I’m not 100 percent sure that I will be able to pull this off, but Joshua and I are going to be trying the first ever LIVE BLOG on this website, directly from the audience as we have nosebleed seats instead of media for this event. We wanted to pay for our tickets and we wanted to bring you the best coverage from the event that we can here. We are currently in a hotel in Columbus Ohio, not far from the stadium. Today because of the nefarious heat, we have opted to forgo the parking lot party until tomorrow. We do plan to go about 1pm Eastern time, where I will post information and possible videos. If this router works well, we may do more of this in other states.
I have many issues to perfect on this situation, however you damn sure bet that I will overcome them and bring some terrific coverage of events like this one. I am going to add some of the documented information I wrote down as I worked this event. Nobody really had any idea that the heat was going to be utterly dangerous on Saturday, so how can anyone really blame that for ruining their weekend?
Charles Wesley Godwin came out in full force with his song “Cue Country Roads” off his Family Ties album and he followed it with a Chris Knight cover called “The Jealous Kind” from that self titled album of 2003 . He played one for his Dad called “Miner Imperfections “. And I tell you what..the normies are liking this stuff. He has a good sized group singing along.
“Strong” was off the “How The Mighty Fall” album from 2021, which I have always thought this song was one of the highlights of that album. The “Family Ties” album brought forth the next 2 songs called “All Again” and the self named title song.
He is fitting in very well into this arena and festival crowd today. But if you recall we just went down to Florida to see him also. I am just learning to do this folks…live. This is transpiring right now. This place is amazing for live music, and everyone has been really friendly to us all day today. Tomorrow we will be covering the pre shows more. Currently he is playing an extended version of “Another Leaf”.
Zach Bryan came out here singing with him on the song “Jamie”, before his set comes to a close. “Take Me home Country Roads” is being played, and to be honest there is an entire arena of people singing along. IT IS HOT but they put us under the overhang and its breezy. Right now, he just sang to THOUSANDS with nothing but a mic. IT IS TOO HOT TO BE HEADBANGING in this heat, and someone needs to tell that to Billy Strings.
I am not going to lie, I am extremely excited over seeing this next young man, who is burning up the roads and all of the venues across America. Throughout the years, he has earned the respect of not only his peers but also his own personal heroes as well. He possesses a stage persona that nobody is copying right now…nobody.
Charley Crockett has the look and the style that absolutely nobody in the world of music is doing right now. At least, not as good as he does it. His band is incredibly on point, and moves right along with him fluently on every song. So let’s take a look at what he brought to the table at Buckeye Country Superfest for day 1.
The “Ten Dollar Cowboy” is introducing us to his Honky Tonk truth and honesty. Because he “Ain’t Done Loosing Yet”..this sounds absolutely amazing. His second song for the first day set was “Diamond In the Rough” . Now, all of these first songs were from his newest album of the same name.
This is my first time seeing any of these bands in a big arena setting like this. Joshua got us tickets RIGHT UNDER an awning, which beat the intense heat today. Overall, people are very friendly here, and we’re having a blast. So far most of it has been from his new release like “Gettin Tired Again”.
He played many of his more well known songs like the new song “Solitary Road” and the “The Man From Waco”. By now, I am pretty sure that he has the audience convinced he means business. This man is much like Alan Jackson, he don’t need to do anything but simply play and sing those good old Honky Tonk songs. Like the piano filled “Welcome To Hard Times”. Man it sounds so wonderful live. However the sun is setting and right in my face. Bare with me for a few hours.
Next up are the Turnpike Troubadors. Once this sun sets the weather will be tolerable because we are facing the sunset. It hasn’t been announced what exactly tonight’s attendance is, but I kmow this place is utterly jammed with people and I will definitely be attending this event I’m future years. I’ve also been told the Turnpikes have brought a friend along to play piano.
Now, this is from the update here as the total attendance from the weekend was well over 127,000. Also I am not sure if that attendance was beat by previous years or not. The Troubadors sound revitalized and back with a vengeance as they unleashed “Gin, Smoke, Lies” upon us.
