LILY ROSE

Thursday September 30, 2021

Stronger Than I Am EP release party @ Ole Red Nashville in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

It’s always an exciting moment in a young artists career when their first label project drops. There’s anticipation, anxiety, and the hope that as their next chapter begins, the songs that they poured their heart and soul into creating will resonate with the listeners.

For the past several months, Big Loud/Republic Records recording artist Lily Rose has been creating major buzz for her EP Stronger Than I Am with songs such as “I Don’t Smoke,” “Remind Me of You,” “Know My Way Around,” and “Villain,” the latter which has catapulted her to wild amounts of success and just reached #1 status on Sirius XM’s The Highway.

Just an hour before her EP officially dropped to the public, Lily Rose hit the stage at Ole Red Nashville to celebrate with hundreds of her biggest fans.

Clad in what is becoming her signature look – black jeans, black t-shirt, a flannel, and a baseball cap – Rose instantly got the crowd bopping and singing along with her as she jumped into her 55-minute set with “Know My Way Around” and “Remind Me of You.”

“We’re gonna do two things tonight,” Rose instructed. “We’re on Broadway so we’re gonna sing these songs louder than you’ve ever sung them before…and we’re gonna party,” she finished as she hit the opening notes of “Breakin’ In,” and later led the crowd in a sing along before raising her cup and toasting their enthusiasm as the final notes of the song were played.

“Is it cool with you guys if do one of my favorite covers that we do out on the road,” Rose asked the crowd who responded with a loud ovation. “My boy Morgan Wallen wrote this one and you’ve probably heard Jason Aldean sing it,” she exclaimed as she played one of Aldean’s many #1 songs, “You Make It Easy.”

“Thank you for coming out tonight to be a part of this,” Rose said, addressing the crowd with a humble and grateful tone. “We’re celebrating my first project coming out tonight at midnight, but is it cool if I have y’all to myself for a couple songs and we do a little acoustic thing?,” she asked, before giving the crowd “Here For It,” a song inspired by the start of her relationship with her girlfriend, and then throwing an audible into the setlist with a verse and chorus of “Overnight Sensation,” a song that she didn’t initially intend on playing.

“You guys, it’s so true when I say in that last song that I was an overnight sensation 13 years in the making. I’ve played so many empty bars with just me and the bartenders back in the day, so if it’s cool with y’all, I’m gonna play a little medley of songs I used to like playing in those days,” she said as she delivered quick punches of songs from Montell Jordan, Sam Hunt, Russell Dickerson, and Dan + Shay.”

“The day that I signed my record deal with Big Loud/Republic Records,” she began as she then praised everyone at her label for taking care of her like family, “Big Loud was like “hey, we know you write your own songs but we’re gonna give you a list of 20 that you didn’t write to choose from.” I was like, well that’s uncomfy but okay. At the top of that list was the song “Remind Me of You,” and down at the bottom of it was “Stronger Than I Am.” This is one of the best country songs I’ve heard. There’s a little bit of drinkin’, a little bit of heartbreak, and I still can’t believe that Griffen Palmer and Geoff Warburton let me record this one. This is the title track of the EP,” Rose concluded as she played her newest single “Stronger Than I Am,” and then quickly followed it with “I’d Be Lying,” “Whole Lotta Hometowns,” and “I Don’t Smoke.”

“If you hate your ex sing this one with me,” Rose encouraged as she played “Better Than That,” before closing her set (just minutes before her EP officially dropped) with “Villain,” which she described as the song that “changed my entire life!”

FULL SET LIST

1) Know My Way Around

2) Remind Me of You

3) Breakin’ In

4) You Make It Easy (Jason Aldean cover)

5) Here For It

6) Overnight Sensation

7) Cover Medley: This Is How We Do It (Montell Jordan cover), Saturday Night (Sam Hunt cover), “Blue Tacoma (Russell Dickerson cover), Tequila (Dan + Shay cover)

8) Stronger Than I Am

9) I’d Be Lying

10) Whole Lotta Hometowns

11) I Don’t Smoke

12) Better Than That

13) Villain

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