It’s not often that you get to see 4 high profile acts & a local band that get the folks kicking up their heels mid week! Granted, country music fans seem capable of kicking their heels up any time.
This past Wednesday (July 23rd) I had the pleasure of attending the Gone Country Music Festival @ Harris Park in London, Ontario.
This was the first year for the event put on by the Jones Entertainment Group who also produce “Rock The Park”, the 11 year old festival that has hosted such acts as The Tragically Hip, Journey & Meatloaf. With Country being the hot ticket these days the Jones Group introduced the “Gone Country” evening with an impressive lineup with Tim Hicks, Eli Young Band, Dean Brody & Darius Rucker.
Arriving to the venue around 4:15 just as Tim Hicks was hitting the stage there was a bit of a bottle neck at the entrance and some folks were waiting up to an hour to get in due to the country music crowd wanting to make sure they see all the amazing talent on stage. But once in, the venue had it all: Beer gardens, food vendors along with a smaller 2nd stage that had the Eric Ethridge Band (Local Band that we need to catch up with soon) cranking out some top country hits between the sets on the Main Stage. One of the most obvious pluses or failings, depending on the company you’re keeping, at this event is that its not really a family friendly atmosphere as most of the grounds are fenced in for the beer tents and did not allow for seats or blankets to be brought in.
The venue did, however, do an amazing job of procuring some great talent to kick this event off. Tim Hicks arrived on stage at 4:30 and the speakers were relentless in pumping out hit after hit from Tim such as his current single that is firing up the charts “Here Comes the Thunder”. Tim is set to release his 2nd album “5:01″ on August 5th with a CD Release party happening August 2nd at the Boots & Hearts Festival in Bowmanville (an event SoundCheck will be happily covered by yours truly in extensive detail). The hits didn’t stop with “Hell Raisin’ Good Time” and “Get By” along with a new song “She Don’t Drink Whiskey Anymore”, which were all very well received. Tim’s performance was definitely one of the bright spots of the evening. No surprise there.
Tim Hicks performing @Gone Country in London
Between sets of Tim & Eli Young I wandered back to catch local artist (Eric Ethridge) playing the 2nd Stage. Eric had a smaller group gathered that were fist pumpin’ to some of the hottest country music on the radio today. Eric also filtered a few of his own tracks in that were really great to hear as a first time listener and hope to catch up with Eric & the band again before the end of the summer to hear more.
The crowd had really filtered in by the time the Denton, Texas based Eli Young Band hit the stage. They received a big Canadian welcome as they pushed through with a set that included radio hits (Drunk Last Night, Dust and Even if it Breaks Your Heart) with the big finale of Crazy Girl, which had the loudest cheer from the crowd during the set. The guys really put their heart and soul into the music and it comes across in their live performances. My personal favorite was “Dust” as you could really see the guys enjoying the recent success of the current single off their album “10,000 Towns” now available on iTunes.
Dean Brody @Gone Country in London, ON
Next up was the Jaffray, British Columbia native and Canadian Country Superstar Dean Brody, This crowd must have had a Dean Brody listening party before the show because it seemed as though every song that Dean played had the crowd singing more emphatically. From the hit “Canadian Girls” to “Little Yellow Blanket”, “It’s Friday” along with more recent hits “Bounty” & “Another Man’s Gold”. It just seemed like the hits were never going to end and not having the pleasure to see Dean before tonight I have to say I was very impressed.
When Darius Rucker hit the stage at 9:30, all I can say was HOOTIE was in the House! This guy has been performing for over 30 years and his veteran status is evident in his ability to play to a crowd seemingly effortlessly. Darius has been singing “Country” music for the past 7 years with 3 country albums under his belt along with the always famous Hootie & The Blowfish “Cracked Rear View” album as a staple in his set. He started with a few of his recent country tracks Radio, All Right and then eased his way into the biggest sing along of the night with his Hootie hits (Time, Let Her Cry, Hold My Hand & Only Want To Be With You). I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were singing along to these early 90′s Classics. As Darius pleased the crowd song after song he brought out the fellas from the Eli Young Band to sing along with the Hank Williams Jr. Cover of “Family Tradition”, which was my personal favorite song of the night from Darius. The 2nd last song of the night had the crowd bellowing out Wagon Wheel like it was the Anthem for their evening. Darius closed the show with an amazing rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain”
I have to give a big thumbs up to the Jones Group for putting together such a great group of artists and to sell out (11,000 Tickets) on their first Country event is a great sign for the future success for “Gone Country” Looking forward to the opportunity to cover the event again next year.
Corey Kelly / @countrymusicjunkie76
