as he played “The Devil in Me,” a song written by hit songwriter/Shelburne’s old neighbor Mark Nesler.

Shelburne then jumped back to his ultra-popular 2018 album, Two Lane Town, to play “Stuck in My Memory,” a song which he said is often requested and he’s always happy to play it for those that always want to hear it.

Sticking with his back catalog, Shelburne next dove to 2010 to pull out “Small Town Star,” a song he admitted he had written on a trip back home after he had first moved to Nashville when he was feeling really homesick.

“This is a song that I wrote during the first part of the year. I met this guy and he asked me if I ever wrote a song about the liar section of a Dairy Queen, and I knew exactly what he was talking about,” laughed Shelburne as he introduced a new song called “Listening In” that focused lyrically on the generation of old timers who sit around telling their fabricated stories day in and day out.

“So many people have asked me to record this next song, and I haven’t recorded it yet,” Shelburne said as he gave his audience a taste of things to possibly come as he rounded out his first of three sets with another new one, the softer paced, piano driven, “A Song for That.”

The band returned for their second set after a very brief intermission, and they kicked back into things with “Love Hard” - a song from way back in his deep catalog – which was followed with the title track to his 2016 album “Between Here and the Stars,” a song which Shelburne joked as being one that was from his long hair days.

After a few shout-outs to fans who were tuning in to the show at the time, something which Shelburne had been doing throughout the night between songs, he then took us to the beach as he returned to the summery tones that began earlier in the night to satisfy a request for “Good Ol’ Boy Good Time.”

Staying on his Two Lane Town album, and once again satisfying the request line, Shelburne then played the heart-tugging tribute to dads with “Superman” followed by “One Less Girl,” the latter which he told as being the first song he ever had at radio and on CMT.

The band then briefly slowed it down with “She Keeps Me Up Nights,” before moving back into his Between Here and the Stars album to instantly getting us viewers shoulder dancing and toe-tapping with the up-tempo “Crazy Yet,” before slowing it back down again with “Tonight You’re Mine.”

“I always wanted a beach song, and for some reason this song just stuck with me. We’re gonna add this one back into our setlists this summer,” Shelburne hinted as the band took us back into the summery vibes with “Girl I Met on the Beach,” before rounding out the second set with “Make It That Far.”

For the third set - the shortest of the night and the one that would take us right close to the New Year’s countdown for the central time zone - Shelburne and company first dug into a few 90’s covers: “Hanging by a Moment,” “If You’re Gone,” and “Dare You to Move.”

“Thank y’all for hanging out with me in my home tonight,” Shelburne gratefully said to his fans. “If you follow me on social media, then you know I like to share a lot about my family. I have a rockstar wife and an amazing son. I’ve been working on writing a song about my son and what better place to debut it then here tonight,” Shelburne finished as he closed the show with “My Little JD.”

For as many people that want to be out at the parties and amongst the big crowds, there are just as many of us who want to stay in and have something unique to do to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

JD Shelburne delivered!

Over the past two years of dealing with the pandemic, many artists were forced to turn to livestream concerts for a time, but very few of them found the way to connect personally with their fans in the ways that JD Shelburne did during these 3-hours.

He often thanked fans by name for their tips and for tuning in, mentioned those people who he’s met at shows that would request specific songs, and he played an incredible set that spanned his entire career and showcased from where he began to how far he’s come. All these aspects, while he was making you forget that you’re on the other side of a computer screen from him, because he somehow made you feel like you were right there in the music room live and in person with him and his band.

FULL SET LIST

1) Straight From Kentucky

2) Country Boys Girl

3) Fine by Me

4) Sunburn

5) Sun-Bleached Polaroid

6) Hometown in My Headlights

7) Bottoms up Sundown

8) In a Smalltown

9) The Road I Grew Up On

10) Church Pew Bar Stool

11) See You On the Radio

12) The Devil in Me

13) Stuck in My Memory

14) Small Town Star

15) Listening In

16) A Song for That

17) Love Hard

18) Between Here and the Stars

19) Good ‘Ol Boy Good Time

20) Superman

21) One Less Girl

22) She Keeps Me Up Nights

23) Crazy Yet

24) Tonight You’re Mine

25) Girl I Met on the Beach

26) Make It That Far

27) Hanging by a Moment (Lifehouse cover)

28) If You’re Gone (Matchbox Twenty cover)

29) Dare You to Move (Switchfoot cover)

30) My Little JD

 

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