KINSEY ROSE

Monday April 11, 2022

@ Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

With the looming threat of torrential downpours in the forecast, and the competing CMT Awards happening only a mere 7 miles away, Scoreboard Bar & Grill in the Music Valley area of Nashville still managed to draw a solid Monday night crowd as Kinsey Rose took the stage in a stellar showcase that showed off her incredible stage presence and crowd interaction, diverse catalog of covers and originals, and outstanding voice; the latter which earned her a spot on the last season of NBC’s hit television program The Voice.

Throughout her 3-hour timeslot, Kinsey Rose leaned on her strong influences from the iconic women of country music to deliver her takes on classics such as Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” Loretta Lynn’s “Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind),” And Emmylou Harris’ “Two More Bottles Of Wine,” while also filtering in her 90’s branded country upbringing by covering Patty Loveless, Lee Ann Womack, and The Chicks; the latter of which she played “Cowboy Take Me Away” to open her set with, which was the song she performed during her blind audition that earned her a spot on Team Kelly.

Though most of the covers she played in her set naturally featured songs from female artists, Rose also never shies away from putting on a full display of all her classic country influences, and so she included her versions of several male fronted songs as well, including George Jones’ “Choices,” Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in The Rain,” and Randy Travis’ “Three Wooden Crosses.”

However, being the consummate student of the songwriting game that she is, she also wore her songwriter heroes out on her sleeve and put on a display that paid homage to some of the great songs of yesteryear that included Don Williams’ “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” and John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” both which appear on her 2021 Honky Tonk Treasures album.

As is the case with any show in Nashville of this length, and with these types of tourist-based crowds, requests will always come at the artist by the plenty and Rose had her fair share of those to try and navigate as well.

Though at times she slightly slid out of her comfort zone to satisfy some requests, the crowd clearly understood where her voice fits best and allowed it to shine through their requests for Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine,” The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young,” and Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” which Rose admitted that she can never make it through the song without giggling, and true to form that exact thing happened again on this night when she attempted to play it.

If an artist can lay out their set in just the right ways, though, then they’ll expertly pull the audience into their show on the back of the cover songs that they already know and love, but they’ll craft it in such a way that they can then slap home their original songs and earn new fans through them.

A touching tribute to her old neighbor who passed away with “The Bubba Song” came early in the set via audience request, the stunning “Take My Picture Down” came later in the night, and she closed with her most recent single “When Trucks Fly,” all while delivering her charming sarcasm and wit through songs such as “The Mullet Song” and “Down To My Last Roll,” which she confessed was written during the great toilet paper shortage at the start of COVID and hilariously introduced it as a #2 hit.

She also skillfully used the receptive crowd as a chance to test out some of her new material as well, which included the show stopping “Precious Time,” a heartfelt song that she introduced as being inspired by the experiences of a long-distance relationship.

But beyond just the music and her outstanding performance, as Kinsey Rose has done so well since her earliest days in Nashville, she carries an uncanny ability to make and instant connection with any given crowd. She’s mastered the art of first pulling them in with an old friend kind of vibe, and then holds them in their seats throughout her whole set by allowing bits of her smart aleck sarcastic side to intermingle with her down-home personality to connect on ultra-humorous levels throughout the night.

Some of those turns at humor that connected perfectly with the Monday nighters in the crowd, included:

A joke about Dolly before playing Jolene: “What do you call it when you’re stuck in an elevator with Dolly Parton?....A booby trap!”

A quick conversation with a fan who when he told her that she reminded him of his daughter, prompted Rose to very quickly respond with, “Well, she must be pretty then!”

A story before she played “Wagon Wheel” (by request) about a time when Darius Rucker showed up at her gig at Legends Corner in downtown Nashville and jumped on stage with her band to perform the song, resulting in Rose sarcastically telling him that it would be a hundred bucks for that – which she laughed as she said, “and he tipped us that!”

And just as the skies opened midway through her set and the rain pounded on the tin roof of the Scoreboard Bar & Grill above us, Rose adlibbed her set to include a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” which earned a rousing audience sing along.

A touching, though surreal, moment occurred for Rose when her longtime guitar player Mark Dooley, the man who not only played guitar for her when she was first getting her feet wet in town but helped her out so much at the beginning of her career, joined her on stage for the first time in many many years to play some songs alongside her. The moment clearly transcended over the crowd as you could look at Rose and Dooley feeding off one other as they slid back into the on-stage banter that they had all those years ago.

But as it stands to prove for any artist pounding the pavement in Nashville, even someone who has risen to Kinsey’s status over the years, it’s not always an easy task to play for an unsuspecting crowd who most likely is just there to party and you just happen to be the one singing during it. Take for example, when a guy sitting with a group at the table directly in front of the stage got sick right into a plastic cup, causing Kinsey to have to look away so that she wouldn’t also get sick.

Kinsey Rose is a songwriter/artist who knows exactly who she is, what she does, and how to do it. Her confidence is an attribute that most performers in town strive to have. However, that certainly doesn’t mean that playing in Nashville doesn’t present its challenges that are vastly different than what she may experience while she’s out on tour, but rather it means she knows how to toe the line perfectly, accept the moment, and take everything in stride just as it comes.

By carrying this know-how with her into every show we’ve ever seen her play in Nashville over the last decade, she achieves the ultimate goal each time out in that she not only wins over the crowd but leaves such a lasting impression that it often leads to them buying her music when they get home long after their vacation to Music City has ended.

FULL SET LIST

1) Cowboy Take Me Away (The Chicks cover)

2) Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind) (Loretta Lynn cover)

3) The Bubba Song

4) Jolene (Dolly Parton cover)

5) You Don’t Even Know Who I Am (Patty Loveless cover)

6) Down To My Last Roll

7) Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover)

8) Lord I Hope This Day Is Good (Don Williams cover)

9) Strawberry Wine (Deana Carter cover)

10) Travellin’ Soldier (The Chicks cover)

11) Angel from Montgomery (John Prine cover)

12) Ring of Fire (Jonny Cash cover)

13) Neon Moon (Brooks & Dunn cover/Kacey Musgraves style)

14) Two More Bottles of Wine (Emmylou Harris cover)

15) I Hope You Dance (Lee Ann Womack cover)

16) Girl Crush (Little Big Town cover)

17) If I Die Young (Band Perry cover)

18) Precious Time

19) Have You Ever Seen The Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)

20) The Mullet Song

21) Wagon Wheel (Darius Rucker version cover)

22) You Can’t Remember

23) I Think I Know (Lee Ann Womack cover)

24) Ghost In This Town (Shenandoah cover/Alison Krauss version)

25) Take My Picture Down

26) Three Wooden Crosses (Randy Travis cover)

27) Choices (George Jones cover)

28) He Stopped Loving Her Today (George Jones cover – performed by AJ)

29) Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain (Willie Nelson cover)

30) When Trucks Fly

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