Show Reviews

 

CASH CREEK CLUB LIVE!

Ft. Heath Wright, Jamie O'Neal, RT Johnson, The Rollers, and more!

Wednesday December 1, 2021

@ The Nashville Palace in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

(Photo Credits: Heath Wright by: Jeff Cotner /Jamie O'Neal by: Angela Talley)

“Your monthly midweek fun is back at The Nashville Palace on December 1st,” the guys in Cash Creek posted on their Facebook page to advertise this edition of their Cash Creek Club Live! and they couldn’t have been more right.

Every month since moving their Cash Creek Club Live! shows to the legendary Nashville Palace, the lineups have gotten bigger and bigger, as have the crowds.

The show has recently welcomed such legendary country music acts as Mark Wills, Tim Rushlow, Ritchie McDonald, TY Herndon, Drew Womack, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, and Larry Stewart, and have paired them together with an impressive variety of some of the strongest emerging talent including RT Johnson, The Rollers, Isaac Cole, Angela Oliver, Lee Gibson, and more!

Taping their show for The Nashville Country Television Network, The Cash Creek Club Live! continued to present this same strong dynamic with a very balanced lineup for this month’s edition of their show.

Besides resuming his role as the emcee/host of the entire night, the very prolific Jamey DeRusha (known simple as Jamey D) also kicked off the entire show with a 3-song set of his own that perfectly showcased his strong ability to craft a great lyric out of real-life situations.

Whether he was telling a friend that they don’t need to leave Nashville when they were getting ready to move to the Big Apple on “New York Don’t Need You,” praising the amazing woman he has by his side on “Good Girl at Home,” or reliving “Memory Lane” when his job forced him to have to return to a town where a girl he used to date was from, Jamey D took inspiration from his own life stories, but skillfully crafted them in such a way that the audience was pulled into them and was able to connect their own stories with every word he was singing.

FULL SET LIST (Jamey D)

1) New York Don’t Need You

2) Good Girl at Home

3) Memory Lane

Making their first appearance at The Cash Creek Club was Lost Hollow, a folk driven family band that is made up of the incredible session player Tommy Harden, his amazing songwriter wife Lorrie, and their daughter Maggie (also joined by Jason Roller on fiddle).

After opening with their stunning original “We Both Lose,” Tommy Harden then asked the crowd, “Do we have any Fleetwood Mac fans in here tonight?” eliciting a rousing ovation at the mention of the legendary group. “This is a Lost Hollow version of a Fleetwood Mac song that we really love,” he finished as Lorrie stunned the audience with her outstanding range during their toned back version of “Landslide.”

Being as though it is December, it makes sense then that Lost Hollow also pulled out a song which they stated, “we only do once a year and only at this time of year.”

“We wrote this next song with a gal named Reba McIntyre….you might have heard of her,” Tommy said with a knowing smile on his face. “She had said to us, “I have this idea for a Christmas song where Jesus and Santa team up,” and I thought to myself…. Oh wow! How will we pull this one off without pissing off all the Christians,” he hilariously mused before they closed their set with “Jesus and Santa.”

FULL SET LIST (Lost Hollow)

1) We Both Lose

2) Landslide

3) Jesus and Santa

When you see an artist perform several times, you’ll automatically start to notice different things from your vantage point in the crowd. That’s the case with Today’s Country Magazine and emerging talent, RT Johnson.

It’s becoming more and more obvious with each show he plays that his star is on the rise. The ovations have gotten noticeably louder whenever he is announced by Jamey D, and the pop he received from the crowd when he strolled out on stage this go round was his biggest one yet.

He opened with fan favorite “Your Love Won’t Let Me Cheat,” before playing his breakout hit “Feel Good Again,” the latter which during saw several cell phones spring up into the air to capture the moment on video – another surefire sign that his star is on the rise!

Kimo Forrest, who was on guitar backing Johnson, said to RT, “Hey man, you’ve got something going on in your life right now, don’t you?”

Johnson smiled his familiar, big-hearted, country boy grin, and responded with, “I do. I’m about to be a daddy any minute now,” as the crowd cheered enthusiastically in response.

“The Good Lord has blessed me so much,” Johnson then humbly stated showing that he clearly knows where all good things truly come from before explaining, “I’ve always wanted to be in Nashville playing music, and I’ve always wanted to have a baby boy…here I am doing both,” he finished with a bow of his head as the band drove into “Thirsty Weather,” during which RT and the crowd shared a rousing clap-a-long moment together to cap off an incredible 3-song set. 

FULL SET LIST (RT Johnson)

1) Your Love Won’t Let Me Cheat

2) Feel Good Again  

3) Thirsty Weather

The Rollers, the bluegrass duo comprised of married couple Jason and Kalii Roller, took the stage together next and quickly wowed the crowd with their incredible original song “He Gets Me” to open their portion of the show; a song which Kalii stated before playing was one of her favorites to perform.

Sticking with the Christmas vibe that Lost Hollow started earlier in the night, the duo then played “Magic of the South,” before closing with their beautiful Christmas time tribute to the troops, “Your Gift to Us,” a song which Kalii explained “was really inspired by how we get to be home with our families and friends during the holidays, but they (the troops) don’t always get to be. That’s their gift to us!”

