NASHVILLE'S MOST WANTED

Ft. Marty Raybon and James Otto

Tuesday September 14, 2021

@ Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Cody Purvis has hit the mark with his weekly “Nashville’s Most Wanted” show, and he has built it a tremendous grassroot following amongst the country music fans and with all the artists that grace the stage as his guest’s week in and week out.

Whether he’s featuring some of Nashville’s newest emerging artists and giving them the attention that they deserve, or if the show is featuring more well-known acts, you can bet that on a Tuesday night in the Music Valley area of Nashville there will be a large crowd gathered at Scoreboard Bar & Grill, making “Nashville’s Most Wanted” one of the most sought-after weekly events in town.

Presented alongside Buffalo Chip Whiskey, Purvis brought two incredible acts to the stage for this week’s offering of his NMW show: James Otto and Marty Raybon of Shenandoah.

Armed with only an acoustic guitar to accompany his smooth, soulful vocals – which coincidentally is all he really needed – James Otto launched into his 50-minute set with his Top 30 hit “Groovy Little Summer Song,” before delivering “Since You Brought It Up,” a non-album single that was released in 2009 between his Sunset Man and Shake What God Gave Ya albums.

“I’ve got a new record that I’ve been working on,” Otto began, “but I’ve been around for a long long time, and I’ve always considered myself a throwback and that’s exactly what this next song is. It’s called “Retro,” Otto finished as he played the first of three new songs in his set.

“How many dog lovers do I have out there tonight?” asked Otto, as he was met with cheers from the crowd. “I’m a pretty big dude, 6 foot 5. If you had to guess what kind of dog I have, what would you guess?” he asked.

“A chihuahua!” yelled out a lady from the crowd causing Otto to smile and laugh, while setting him up to perfectly show off his sense of humor. “A Chihuahua!” Otto exclaimed in response. “No ma’am…I have 2 chihuahua’s,” he finished before playing another new song called “The Man My Dog Thinks I Am,” quickly followed by “Back to Me.”

“Do I have any Ray Charles fans out there?” Otto asked as the crowd responded. “Well, this is one of my all-time favorites of his,” he finished as he showcased his soul titled R&B vocals while belting out “You Don’t Know Me.”

Sticking with the cover song selection, Otto explained, “I got to be a part of the Warner Brothers 50^th Anniversary album a few years back, and they told me for it, that I could cut any song from the entire WB catalog that I wanted to record. I’ve been a fan of Van Morrison for as long as I can remember, so I cut this one. It’s called “Into the Mystic.”

“I wrote this next song with Zac Brown, who at a time had nine #1 songs in a row. He called me up right before they released this one as a single and told me to have a big Christmas and run up the credit cards because we’re gonna get you your next #1 song. Well, we did have a big Christmas that year and we did run up those credit cards, and while we didn’t get a #1 song, we did get a #2. But do you know the difference between a #1 and a #2 song? You don’t get a party for a #2 song, so I went ahead and threw myself a party. Sing along if you know this one. This song is called “No Hurry,” which instantly had everyone singing along, and Otto kept their voices as he smashed the end of the song into part of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.”

Keeping with the ongoing theme of having the crowd singing along, Otto had everyone howling with him as he covered Travis Tritt’s “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive,” before satisfying a request for “Damn Right,” an album cut from Sunset Man that he truthfully admitted, “I’ll do my best to remember how to play that one.”

“I wrote this next song with Jamey Johnson, and I had been in Nashville for a lot of years when we did,” Otto reminisced. “This song, though, this song made so many of my dreams come true,” he finished as he played an incredible version of the amazing “In Color,” which he gave a favoring nod to military personal and their families halfway through eliciting a rousing cheer of appreciation for those veterans in the audience.

With a quick thank you to the crowd for making the closing song his first #1, James Otto wrapped up his set with “Just Got Started Loving You.”