The “Whole damn Town” is in love with this band. They also played “The Bird Hunter” and are now playing “Good Lord Lorrie”. Not much banter from Evan tonight, and they seem very solid. “A Tornado Warning” was played on the first set tonight.
Ol Shooter Jennings is onstage with the Turnpikes playing the piano with them for both nights as far as I know. Did I mention its hot? They are now playing “7 and 7”. There were two songs they did off their new album called “A Cat In The Rain” called “Mean Old Sun” and “Brought Me”.
They also played ‘The Housefire” and another called “Pay No Rent”. this show right here was almost worth the entire ticket price here.
I knew they eventually play “Long HOT Summer Day”. Because now the sun is beginning to set and the night air will be in the 80s. All of their old songs are still in the same keys and are still performed well. And at the end of the set they played “PAY No Rent”. So I am going to try and do a love blog on Billy Strings …um yeah….
He just comes out and says HOWDIEEEE and starts throwing minors and harmonics around like playthings, as he steamrolls into things like “Away From The Mire”. Now even for a seasoned Billy Strings fan like myself, it is terribly difficult to tell when he goes into a new song like he did with “Long Forgotten Dream”.
Just so many instrumentals arranged around the lyrics. “While I’m Waiting” was played tonight, when he played “Highway Hypnosis”. It just feels so invigorating to finally see some Bluegrass and Jam Band type stuff to this arena massed crowd. Yeah, the Jam Grass bands play arena shows….but nobody does what they do.
He just puts so much effort and planning into some of these songs where they stray off into other pieces, and then return to that original song. He still stays true to his roots by playing his own version of songs like “Sally Goodin”, and his own version of “Long Hot Summer Days”.
He played “Meet Me At The Creek”. You get 1 million genres wrapped up into a recipe of 1 set list, and it’s completely remarkable that this young man is loved by so many generations of people. As he exits his set with ” Dust In A Baggie”.
Zach Bryan opened up his set with “Overtime”. He is doing great things for other artists like Charles Wesley Godwin because he is playing in front of thousands of people with his shirt on. He is just a regular old young man that plays some great songs. Like the song that is called “God Speed”. To he honest I think he is one of the most talented writers around, and I’m extremely impressed with the way he controls an audience. Wow.
He played “Open The Gate” from the “American Heartbreak” album, which is my favorite album he did. He played “The Great American Bar Scene” and the song called “Fifth Of May’
We still have night 2 to go into on this same thread here. Yes, we are covering the entire event tomorrow as well. And I’ll show you more of the side events. Right now, he is playing Tishimingo under a sold out Ohio Stadium! What an experience this was so far. And we still have one more full day and night of music.
“Oklahoma City” was part of the set tonight, as he ran through a list of songs with sheer enjoyment. He is just having fun up there, this young man was made for this. “East Side Of Sorrow” was next, he played on into the night. I am 100 convinced this entire stadium came to see him play these songs. Wow. Right now we just arrived back at the pre party venue for the gates to open at 2 for 49 Winchester, which is the first band for today in the stadium.
He played “Heavy Eyes’, “Pink Skies” and others as he wove through his expansive catalogue of songs he has been playing in small clubs for so many years. Songs like “Heading South” and “Hey Driver, and “Burn, Burn,Burn” filled the rest of this epic night of a show. All of these bands exceeded my expectations this weekend.
We just arrived at the side stage area where a band called Old 60 are playing first. After yesterday this is insane how that heat broke to give us a gorgeous afternoon for live music and friends. This band really doesn’t have a lot of music recorded yet, but they are definitely up and coming.
The pre party show area didn’t really have enough porta potties for everyone, that was a huge setback and we had to go further away to compensate for the problem. For an event that encouraged tailgaiting so ardently, they did not provide adequate restrooms.
They have drawn a pretty damn good crowd down here, and went right into their twangy Honky Tonk sound that is thankfully becoming more prevelant today. Their first song was called “Dust To Dust” from their upcoming album. So apparently they include some old timey banjo sounds for their next song.
Their next song called “Walls” and they went right into a song that started in a minor chord about a preacher called “Brother Joe”. I went and got a beef brisket sandwich for lunch and came back to tell you more about Kashus Culpepper. You might remember that I covered one of his shows in Florida not too long ago.
