April 2018 – Page 2 – Gary Hayes Country

2018 Music Festivals: Aiken Bluegrass Festival.

Apr 022018

This next edition of my festival series brings us to Aiken South Carolina to the 14th annual Aiken Bluegrass Festival, which is an outdoor two day event. I’ve had reports of terrific musical happenings here, and heard great things from some of the food vendors there. THIS IS one of the premiere festivals of the southeast, and many people travel great distances to come here.

This article will be akin to my other famous editions of 175 yearly complete festival guides from all over America, and a few overseas as well. You can purchase tickets for this event RIGHT HERE.

Trust me for the ticket price this is one of the more reasonable festivals of it’s kind. However when you buy tickets remember you MUST purchase a seperate primitave camping pass, but it’s only 5.00 per person. Coolers are NOT permitted in the stage areas only at your campsite, so you’ll have to buy beer at the vendor tents.
THIS LINK will take you to a nice list of local area hotels for staying for the festival if you are like me and cannot camp.

The ALL NEW Improved Weekly Local Music Guide.

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Apr 012018

If YOU have a show YOU would like added to my list PLEASE email me at garyhayes2@yahoo.com. I literally watch more than 40 venues in Nashville plus belong to many concert websites in order to bring you this coverage. NEW IN 2018, folks I am always looking for ways to enhance what I do for you. So this year I’ll be reporting on further Kentucky shows, and further Tennessee shows as well.

Folks WHATEVER YOU DO PLEASE support live venue music

Fuitition
Ascend Ampitheater May 2nd

No Deceit
Spillway May 3rd

Dwight Yoakam
Iroquois Ampitheater Louisville Ky May 4rth

Howlin Brothers
Tidballs May 4rth

Margo Price
City Winery May 4rth

Kelsey Waldon
Billy Strings
The Burl May 4rth

Tracey Lawrence
Renfro Valley May 5th

Billy Strings
The Burl May 5th

Hot Club Of Cowtown
City Winery May 9th

Clint Black
State Theater Elizabethtown Ky May 10th

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Revelry Room Chattanooga Tn May 11th

Nathan Kalish
Dry Ground Brewery May 11th

William Clark Green
3rd And Lindsley May 12th

The Josephines
Spillway Bowling Green May 12th

Joe Diffie
Renfro Valley May 12th

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Cosmic Charlie’s May 13th

Kris Kristofferson with Ben Haggard
Basement East May 16th

Willie Nelson And Alison Krauss
Ascend Ampitheater May 18th

Parker Milsap
3rd And Lindsley May 20th

Margo Price
Ryman Auditorium May 20, 21 and 23rd

Kristiana Murray
Nashville Nashville Tn May 22nd

Ruby boots
Basement May 18th

Trampled By Turtles
Ryman Auditorium May 18th

Parker Milsap
3rd And Lindsley May 20th

Raul Malo SOLO
City Winery May 21st

John Moreland
Manchester Music Hall Lexington Ky

Dailey And Vincent April 28th

Colter Wall
Grand Theater May 18th

Trampled By Turtles
Ryman Auditorium May 18th

Ray Wylie Hubbard
Stoddart Family Farm Crawford Tn May 26th

The Oak Ridge Boys
Beaver Dam Amphitheater June 1st

The Oak Ridge Boys
Renfro Valley June 2nd

Justin Townes Earle
Headliner’s Louisville Ky June 2nd

American Aquarium and Cory Branon
The Basement East June 5th

Terri Clark
Wildhorse Saloon June 7th

Colter Wall
Louisville Palace Ky June 8th

The Josephines
The A frame Bowling Green Ky June 8th

William Matheny
The Basement June 9th

The Reverend Horton Heat
Big Sandy And The Fly Rite Boys
Lara Hope And The Ark Tones
Southgate House June 13th

Hillbilly Casino
Mercy lounge June 14th

John Anderson
Palace Theater Crossville Tn June 22nd

Jamey Johnson
Renfro Valley June 23rd

John Anderson
State theater June 23rd

Lavender Country
The Basement June 23rd

Jeremy Pinnell
Biley’s Taproom June 23rd

Kristina Murray
Honky Tonk Tuesday June 26th

Urban Pioneers
Nashville Palace June 26th

Jamey Johnson
The Shed June 29th

Russell Moore And IIIrd Tyme Out
Yellow Creek Park Owensboro Ky June 29th

The Po Ramblin Boys
Station Inn June 29th

The Reverend Horton Heat
Exit Inn June 30th

The Blasters
Exit Inn July 1st

Cecil Allen Moore
American Legion Post 82 July 3rd

Shooter Jennings and Turnpike Troubadors
Beaver Dam Ampitheater August 4rth

Del McCoury Band
Ryman July 12th

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Miller Plaza Chattanooga Tn July 13th

Charley Pride
Renfro Valley July 14th

Jimmy Fortune
Kentucky Opry August 25th

Janie Frickie
Renfro Valley September 7th

The Reeves Brothers
American Legion Post 82
Sept 7th

Cecil Allen Moore
American Legion Post 82
Sept 25th

Anderson East And Brent Cobb
Ryman Auditorium Sept 28th

Marty Stuart
Rupp Arena Ky Oct 27th

Album feature: Ashley McBryde: Girl Going Nowhere.

