Buckle & Boots managed to bring together
into a small room in the Sunflower Lounge, central Birmingham the amazing
talents of:
·
William Michael Morgan (“Willy”/WMM)
·
American Young (Jon & Kristy)
·
Gary Quinn
·
Lewis Brice
Using the “round” style that is popular at the award-winning
annual country music festival, just outside Manchester, each of the artist
takes turn to sing a song and tell the audience more about it. However, it is hard to keep a good musician
down and you will see they all support each other and play along to each
other’s songs.
Lewis probably set the theme of the night with
his first song: Best Ex Ever. A popular topic continued by the others which
could have quite happily seen this tour renamed ‘The Ex’s Tour’, strictly for
those over 18.
This is a group that has spent time together;
some are old friends going way back and there are several writing combinations
within the group. History combined with the tiredness of touring, made for a
night with slight lower barriers, lots of banter, back handed compliments and
the odd risky remark. The Jack Daniels
may have also played a part too; obviously there to help Kristy work through
her cold (nobody would have noticed she was under the weather, giving 100%) but
she reported on Jon’s enquiry that it had made everyone in the audience look
beautiful and they had doubled in number.
Kristy flipped her violin on its side and plucked
it guitar style for Point Of View - a quirky little song where the duo
sang about each other; basically, Kristy likes to talk and Jon's too cute to
stay mad at. This was very fitting in the relaxed atmosphere and took the
banter to a heightened level. As Gary explained in his introduction to Bumpin Into You, that his downfall were
five foot four brunettes, the biggest laugh of the night went to WMM’s comment
“if they were five foot five, they would terrify you!”.
No country gig would be complete with a redneck
reference, and of course these guys didn’t disappoint - they referred to the
family tree so close there were no branches.
Kristy in perfect melody followed on from Gary’s song with the line
“that’s my cousin!”.
Earlier in their tour, the boys ganged up on Kristy and gave her
stick for how much she talks and what she says; she was fighting back tonight. She
told the crowd Jon’s major was in line dancing, a comment stemming from WMM’s offer
for the audience to dance along in the small space just in front of the stage. We
might have given him the wrong impression by creating a line dancing routine to
his song Missing.
We have to thank Gary for looking
after the group and WMM for his honesty. After losing a pick borrowed from
Gary, he leaned across and whispered to Jon “have you got a spare pick?” His
response, “no I borrowed one from Gary”. He leaned further and whispered the same
question to Lewis, resulting in the same response “I borrowed one from Gary”. There
was a period whilst Gary and WMM shared a pick but finally gave in and told the
audience what happened, asking if anyone had a spare pick. Luckily Dee D James
was in the audience and could assist!
Gary told us that the current
trend in Nashville was to write songs about what's happening in the moment. I think everyone could relate to the songs
sung, there were a couple of requests made earlier and honoured; it was nice to
hear WMM sing The Chair – originally
by the King, George Strait.
With the round over, there was one last treat
in store, a group rendition of Friends
In Low Places. Then in true Buckle & Boots style the artists mingled
with everyone at the bar.
Buckle & Boots (Karl, Laura & Gary) - thank
you so much for bringing some of your best performances from this year out on
the road. You have magically recreated your festival feel but made it winter
friendly, namely, suitable for the indoors. Nothing has been lost in the
atmosphere, the friendliness, the drinking and above all an amazing music experience.
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