It’s sometimes hard to gage an act when 2/3 of their set are Christmas songs, but The Rollers did everything right by avoiding the standards and delivering 2 originals that presented a uniquely different, much more interesting turn than if they would have just played the holiday songs you’ve heard a million times before. By doing this, the crowd was invested in each song, and it only made their set become that much stronger.

Like with RT Johnson, we’ve been blessed to have seen The Rollers perform several times now, and with each performance they continue to impress us in many ways. The amazing harmonies are always an absolute treat to hear, but their songwriting abilities stand out to bring them to an entirely exciting and different level.

FULL SET LIST (The Rollers)

1) He Gets Me

2) Magic of the South

3) Your Gift to Us

Though they’re always the backing band for most acts that they invite to be a part of their monthly shows, and they’ve played a few scattered songs throughout all the tapings of The Cash Creek Club Live! it is a rarity that Cash Creek themselves will play a set of their own.

Tonight, though, the hosts treated the crowd to a few songs from their vast catalog during a quick set that included “Even Angels Have Bad Days” and their most current single “Hard Time,” their duet with Larry Stewart which Kimo Forrest announced as being #6 in Europe right now before playing.

“This is now my 3rd time playing a Cash Creek Club Live! show,” Jamie O’Neal announced as the band fine-tuned their instruments. “But it’s my first time on the stage here at the legendary Nashville Palace,” she finished, eliciting a cheer from the crowd as she dove into her set with “Trying To Find Atlantis.”

“I have an 18-year-old daughter,” O’Neal stated. “I can’t believe I’m even saying that! But when she was just a baby, two-years-old, she was in the music video for “Somebody’s Hero.” This next song is for all you mom’s, daughters, and grandmothers out there,” she dedicated before playing the Top 5 hit.

“This one is just a cool, fun song that was written by my really good friend Carolyn Dawn Johnson, and I included on my last album,” O’Neal mused before delivering the ultra-catchy and vibey “Spin The Bottle.”

“Well, this next song was inspired by Steven King,” Jamie said, before pausing. “Yes, the scary, horror writer Steve King. It’s a line from Delores Claiborne and it became my first #1 record, so I always say thank you to Steven King before playing it,” she finished as she played “There Is No Arizona,” during which she also included a nice twist into “Hotel California” prior to the final chorus, before closing out her 5-song set with her second #1 song, “When I Think About Angels.”

FULL SET LIST (Jamie O’Neal)

1) Trying To Find Atlantis

2) Somebody’s Hero

3) Spin The Bottle

4) There Is No Arizona

5) When I Think About Angels

“It’s been 20 years since I played on stage with this guy over here,” Heath Wright (lead singer of Ricochet) stated as he pointed and looked at Eddie Kilgallon (commonly known as Eddie K). “He was the original keyboard player for Ricochet.”

As the final tuning on the instruments finished, Wright looked at the band on stage surrounding him and announced, “Alright, let’s do this!” and they were off and running into a set of classic Ricochet songs with “Ease My Troubled Mind” and “What Do I Know.”

“Thank y’all for making that last song our first top 5 record,” Wright gratefully said. “I Hope you remember this next one,” he finished as the band delivered the toe-tapping, two stepping rhythm of “Blink of An Eye,” which kept the enthusiastic crowd clapping and singing along as Wright spewed out the fast-paced lyric.

“I’ve been looking forward to this show for 6 months now,” Heath confessed. “It’s so great to see my Nashville family and friends. Thank y’all for coming out tonight,” he finished as he played “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” followed by “He Left a Lot to Be Desired,” both of which he dedicated to the ladies in the audience.

“Well, we’ve reached the sad part of the show for me, cause we’re at the last song,” Wright mused. “But are y’all ready for the one that brought us to dance?” he asked as the opening notes of “Daddy’s Money” began and the crowd cheered and began to bop along and shout back the lyrics until the final notes were strummed.

Heath Wright is at a point with his career where he can just have fun, and that’s exactly what he did with his set tonight. The smile never left his face, he had the crowd singing along with the biggest hits from Ricochet’s catalog, and he mostly sat humbly in the pocket of the talent surrounding him on stage, oftentimes pausing to encourage the crowd to clap for the musicians in Cash Creek and not himself.

FULL SET LIST (Heath Wright)

1) Ease My Troubled Mind

2) What Do I Know

3) Blink of An Eye

4) Love Is Stronger Than Pride

5) He Left a Lot to Be Desired

6) Daddy’s Money

With each artist only playing abbreviated sets and most of them being backed by Cash Creek – the band which on this night consisted of Kimo Forrest, Monty DeVita, Jason Roller, Eddie Kilgallon (Eddie K), Tommy Harden, and Vic Lawson – there isn’t any extra time lapse between acts. This allows the show to move at a very good, smooth pace, so that it allows the audience to dip their toe into the water with each artist that performs, but to also masterfully always be left wanting more.

Your next chance to catch more of the Cash Creek Club Live! at the Nashville Palace is on Wednesday January 5, 2022.

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 Today's Country Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.