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Apr 012018

By Joshua Wallace

Ashley McBryde appeared on many traditional country fan radars with her hit song “A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega”. That song enjoyed a long life as a single having been released almost a year before her new album Girl Going Nowhere. That long lead time and some plugs from popular mainstream artists such as Eric Church have done that song a lot of good and as of press time it has over 2 million plays on Spotify which is amazing for a traditional artist making their major label debut. Girl Going Nowhere may have a more produced sound to it, however it does not stray from the traditional country sound you know from her previous releases like Jalopies & Expensive Guitars.

“A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega” was the perfect lead single for this record. It sets the tone and if you knew nothing of Ashley McBryde before this song, it lets you know you’re in for a more traditional country sounding album with some amazing songwriting. That continued with another single titled “American Scandal” which showcased more great songwriting in a track about forbidden love. “Radioland” rounds out the amazing trio of singles with a country rocker reminiscing about the days of families gathering around and listening to the radio together. McBryde namechecks great songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt and radio personalities like Casey Kasem in a great nostalgic track.

Another favorite from this album is “The Jacket”. It’s a simple nostalgic song about a jacket, but it’s something everyone can relate to. Everybody has the kind of jacket that shares all the memories you have of everywhere you’ve worn it. Another favorite is “Livin’ Next To Leroy” which tackles a subject not always approached in country music which meth use. Living in the south, everyone knows a Leroy or two and this song hits the nail on the head in describing the drug culture in the south. Finally, “Home Sweet Highway” is a nice slower song about life on the road and longing for all the things you miss at home. This track has a nice groovy bass line that would make for a good road song.

This album has been a long time coming. “A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega” hit hard when it came out and it made the wait for the full album that much harder. There isn’t a bad song on “Girl Going Nowhere” from the acoustic opener to the slow and groovy closing track. Don’t skip this release, it’s a good one. Girl Going Nowhere is available everywhere music is sold right now.

Favorite Tracks : A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega, Radioland, American Scandal, Home Sweet Highway, Livin’ Next To Leroy, The Jacket

Ashley McBryde – Girl Going Nowhere (2018)

Girl Goin’ Nowhere
Radioland
American Scandal
Southern Babylon
The Jacket
Livin’ Next To Leroya
Andy (I Can’t Live Without You)
El Dorado
Tired Of Being Happy
Home Sweet Highway
A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega

Sunny Sweeney Part 2.

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Apr 012018

I’m VERY excited tonight for this show out here at the Spillway Bar And Grill, man this place is packed for Miss Sunny BUT FIRST we have our old friend Mr.Rye Davis up first here. This is the last of a two night run with Sunny Sweeney, and this article will publish in two parts, to view this first portion please click HERE.

Last night she played a wonderful set filled with a few NEW SONGS that I’ll be the FIRST to tell you about on either of these portions of this job. This is an absolute pleasure to see this venue filled like this for Sunny Sweeney, and it’s an honor to watch her grow exponentially in the last few years. I am relentlessly pursuing Opry management to recognize her involvement toward the Opry, by inducting her as a member. I believe that being one of the younger artists out there playing real Country, she would be a stalwart torch carrier of the institution.

It’s been an honor to have featured Mr. Rye Davis and No Deceit many times in the five years this website has been active, and tonight both of them are opening acts for her. It’s standing room only here tonight and right now Mr. Robert is introducing some of the fun we have planned tonight. After tonight I’m gearing up for a few nights in West Virginia W.B. Walker And His Five Year Anniversary.

So once again Mr. Rye Davis is preparing to play some acoustic songs for us here with his usual unique style, and I hope he plays the song about blue jeans..I’ll tell you I have so much going on, and so many irons in the fire it’s unreal here. Business is good!

He opened his set with “If You Wanna Rock and Roll” which is a good uptempo song, and he followed that up with a song called “She Knows”. I think this is of his more well written songs with well structured lyrics and a good melody. He did indeed play the song called “Blue Jeans”, good hooks and inventive lyrics. Growing up and having his mother wash his jeans, they tattled on him from leaving things in the pockets.

