Drinkin’ Buddy – Gord Bamford at the 2014 CNE Bandshell

Saturday night at the CNE Bandshell we got to see Tebey perform and get the Toronto crowd into some country music. But he was there on a mission – to warm up the crowd for a man who has won himself 16 Canadian Country Music Awards and turned become a true star in music, Mr. Gord Bamford.

We saw Gord just a few weeks ago at Boots & Hearts but weren’t able to see the whole set because of the schedule – but Saturday night there wasn’t anything taking me away. And I’m glad because I dug the set and all 20+ songs that he performed.

From the start of the set it was clear that he was happy to be up on stage – and it made sense when he told the crowd (much to my honest surprise) that it was his first ever Toronto show. This is a dude who has opened for Reba, but he had never played in Toronto. Blows my mind.

Bamford started strong with I Would For You, Life Is Good, Farm Girl Strong, and Is it Friday yet, his pacing was excellent and had the crowd engaged. But it was a small group of fans that really got more than they bargained for and offered the highlight of the show.

Early in the show Bamford looked out at the crowd and pointed out a young fan with a sign and told him to hold onto it for later. And when later came that little boy, 3 of his other little dude friends and a small girl were all lifted up onto the stage. Bamford spoke with all of them and flipped through what ended up being a scrapbook that the little boy had put together, entirely dedicated to Gord Bamford’s life and career.

With the kids on stage Bamford sang Little Guy (written for his son) and stood with the boys while he did. But that wasn’t the end of it. The little girl’s sister was in the crowd and upset that she wasn’t up with her, so Gord had her lifted up and he pulled the 2 little girls away from the group to sing My Daughter’s Father (written for his 2 little girls) with them in the spotlight. It was incredibly touching and had me choked up.

As mentioned, the set was packed with more than 20 songs, most of which I knew the words to sing along to – and I wasn’t the only one. There were a bunch more just like me, and some who knew more words than I did. And as the set wound down with When Your Lips Are So Close, Stayed Til 2, and Blame It On That Red Dress the cheers stayed loud and happy.

Gord Bamford even gave the crowd and extra bit of love with an encore built of 3 awesome covers: John Mellencamp’s Small Town, Train’s Hey Soul Sister, and Alabama’s If You’re Gonna Play In Texas.

It was a solid set front to back… and if given the chance, maybe on his upcoming small venue tour, I would love to see him on stage again.

Thanks to Trish for the pics – she’s got a bunch more that you can see on her blog HERE!

Stay awesome!