Project Description
. . Kip Moore // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Home Free // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Hailey Whitters // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Corey Kent // Photo – Tamcam Images . . The Wolfe Brothers // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Mitchell Tenpenny // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Randy Houser // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Kip Moore // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Blake O’Connor // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Warren Zeiders // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Ernest // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Hardy // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Morgan Wallen // Photo – Tamcam Images . . Morgan Wallen // Photo – Tamcam Images . . CLICK THE PIC TO VIEW THE NEWS
.CMC ROCKS
Day Two + Three
@ Willowbank, QLD,
18th + 19th March 2023
(Live Review)Review by June Carlile
Photos by Tamcam Images
DAY 2
“I woke up in my boots this morning….”
OK I didn’t, but I wouldn’t mind betting a few revellers did :)
Unfortunately I DID wake up with heatstroke, and had to miss the entire morning featuring Australian artists The Buckleys, Sara Berki, & Caitlyn Shadbolt.
I hear that the Songwriting Session, which featured Ashley McBryde, Travis Collins, Corey Kent, & Mitchell Tenpenny was so special it brought people to tears. Of course it was, argh!
My day finally starts at the Rebel Stage for Home Free, the world’s first all vocal country band. They’ve built an audience after going viral a few times & plenty of people in the crowd are singing along to their opener Elvira. We hear an extraordinary cover of Folsom Prison Blues using a technique called vocal looping, where their voices truly are instruments, then they demonstrate the reasons they went viral with a catchy medley of Ring of Fire / Never Gonna Give You Up / & Shakira’s Try Everything. Waves of fans drift over as they sing the Sea Shanty that’s been the soundtrack to all those tik tok reels. You know the one – that’s Home Free. The heights & depths their voices reach are astounding.
It’s Hailey Whitters’ first time in Australia, & she treats us to her delightful country twang on Fillin’ My Cup. Her set is very much traditional country storytelling, & a fiddle player completes the classic feel. She organises an impromptu singles match up before launching into her song featuring Trisha Yearwood, How Far Can It Go. Hailey is a bouncy, joyful presence on stage as she tells us the next song changed her entire life. When the crowd joins in on Everything She Ain’t it’s hard to imagine how surreal that experience would be for her.
When Corey Kent & his band take the Rebel Stage today he says “We came here to rock!” & they certainly do. He’s got a rock vibe, but still tells a country story, dedicating The Same Thing to anybody born & raised in a small town. They do an awesome cover of The Beatles Come Together, & tracks like Highways, & Ain’t My Day show off their guitar driven country rock. The song that changed Corey’s life, Wild As Her, was the most streamed country song in the world, & this performance hints that while this is his first time in Australia, it won’t be his last.
The Wolfe Brothers are not only one of Australia’s success stories, they are proudly Australian & put 100% into their legendary live shows. Still feeling the effects of yesterday’s heat, all I can do is listen with my eyes closed as they explode onto the Stampede Stage with That Kinda Night. The crowd roars as they begin Damn Good Mates, & there’s no slowing down with No Brakes, followed by their new single Here’s To The Ones. I hear What You Make It, & Storm Rolling In before giving in to the need to rest, devastated to miss out joining the crowd right up front at one of my most anticipated shows of CMC ‘23.
I rejoin the land of the living in time to see Cam & her band do shoeys, with Cam exclaiming “Just so you know my band is Swedish, & this is about as Viking as you can get!”
As I walk around the festival I enjoy spotting all the families & friends that have dressed alike, or had each others’ faces printed on their shirts. In a crowd of 23,000 it’s a fun way to make keeping together easy. There’s a giant tent set up at the back of the site with chairs & tables, that has a great view of both stages for those lucky & early enough to grab a spot.
Mitchell Tenpenny has a set filled with drinking songs built for crowd participation.
Good Place, More Than Whiskey Does, & the #1 hits Drunk Me & At The End Of A Bar, mean a shoey was mandatory. He manages to look understandably disgusted while drinking, but still says “that was awesome” before launching into Alcohol You Later.
Drinking songs go hand in hand with songs about girls, & there are plenty of those too, with Always Something With You, She’s Happy & I Hate It, Anything She Says, & the #1 Truth About You. He says his favourite part of touring this year is hearing the way his newest single, We Got History, is being sung back to him, & he does the chorus one more time to hear the crowd. The real sing along though is the final track, Bitches, sung loud & clear with middle fingers in the air.
The paths are overflowing once again tonight, & all around me there are people dancing as we head into the last 3 acts of the night.
It’s clear Bailey Zimmerman is having the time of his life. Tonight is his second show & he moves around the stage with excited energy to burn. Amongst his set is his first #1, Fall In Love, & two new singles – Fix’n To Break, & Religiously, just released yesterday. There’s a clever arrangement with Never Leave, an appeal to save a relationship, backed up with the exact opposite sentiment, the breakup song Where It Ends. The final song of the show is the first song he ever played, Rock And A Hard Place. This was my favourite. His distinct voice switches between melancholy & anger as the crowd wave their phone lights. Bailey says “This show has been one of the best shows I’ve ever played.”