His next song is a brand new song called “Stone To Stone” and he completed his set with a song called “They All Know My Name” which was self admittedly his favorite song. That song is always a good closing song with powerful lines within it’s messages.

No Deceit was next here, and they have been featured on here once before as well. I certainly don’t mind revisiting bands many times over to watch for growth and new songs. They started with the song called “I Smoked Myself Into A Dream”., I’m telling you it’s always FUN to come see a local band that just plays and has FUN on stage.

These young people don’t care about fluffy image or notoriety, they just play rocking music. Their second song was called “Hicktown”. I snuck up to catch some more pictures of this band here, maneuvering through this massive crowd here to catch them in action. This is a very high energy band to have for an opener, and a VERY good opportunity for them to showcase to a larger crowd.

After playing “Might As Well Get Stoned” by Stapleton they played one called “The River”. They followed that song up with one called “Last Dance With Mary Jane”…what a well played cover of a Petty song. They really displayed a FUN ambiance here, and set the tone of the evening right.

“Take It Easy” was NOT a cover of the Eagles song it is indeed their own original, and on their album. However their next song was a Stapleton/Coe/Jones song called Tennessee Whiskey, pretty much a self explained song there. ‘Run Darl’n” was next on the set list, followed by a song called “Free And Easy”. They closed their set with the title track of their album called “Bar Band”, and left us all in a good position for another dose of gettin Sweenered here in Bowling Green!

Sooo here we go, another night of Miss Sunny and her hardcore Country Music. She’s going to lay down some smack ass Honky Tonk upon the Spillway here! I have never witnessed two nights of her set before, and I’m excited to see how she changes them nightly.

I DO KNOW she plans to play the NEW song called “Tie Me Up But You Can’t Tie Me Down’, and hopefully she’ll play the other new one from last night as well. She did come out to the song called “Better Bad Idea”, like she did yesterday. EXCELLENT intro song to come out to!

Right now, we are enjoying “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving”, and after that a cover of “Rainy Day Woman”. Then, SHE DID PLAY the new song called “Body In A Boxcar” I’m TELLING YOU it’s a rowdy boot stomper here! She has a full house whupping butts out here in Bowling Green! Her band is REALLY TOP NOTCH, both nights they complimented her style and her vocals quite well.

“Pass The Pain” was next, and both nights she went into detail about going through her divorce and an altercation of getting ‘Kindly Removed” from a bar early inspired her to write that song. It is an older song however it is the first song off her new album Trophy, which landed at number four on my TOP 50 of 2017.

Stories backed up all of her songs this weekend, and this brought us closer to her as an artist. “Nothing Wrong With Texas” was next followed by a song called “Trophy” that is the title track of her latest album, and it was not included in part 1. She did juggle the set lists in several areas this weekend for sure.

Her song “Uninvited” came with a terrific story about Vince Gill, followed by “Pills” and the new song “You Can Tie Me Up But You Can’t Tie Me Down”. As I previously stated I did not shoot video of any of her two performances this weekend, for professional reasons.

She once again played both versions of “If I Could”, and shared both stories of why they changed the format around. Her set list also contained “Drink Myself Single”, “East Texas Pines”, “From A table Away” and another great one with an adult theme called “Whiskey Richard”. Many hilarious references to erectile dysfunction, and sexual jokes abounded at a more suitable setting for that song. However BOTH venues hosted OUTSTANDING shows.

Another song she performed solely at Spillway was “Kiss My Ass”, and she wrapped up her show with songs like “Bottle By My Bed” which once again was related to by many audience members, and this time she played ‘Backhanded Compliment” before wrapping up the show with “Bad Girl Phase”.

Sunny Sweeney Part 1.

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Apr 012018

Tonight is the first night of a two night run of local venue shows with Miss sunny Sweeney, and I have the next four days off for Easter holidays. So that pretty much means the website is open for business 24_7, I have so much news to bring you.

Mr. Joshua Wallace also has many things to bring you from Florida and his office as well. Night one of Sunny Sweeny took place at 3rd And Lindsley on Thursday, and it had Mr. Jamie Kent as the opening act.

He brought an intimate acoustic performance to us first, with a respectful and silent audience he poured out his heart to us tonight. He told many of the stories behind the songs, like the song “Safe” that he wrote from a father’s point of view. Broke But Not Broken was a good one he wrote after someone broke into his van in Los Angeles and stole his leather bag. He joked that the they left all of his clothes behind, and that he had some expensive shirts.