I am really keeping him on my radar of up and coming artists to fill the large sized venues of America. It is about 15 degrees cooler today and cloudy. Yesterday the overhang saved our assessment for sure. I won’t lie…Yesterday’s heat was no joke.
We are eating and enjoying this last 2 shows. Kaitlin Butts is one I have been wanting to see, because it sure has been a long time. This song he is playing is called “Pour Me Out”, then I am going to bring you Miss Kaitlin Butts. I have not seen live since she opened for Wade Bowen, which I covered at Basement East.
I had a really good time at Kaitlin Butts who played “Marfa Lights” and songs of murder and sunshine like “Hunt You Down”. She is one of those that are rising to the top of the local music chain. She will be opening slots for inside arenas very soon. I have included this video of her set.
49 Winchester..man what can I say that hasn’t already been said ? They are releasing some of the finest Country Music out there right now! Many of these bands like this have just exploded onto the mainstream scene even. This band is a prime example of hard work and dedication to the road work it takes to make it.
They opened with “Chemistry” and “Hayes, Kansas” and the song “Long Hard Life” from the “III album in 2020. It was early, it was cloudy….but it was still HOT. It was seriously like 100 and F YOU outside! And if you are a diabetic like I am, it’s HARD to stay comfortable in the heat.
I had some technical difficulties during the 49 Winchester who is now playing “Russell County Line”, and they only have a few more. Overall this one stage is truly being managed quite well. No band has taken more than 30 to fully change over.
There are people arriving early for this event as they hear “Damn Darlin”. They are certainly one of those bands on the cusp of larger arena shows on package deals like this one. Another song they are playing off the new album is this one called “I Wished I’ve Stayed In Tulsa”.
They closed their set with “Hillbilly Happy” the sun came out for a brief bit which messed with my signal yesterday. We shall see how things pan out today. Once again it was absolutely mind blowing to see Charley Crockett become so large out there.
Even his merch has evolved both in volume and looks as he evolves his sound and looks. He brought a Tex Mex sound that I haven’t heard from a new artists since the Mavericks. He began both nights with “$10 Cowboy”, night 2 he played “Cowboy Candy”. He also played “Hard Luck And Circumstances”, and “the Man From Waco”.
We got those couple hours of intense heat directly down on us for an hour or two. “Man From Waco” is on right now. He played his homage to James “Slim”Hand with a song called “Don’t Tell Me That”. He played his cover of the “Jamestown Ferry” and tonight he had a small BLUES and Jazz ensemble that he played in a portion before going into the other songs that he played both nights. So many of these artists are influenced by so many directions within music, and he is one of those fine examples. He is blending so many types together.
The Turnpike Troubadors are playing “Every Girl” from their early album. I’m going to say attendance yesterday was more than today, unless many are missing these bad ass opening bands.
“Good Lord Lorrie” was next while we bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Altogether today was 10 times more tolerable than yesterday weather wise. I mean I am having fun here.
“Pay No Rent” was on the set list tonight as well as the song called “Whole Damn Town” was followed by my favorite “GIN Smoke And Lies”. Tonight Evan sounds really really good, and I hope sobriety is working out for him and for this band.
Both nights the Troubadors have played more of their older classic tunes over stuff from “Cat In The Rain”. I’m just really excited to see Billy Strings a second time tonight. “Seven Weeks In County” and also he played “Red Daisy”. I was just informed by Joshua that we are leaving after Billy Strings to go eat. And then we need to rest up and travel tomorrow.
“California Sober” was one that he wrote with Willie Nelson. This set list was very different and the weather was amazing today, what a blessed trip. “in The Clear” went on into “Hellbender”. He also covered some songs like “Ole Slew Foot” and he played “slow Train”.
The last set of the show was Zach Bryan’s second set of the weekend went as follows:
Overtime
Open The Gate
god Speed
The Great American Bar Scene
fifth Of May
Oklahoma City
Nine Ball
East Side Of Sorrow
Something In The Orange
Tourniquet
Condemned
Oklahoma Smokeshow
Dawns
Starved
Pink Skies
Heading South
I Remember Everything
Hey Driver
Burn Burn Burn
Quittin Time