It’s hard to believe he only started singing a couple of years ago. The sheer volume of online response to everything this guy puts out is phenomenal, & the hype is not unwarranted. Bailey has been a stand out of the festival, the kind of artist that we’ll be saying “I was there”.
Randy Houser’s gravelly voice may be the most country I’ve heard, & dressed in double denim there’s no mistaking he IS country. He engages with the crowd often, and a lot of what he says is in gratitude. It’s been 5 years since he was here last, & of his return to CMC he says “I can’t believe I got to come back & do this again, & I hope to God I get to do this again.”
I’m loving the attitude & guitars in this set, with What Whiskey Does, Boots On, & Whistlin’ Dixie, but the next song blows me away. On No Good Place To Cry this man is singing the blues & I’m feeling it. Randy’s voice was almost unaccompanied until a bluesy guitar solo & finally a full on instrumental jam. He promises it’s about to get country ‘round here & plays the brand new song Cold Beer, How Country Feels, & a cover of Alan Jackson’s Chattahoochee is about as country as you can get.
Every song feels like the finale, & when the crowd sings along to Like A Cowboy he says “That’s the way that’s supposed to sound!” After Note To Self there’s time for one more, & Runnin’ Out of Moonlight finally brings the set to a close. Randy holds his drink up in a salute & says “Cheers mate” before leaving the stage.
I can’t see the Rebel stage but I hear the crowd roar when Kip Moore arrives and gets straight into Damn Love, & Fire & Flame. They’re the first 2 songs of almost 20 in this massive set tonight. He sounds incredible, & I can tell there’s a great light show, but the big screens are in black & white, which leaves those of us on the Stampede Stage side detached from the performance. The hits keep coming, & the crowd sings along all night. During crowd favourite Beer Money Kip takes a moment to just listen.
There’s a cover of The Angels Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again & the crowd obliges with the response. Running For You has Kip & the audience trading alternate lines during the last chorus, & the sing along continues with Heart’s Desire, with Kip demanding “Sing it louder….Give it all you’ve got…ONE LAST TIME! He flashes a huge grin throughout the set, despite telling us that just this morning he was so sick he struggled to get up. The set winds up with Come & Get It, & Last Shot. After reminiscing earlier about his 2015 appearance as a CMC opener, Kip reminds us how much Australian fans mean to him, promising to return next year for an acoustic tour. “From the bottom of my heart, I will always love Australia”.
Tomorrow “Let’s Go Crazy One More Time……”
DAY 3
“Even if the end is near, I’m just glad to be here…..”
While the headliners of CMC are all international superstars, it’s exciting to see there’s still room made to highlight local artists during the day.
Getting a slot at CMC is a goal for anyone in the Australian country music scene, which Max Jackson confirms when I catch her at the Tailgate Stage.
The 2022 Starmaker winner says “This song is about epic highs, & being up on stage here is an epic high – this is Stratosphere…” It’s a great start to her show, & she literally sparkles in a shiny maxi dress. We hear another original called Small Town, & she kicks the crowd into party mode with covers of Dolly Parton’s 9-5, & Shania’s Honey I’m Home. She has a laugh introducing That Guy – “a lot of my songs are probably new to you guys, but this is actually a brand new song”. And that’s one of the joys of a music festival like this – discovering something new that makes you want to hear more.
That’s what happens to me when I move over to the Stampede Stage for Blake O’Connor.
Blake’s dressed in black jeans & a white jacket, & together with his back up singers in long gloves & matching sunnies, they make a sharp impression. I’m getting Blues Brothers vibes, which are added to when I spot the trumpet & saxophone, so I’m not surprised to hear a blues quality to his voice, but I AM hooked. His set is full of tracks from Finding Light, his brand new album released just last week & currently #1 on the Aria chart. We also hear the song that won him Starmaker in 2019, If You Wanna Get To Heaven, & he calls Sinead Burgess out to finish the set with an incredible full band cover of Stevie Wonders’ Higher Ground.
Today’s Songwriters Session features Jordan Davis, Bailey Zimmerman, Ernest, & Hardy, & it’s when there’s time for an extra song from each that we hit the kind of gold that Songwriters sessions are about. Hardy tells us he wrote God’s Country on Thursday, it was recorded on Tuesday, & on the radio 10 days later!
New Zealand’s Abby Christo looks like a young Taylor Swift in her shirt & top combo & curly hair. She tells us she’s gonna sing a lot of love songs & heartbreak songs, & describes herself as a heartbroken optimist, ‘cause she loves love. She’s brought a guitar she bought in Nashville that she gives away, saying “you might not be a musician, but this might inspire you to become a musician.” Her set has an impressive big production sound, rather than acoustic singer songwriter, although there’s no denying that’s what she is. Highlights of her set are Tokyo, Slow Down Girl & brand new single Note To Self.