FULL SET LIST (James Otto)

1) Groovy Little Summer Song

2) Since You Brought It Up

3) Retro

4) The Man My Dog Thinks I Am

5) Back To Me

6) You Don’t Know Me (Ray Charles cover)

7) Into The Mystic (Van Morrison cover)

8) No Hurry

9) It’s A Great Day To Be Alive (Travis Tritt cover)

10) Damn Right

11) In Color

12) Just Got Started Loving You

Marty Raybon, the front man of the legendary group Shenandoah, has been cited by many of the modern era artists as the best voice in country music, so to have someone of his caliber and status playing at a Music Valley bar in a corner pocket of Music City instantly makes his performance a “Nashville moment.”

He immediately had the crowd clapping along with him as he opened his hour and twenty-minute set with “Next to You, Next to Me,” the first of five #1 songs from the Shenandoah catalog that he would play on this night.

Raybon, armed with only an acoustic guitar, commanded the stage throughout his set by playing an impressive selection of his own catalog, introducing us to his influences through his cover song choices, and by sharing details about his life as he told stories behind some of the songs.

“I’m gonna play some Haggard tunes,” he exclaimed early on in his set as he performed “I Always Get Lucky With You,” “I Take A Lot of Pride in What I Am,” and “Kern River,” the latter which he said to be one of his personal favorites from Merle Haggard. Later in the set his Haggard influence reappeared when he played “It’s All In The Movies.”

Sticking with covers, and more importantly using them to introduce his influences, Raybon included plenty of bluegrass music in his set as well; Flatt & Scruggs “Down The Road,” the iconic “Uncle Pen,” etc.

However, to understand the true heart of the man that Raybon is, you must know his love for Christ, which he was happy to share with the audience.

“One thing that I learned years ago - back in 1991 when I gave my heart to Christ - was that the only way I could make it in this life was for Him to be there with me holding my hand,” Raybon openly shared about his acceptance of Christ into his life before playing “I Can’t Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand).”

However, at the core of any Marty Raybon show are country music lovers who want to hear the music of Shenandoah; something that wasn’t lost on Raybon.

“I reckon I need to be playing some Shenandoah stuff,” he said after playing four covers early on in his set, before he grabbed hold of the crowd with “Moon Over Georgia,” “Ghost In This House,” and “I Wanna Be Loved Like That.”

“Do we have any Southerners in the house,” he asked while being met with a loud ovation before playing “Sunday In the South.”

“I know somewhere here at Scoreboard tonight there is a bubba in the crowd…or maybe a bubbette,” Raybon exclaimed with a chuckle as he got the crowd clicking their boot heels when he played “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too).”

Just as how he opened the set with a #1 song, he opted to close his set with two #1 songs to provide a perfect bookend when he played “Two Dozen Roses” and “The Church on Cumberland Road,” the latter which he encouraged before playing, “I’m gonna need some crowd participation on this last one.”

FULL SET LIST (Marty Raybon)

1) Next to You, Next to Me

2) I’m Gonna Hurt Her On The Radio

3) I Want Some of That

4) Mama Knows

5) I Always Get Lucky With You (Merle Haggard cover)

6) I Take A Lot of Pride In What I Am (Merle Haggard cover)

7) Kern River (Merle Haggard cover)

8) Down The Road (Flatt & Scruggs cover)

9) Moon Over Georgia

10) Ghost In This House

11) I Wanna Be Loved Like That

12) I Hope You’ve Learned

13) It Doesn’t Matter Anymore (Neil Sedaka cover)

14) Everybody’s Reaching Out For Someone (Standard cover)

15) Sunday In The South

16) If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)

17) I Can’t Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand) (Standard cover)

18) Backing Into Birmingham (Lester Flatt cover)

19) It’s All In The Movies (Merle Haggard cover)

20) Uncle Pen (Bill Monroe cover)

21) He’s Still My Little Man

22) Two Dozen Roses

23) The Church on Cumberland Road

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