CASH CREEK CLUB LIVE!

Ft. Jamie O' Neal,  RT Johnson, Megan Mullins Owen, and more!

Wednesday April 6, 2022

@ Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

The Cash Creek Club Live! has called the legendary Nashville Palace home for their monthly showcase over the past few months, but this night marked their first time at the equally important Music Valley venue Scoreboard Bar & Grill – and just one look at the crowd on hand instantly showed that the move proved to be a good choice.

With the Nashville Country Television Network camera’s set up around the front portion of venue to capture the exciting performances from the emerging talent on the CCB Nashville label, Jamey D took the stage to open the night of great music with his next single “Good Girl.”

Speaking to the crowd about the city of Nashville, Jamey D explained, “the town that you see today isn’t the town that I came to years ago. There’s been a lot of changes; some good and some bad…and this next song is my opinion on them,” he finished as he played the thought-provoking “Boomtown,” connecting his thoughts on the importance of preserving the history and fabrication of our great city with the audience members who clearly felt the same as they nodded their heads in approval with each line he sang.

“This song came out just a few weeks ago,” Jamey began. “But I wrote it 14 years ago and it’s a story of when a friend of mine was moving up to New York City and I looked at her one night before she left and said New York Don’t Need You,” before he played the heartfelt song of the same name.

“This next song is going to be my last one,” Jamey D said as the band began playing the intro to “Workin’ My Way Back Home.” “We spend a lot of time on the road chasing neon rainbows, “ he continued. “This is for anyone who spends time away from their loved ones.”

With each passing Cash Creek Club Live! show, Jamey D is continuously getting stronger and stronger. He exuded confidence throughout this performance, enticing the crowd as he fueled his very strong lyrics and gritty country sound with an unmatched passion that immediately set the bar very high for each act that would follow.

Sliding into his role as emcee, Jamey D then brought Rusty Van Sickle to the stage. Van Sickle is a road warrior who you’ll most often find on stage picking guitar for John Michael Montgomery, but his own blast of an edgy, 90’s country tilted sound springs to life with just enough catchy, modern touches that any given audience lucky enough to see him perform as a solo act will become immediately enthralled.

He bookended his set on this night with “Wild Side” and “Money to Burn,” both which are songs that are kissed with a modern country grit that helps add a rocking element to his already impressive stage presence, but it’s how he skillfully slid songs into the middle portion of his show that truly captivated the audience’s attention.

He pulled on heartstrings when he sent a cover of Keith Whitley’s “Kentucky Bluebird” out to his granddaddy who had just recently passed away, and he pulled his set all together with an amazing duet with Megan Mullins Owen on “When It Comes to You,” a song in which he said to have written years back with Dillon Carmichael (“Hot Beer”).

Any touring band member will naturally have the passion bubbling inside of them to create their own music, but so many of them fail to define themselves as solidly as Rusty Van Sickle does. Without ever fully crossing into a complete modern country sound, he instead perfectly accents his brand of 90’s country with an updated feel so that it walks alongside everything that you hear on country radio today without ever sounding exactly like anything else. This stark familiarity smashes into his uniqueness in such a great way that he absolutely rose to the occasion to reach up for that bar that was set earlier in the night by Jamey D.

Continuing to reach for that bar, Megan Mullins Owen hit the stage on the back of a big ole “Howdy” ala Minnie Pearl and immediately brought the audience’s attention to the stage with her incredible fiddle slaying and jumpy, autobiographical “All-American Family Band,” before quickly putting on a display of her amazing range in style and sound when she drove into the western swing tilt of “This Good Is Gettin’ Better.”

But over the past few months as CCB Nashville has been releasing music as part of their #newmusicfriday initiative, Mullins Owen has delivered two stunning songs that country radio simply can’t ignore; both of which she sat at the centerpiece of this performance.

While her fiddle playing ripped the roof off the joint and brought people to their feet a few songs later as she closed out her set, “He Breaks Things” and her amazing new single “Trampoline” both allowed her to put on a display of completely modern country style while meeting crafty songwriting techniques, amazing lyrics, and a killer voice that held the anchor down on her set and pushed the bar even higher for RT Johnson to have to follow.

Though she can usually be seen on the road as part of Alabama’s touring band, Megan Mullins Owen really gets the chance to showcase her incredible, all-around chops as an artist and songwriter during these Cash Creek Club Live! shows, and she absolutely proved that Nashville missed the boat on her years ago when they had a chance to elevate her star! Here’s to hoping they don’t miss it again with this go round. 

“Summertime Hangover” had everyone thinking about the fun in the sun months that are just around the corner as RT Johnson opened his set with the catchy blast of summer and pulled the audience into what he does; perfectly putting an exclamation point on that same vibe when he also leaned on it to close his set with “Thirsty Weather.”

Since his song  “Feel Good Again” ascended the MusicRow CountryBreakOut chart, RT Johnson has been a force to be reckon with. With each Cash Creek Club Live! show he plays, it becomes more and more obvious that Johnson has become a favorite of the fans and is the breakout artist of the CCB Nashville label.

He continued to show that again tonight!

“You Can’t Go Wrong,” “Daylight Southern Time,” and his radio-ready single “Trouble” each delivered an impressive impact on the crowd that left them wanting more from his big voice and incredibly modern country vibe.

However, as is usually the case with RT Johnson, he always has a few extra tricks up his sleeve that will leave the crowd talking about him long after the night is over, such as when he pulled out his upcoming single “The Bong Song,” which included tongue and cheek lyrics and a drop into a feel-good reggae beat that the audience never saw coming.

But beyond the music, it’s his down-home country boy attitude that makes him such an endearing artist, which he once again wore on his sleeve as he gratefully spoke of how much the good Lord has blessed him by delivering on two of his biggest dreams:

1) To play music in Nashville; said while praising the guys in Cash Creek who gave him his chances.

2) And to have a little baby boy; alluding to the newest addition to his family as he smiled a big toothy smile, stating that he never thought he could love someone so much.

After an amazing one-song performance from Cash Creek of their recent single “It Feels Good,” headliner Jamie O’Neal took the stage to a rousing ovation as she dove into her set with “Trying to Find Atlantis,” and she instantly had everyone moving and grooving with the popular song that she dedicated to all the single ladies out there.

Over her 40-minute set, other than delivering the ultra-catchy “Spin the Bottle,” O’Neal rolled through a set of her biggest hits including “Somebody’s Hero,” her first #1 song “There Is No Arizona” and “When I Think About Angels,” the latter which included an amazing sing-along moment between she and the enthusiastic crowd. 

However, as good as each performance of those songs was, the show stopping moment came by request from Cash Creek guitarist Kimo Forrest.

The Music Valley area of Nashville is synonymous with classic country music. Most of the venues around that area host traditional acts, not to mention that they all sit in the shadow of the hallowed ground of the Grand Ole Opry. So, when the opening notes of the Kris Kristofferson classic “Help Me Make It Through the Night” began to play, everyone sat up a little straighter in their chairs as O’Neal stunned the crowd with her incredible vocal range and a huge smile on her face as the song’s final notes were played; signaling that she had felt the exact same way about the performance as the crowd did.

The Cash Creek Club Live! has worked hard to become one of the most sought after shows in the oversaturated Nashville area, and their move over to Scoreboard may have just helped them punch the ticket they needed to bring their show to an even higher level of success.

Catch the Cash Creek Club Live! every first Wednesday of the month at Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN.

• Prev
• Next