Warren Zeiders gives me a Kidrock vibe with his singlet, necklace, long hair, & cowboy hat. The first track, Up To No Good, hints at an attitude to match. He has a great rock voice with an accent rather than a country twang, but the second song On The Run proves there’s plenty of country here too, with acoustic guitar, slide guitar & tempo changes. I love every song, it’s perfect weekend BBQ music, with guitar solos & catchy lyrics. When his shoey spills all over his shirt he tears it off to encouraging calls from the crowd. The band plays the guitar intro to Metallica’s Enter Sandman, as in his best wrestling announcer voice Warren calls “Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, it’s here, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, are you ready to RIDE THE LIGHTNING! This track has 1.7 BILLION streams on Tik Tok, so it seems the fanfare is called for. Sadly this super fun set comes to an end, with Warren on his knees in full rock star mode.
Ernest is so distinctly country it’s a stark contrast to the last set. Just last month he released 13 new tracks on a deluxe edition of Flower Shops & this is the first time some of those songs, like Anything But Sober, are being performed live. Drunk With My Friends is a funny story, & he manages to argue back & forth with a guitar made to imitate a nagging wife. When people start chanting shoey he yells “Bring me a boot & a beer! I heard Warren Zeiders took his shirt off” & takes his off too. This is another fun filled set, full of beautiful songs including heartbreakers Unhang The Moon, & The Heartache in my 100 Proof, which name drops George Jones. We see enthusiastic fans singing on the big screen as Ernest ends his first ever Australian performance with an acoustic version of Flower Shops. This is so much fun!
Ashley McBryde is a country Goddess. Today is her 3rd set, & she has a sense of humour in her songs, & a story to tell between each one, which makes her show an engaging experience. The first track is the semi autobiographical Girl Goin’ Nowhere, which begins acoustic & kicks into the full band after the chorus. I just love her voice & my highlights are Brenda Put Your Bra On, Martha Devine, the absolutely rocking Voodoo Doll, fan favourite One Night Standard, & The Devil I Know. Ashley says she started playing bars at 19 – she told her parents it wasn’t bars, & told the bars she wasn’t 19, & it’s all worked out. There’s a trilogy of perfect cover songs; Boys Of Summer, Superstitious, & the shows closer, Gregg Allmans’ Midnight Rider.
The country purists that are mad at Rock & Pop crossovers are going to HATE Hardy. But as Storme Warren says in his songwriters intro, is Hardy a country artist? Is he a rock star? The answer is yes, 100% yes! Sold Out kicks it off, & Hardy promises to rock our faces off. Boots alternates between rocking out, & chilling out, before roaring the chorus again. The purists can’t be too mad, Hardy’s Unapologetically Country As Hell! He takes a moment to tell us “This has gotta be the craziest crowd I’ve ever played at! I don’t have many songs on the radio, but this is one of ‘em” & the crowd sings along to One Beer. The big screen at the back of the stage comes to life during Wait In The Truck so Lainey Wilson can sing her duet. We hear the tearjerker Give Heaven Some Hell, which American radio unbelievably refused to play, which led to writing This Ain’t a Radio Song, which has an angry screaming roar that’s the perfect example of Hardys’ new style of country crossover. He plays guitar on the final track The Mockingbird And The Crow, & says “Thank you for making this one of the best nights of my life”. Pretty sure he returned the favour to a few thousand fans.
The final act of CMC 23 is the chartbreaker, hitmaker Morgan Wallen.
His brand new album One Thing At A Time was released March 3, with a massive 36 tracks I know CMC’ers were cramming lyrics to sing along tonight. There are over 20 songs in Morgan’s performance! Up Down, the first song of the night, literally goes off with a bang, with pyrotechnic balls of fire exploding on stage. We hear crowd favourites Everything I Love, You Proof, Somebody’s Problem, & Chasin’ You, before Morgan plays piano for the holiday romance heartbreak Sand In My Boots, & asks us to light up our phones for Cover Me Up.
Hardy joins him on stage for He Went To Jared (I Went To The Bar). There are more fireballs & they do shoeys together, & with such an eventful moment I’m sure the show must be ending, but unbelievably we’re only just over half way through! We hear the missing hits Wasted On You, The Way I Talk (more fireballs!), & in the pause the crowd starts singing Last Night – Morgan says “well it sounds like you already know what song we’re doing next”
The final track is, of course, Whiskey Glasses, & as Morgan says “I’ll never forget this, thank you so much” the show also ends with a bang, with the traditional fireworks finale.
What a huge weekend – Everyone here will be leaving with at least one memory that’ll pop up any time they hear “that song”.
The after concert blues are real, but we can console ourselves with all the new releases, & new discoveries. Besides, “There’s always next year….”.
Check out Tamcam Images gallery of Day 2 and Day 3
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.AMNPLIFY – DB
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