Monday, March 17, 2014
Country 2 Country, O2, review
Last weekend the O2 was filled with cowboy hats and boots, and a vibrant sense of camaraderie. Country tunes burst from the many pop-up stages surrounding the main arena. Everyone was there for the same reason: that rare excitement of hearing high-calibre country music in the UK. This was as close to Nashville as London had ever been.
In this internet era, country music is, for the first time, readily accessible to UK fans, and this festival, in only its second year, has become a major event in the country music world. It's effectively the only festival of its kind, bringing successful, contemporary, American country artists together for a two-day celebration at the O2.
Hosted by BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris, this festival was all about the fans: the audience sang along to Brad Paisley's every word and screamed throughout the Dixie Chicks set (rendering frontwoman Natalie Maines's vocal almost inaudible). Their song Goodbye Earl, about murdering an abusive husband, even received a standing ovation.
Providing over an hour of anthemic, arena-friendly tracks were Zac Brown Band, known for mixing traditional instrumentation with flavours of bluegrass, reggae and even metal. They are cutting-edge country, unafraid of lavishing long instrumentals and new material (including songs from their recent partnership with the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl) on their audience. Almost all seven members are multi-instrumentalists, making for some richly varied harmonies. They thought nothing of jumping straight from the fiddle-led ballad Free into a cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman. They didn't attempt to make the latter overtly country and didn't need to – these were talented musicians who showed their ability to adapt.
Sunday brought a headline set from Brad Paisley, modern country music's most successful export. His best-loved songs were remoulded to suit the event: Chris Young (winner of Nashville Star, a country-music version of American Idol) joined in on the party track Outstanding in Our Field, while The Band Perry added a softer side to the haunting Whiskey Lullaby. Paisley's set was filled with humour, in keeping with his music, but he counterbalanced that side of his work with blistering guitar solos and a stripped-back acoustic performance, neatly avoiding getting too close to novelty-act territory. The result was a set that felt modern, with his instrumental cover of Van Halen's Hot for Teacher illustrated by a Star Wars-themed animation of the band. If the latter touch was an attempt to keep the audience interested, it wasn't necessary – they were already with him all the way.
From the world premier of Johnny Cash's new music video I Used to Love Her a Lot to the eight contemporary headline acts, Country 2 Country embodied the spirit of country music. This was a community coming together to celebrate and showcase the very best of modern country, while showing their respect to its origins. In the words of Brad Paisley himself: "This is country music".
INTERVIEW: Rosanne Cash: "My father led with compassion like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie"
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/384911b6/sc/38/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Cmusic0Clive0Emusic0Ereviews0C10A70A33960CCountry0E20ECountry0EO20Ereview0Bhtml/story01.htm
