Carolina Country Music Fest
Posted: June 9, 2015 12:42 pm
We had a music festival in Myrtle Beach over the weekend. After the 3 day lineup was announced, they added a "Kickoff Concert" for Thursday night. If you already had a 3 day pass, Thursday night's show was free. If you didn't have a 3 day pass it was $39, $19 for locals.
I was thinking about all the performers I saw at the fest. The two I was most looking forward to seeing were Eric Church and The Marshall Tucker Band. Marshall Tucker was great, the best performance all weekend. Eric Church was right up there, I'd rank him #2. My third favorite performer was a surprise to me, Big & Rich. I was never much of a fan, I think "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" is the only one of their songs I could name. They were like country music's answer to Parliament/Funkadelic, there must have been 30 people onstage. Not all at once, but during the course of their 1 hour set people kept coming and going. They even had a woman breathing fire.
The Georgia Satellites make the top half of the 18 performers I saw, plus they get extra points for bringing some guy up out of the crowd to perform with them. For some reason, this guy brought a guitar with him to the festival. They saw him standing there and called him up to play with them when they did "Keep Your Hands To Yourself." Corey Smith is another guy whose music I didn't know but he was good. He's playing at the House of Blues next month, I might go see him again.
There were lesser known artists, none of whom I had ever heard of, on the secondary stage all weekend. I caught about the last 15 minutes of a woman named Taylor Centers and I thought she was really good. Margaret Valentine was pretty good too. A guy named John King would be good to see in a bar for a $5 cover charge. Before his last song, he gave out his cell phone # and told people if they liked him they should text him and tell him where they were from so he could let them know when he was playing in or near their town. He said "if you get a text from me, it's me, not a machine sending stuff out automatically." Morgan's Road made no mpression on me so I guess they weren't very good.
The best performer on the secondary stage all weekend was a woman named Rainey Qualley, she has a terrific voice and some good original songs. The only CD I bought all weekend was hers and I've listened to it several times already. One of her songs, Me And Johnny Cash, is really good. One of her other songs has one of the best lines I've ever heard - kiss me drunk when you're sober. And it doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous, her mom is the actress Andie McDowell.
This was the second time I saw Kellie Pickler, I won tickets in a radio station contest when I still lived on Long Island. She isn't horrible, but I wouldn't pay to go to a Kellie Pickler concert if she was the only performer. Brooke Eden was generic country pop. Very forgettable but at least she's cute. I don't get the whole "hick hop" thing, but Colt Ford wasn't bad. If for no other reason than comic relief. Rodney Atkins and Cole Swindell were time passers. They were there, I was in the crowd, I listened. Cole Swindell played the House of Blues last year. A woman named Kelleigh Bannen opened for him. I thought she was better. Sam Hunt was the headliner for the "Kickoff Concert" Thursday night. He's supposed to be a rising star in country music, I thought he was terrible. Even with a band on stage with him, some of the music was prerecorded and all the backing vocals were prerecorded.
There was a guy named Brian Davis who may or may not be any good. His band had the amps up so high it was painful to listen to them so I left during the second song. The worst performance all weekend was one of the guys on the secondary stage, Ricky Young. He was a step ahead of being awful.
I was thinking about all the performers I saw at the fest. The two I was most looking forward to seeing were Eric Church and The Marshall Tucker Band. Marshall Tucker was great, the best performance all weekend. Eric Church was right up there, I'd rank him #2. My third favorite performer was a surprise to me, Big & Rich. I was never much of a fan, I think "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" is the only one of their songs I could name. They were like country music's answer to Parliament/Funkadelic, there must have been 30 people onstage. Not all at once, but during the course of their 1 hour set people kept coming and going. They even had a woman breathing fire.
The Georgia Satellites make the top half of the 18 performers I saw, plus they get extra points for bringing some guy up out of the crowd to perform with them. For some reason, this guy brought a guitar with him to the festival. They saw him standing there and called him up to play with them when they did "Keep Your Hands To Yourself." Corey Smith is another guy whose music I didn't know but he was good. He's playing at the House of Blues next month, I might go see him again.There were lesser known artists, none of whom I had ever heard of, on the secondary stage all weekend. I caught about the last 15 minutes of a woman named Taylor Centers and I thought she was really good. Margaret Valentine was pretty good too. A guy named John King would be good to see in a bar for a $5 cover charge. Before his last song, he gave out his cell phone # and told people if they liked him they should text him and tell him where they were from so he could let them know when he was playing in or near their town. He said "if you get a text from me, it's me, not a machine sending stuff out automatically." Morgan's Road made no mpression on me so I guess they weren't very good.
The best performer on the secondary stage all weekend was a woman named Rainey Qualley, she has a terrific voice and some good original songs. The only CD I bought all weekend was hers and I've listened to it several times already. One of her songs, Me And Johnny Cash, is really good. One of her other songs has one of the best lines I've ever heard - kiss me drunk when you're sober.
And it doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous, her mom is the actress Andie McDowell.This was the second time I saw Kellie Pickler, I won tickets in a radio station contest when I still lived on Long Island. She isn't horrible, but I wouldn't pay to go to a Kellie Pickler concert if she was the only performer. Brooke Eden was generic country pop. Very forgettable but at least she's cute.
I don't get the whole "hick hop" thing, but Colt Ford wasn't bad. If for no other reason than comic relief. Rodney Atkins and Cole Swindell were time passers. They were there, I was in the crowd, I listened. Cole Swindell played the House of Blues last year. A woman named Kelleigh Bannen opened for him. I thought she was better. Sam Hunt was the headliner for the "Kickoff Concert" Thursday night. He's supposed to be a rising star in country music, I thought he was terrible. Even with a band on stage with him, some of the music was prerecorded and all the backing vocals were prerecorded.There was a guy named Brian Davis who may or may not be any good. His band had the amps up so high it was painful to listen to them so I left during the second song. The worst performance all weekend was one of the guys on the secondary stage, Ricky Young. He was a step ahead of being awful.