He played a really touching song for the service men and women called “Home Again”, which dealt with issues of mental health after their return. He proclaimed everyone should have at least four songs about whiskey, and he has only one called “On The Wings Of Whiskey Tonight”.

The title track of his new album was called “All American Mutt” and he followed that with a new song he waited until he got married to release called “I Can Call You Mine”. His final two songs were one called “Look Up” which was about inattentive people on cellphones, and another with a very funny story.

The song was called “Size 9 Cowboy”, and it was about a time he landed a Durango Boot endorsement. They shipped him 5 pairs of boots that were too big for him, they told him to go to a special Boot retailer to exchange them. They sadly informed him they didn’t carry boots under size 10. This was a cleverly written song for short people with small feet.

All together it was truly well played set of songs, and it was easy to ascertain that he was having fun up there performing for us tonight. I would highly suggest catching his set live.

The last time I crossed paths with Miss Sunny Sweeney was at the Ryman With Cody Jinks And Ward Davis, which actually was the last time she announced she played Nashville. Her new album Trophy adorned many a top 50 year end lists, and garnered major attention from the media, to read mine where she secured number 4 click HERE.

She now has four wonderful albums to choose from and tonight she delved into all four of them quite vibrantly. I met with her the next night for the first time since Tumbleweed In Kansas City, where she agreed with me as I mentioned it to her. She said that she does indeed pick many from all four albums, don’t you wish most artists did that? I mean, every album went different directions as HER LIFE was doing the same. Personal issues, divorce, and other issues dictate her writing style on her last two albums, while her first one was simply evolving her own identity with major label struggles.

I found Sunny Sweeney on Myspace early in her career, probably before many of today’s people that are featuring her. She had this KILLER ALBUM self released, and she was emanating from Texas along with the Red Dirt scene. However she had (and still has) this Traditonal Country sound that separates her from her Red Dirt ilk. Even back then as people like Mr. Roger Creager and Mr. Wade Bowen grew in one area, so did Miss Sunny and she grew in her own identity.

She entered the stage during the drum portion of her song ‘Better Bad Idea” which is now a staple song on her set in the beginning, and went over to her second album “Concrete” by playing “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving”. Neither set this weekend contained many covers, however “rainy Day Woman” was included tonight. “Rainy Day Woman” was released in 1975, and was the first song to be produced by Tompall Glaser for Waylon.

Now folks, tonight’s set contained a few NEW SONGS and one of them she said we were the second group of people to hear. I did NOT film any videos of her out of respect for her material, for me new songs leaked on video early are taboo for me. It may become a new single in the future. However “Body In a Boxcar” was a train sing she wrote and shared with us. “Pass The Pain” was next the first track off “Trophy” , proceeded by “Nothing wrong With Texas” from the same album.

“Uninvited” came from her third album “Provoked” followed by a song she didn’t write called “Pills” that came from “Trophy” originally written by Miss Brennen Leigh. She performed her first single “If I Could” in two different fashions, along with a story. She said that they had been hired to play a social function, the attendees weren’t paying much attention, so her band was toying with songs. They played this song with a new slower twist, and then played it originally in it’s faster form.

‘Drink Myself Single” was next followed by another NEW SONG called “You Can Tie Me Up But You Can’t Tie Me Down”. I apologize that I cannot provide video for you to enjoy it, I did not film her performing them. Perhaps I can work with her PR company to feature new song premieres in the future.

“East Texas Pines” That song I believe laid some groundwork for her identity away from her Red Dirt colleagues. However still maintained placing her along with their affection FOR Texas. You see the analysis of mine here? Next song was one of her more commercial songs ever, it was co written with Mr. Bob Dipiero called “From A Table Away” That was the staple single from her second album, which was more commercial overall.

Her song called “Whiskey Richard” was one of her more famous songs you will only hear live. With it’s adult themed references that song I heard first at Tumbleweed, and you might hear her play it during her Hard Candy Christmas. “Why People Change” was once again off “Trophy” along with her most powerful song to date “Bottle By My Bed” . I think that song speaks to her audience more than any other.

She included the long existing song co written by Angeleena Presely called “You Don’t Know Your Husband”, which deals with those naughty cheating men that make single guys like me to be heavily scrutinized. Once again her first album was contained a song called “Next Big Nothing” that has a good boot scooting beat to dance to. “Bad Girl Phase” was another good song she recorded later on in her career. She ended her show tonight with an encore of a song off her third album called “Backhanded Compliment”, leaving us with a satisfied palate of Honky Tonk Country.

In conclusion I would highly suggest all of you go out and catch her show whenever she come to YOUR area!

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