It was a slightly different kind of gig for us on Friday night in Birmingham – the Cody Pennington Country Show. Different in that it was a mostly a show of big Country Music hits performed by Cody and his band, interspersed with some of his original material. Not really a “covers show”, more a tribute to Country music.
In a show of two halves, Cody
Pennington opened for Cody Pennington with some big crowd pleasing songs to get
everyone singing along in the first half of the show, kicking off with Luke
Combs’ smash hit Beer Never Broke My Heart which really got the show going. The
whole of the sell out audience were certainly up for a party, singing along to
pretty much every song, including favourites Wagon Wheel and the set ending The
Gambler.
In truth the set list was Luke Combs heavy – Cody wasn’t shy about wanting to open for Luke on his next UK tour and he even asked the crowd to tag Luke in their photos and videos to persuade him that Cody would be ideal for this! The crowd roared their approval of the songs and also the idea - Luke may get a surprise when he checks his social media!
After around 45 minutes the
band took a short break, partly for Cody to change into a T shirt as it was –
in Cody’s words – “a hot sweaty gig”! Academy 2 is not the largest of the rooms
at Birmingham’s Academy and as Cody’s popularity grows he will almost certainly
return to a larger room or larger venue.
The heat allowed Cody to show his humbler side, as he turned his fan
round to cool down his pedal steel player - he also made a point of thanking
the venue staff and especially the bouncer at the front who was handing out
water in front of the stage
In the show’s second half
Cody showed off those vocal, musical and showmanship skills including – not
easily done by a male vocalist – Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 and Shania Twain’s Man!
I Feel Like a Woman! complete with a bum wiggle – to the crowd’s amazement and
enjoyment.
As we looked around the
crowd we didn’t see any familiar faces, so this was a crowd of Brummies out for
a good night. There were some glittery
cowboy hats, some boots, plenty of plaid shirts, but when Cody belted out the
big hits, the crowd were right there singing along, and when he dropped in his own
singles – Downtown, Cowboy Sitting at The Bar, they still sang it back to him.
If you haven’t come across
Cody Pennington yet, Cody is a “unicorn” - he is actually from Nashville! He told us a fascinating story of how he
first met Chris Stapleton when working in CVS in Nashville. On checking a customer’s ID, he noted the
name was C Stapleton. That was it – that
was the story! It was a great intro to performing
a Chris Stapleton song though!
Cody is now UK based, taking
the Nashville sound around the country with his show. Cody plays electric guitar throughout the
show, accompanied by Holly Carter on pedal steel, plus his drummer and bassist.
Cody does use some reverb on his mic and a small amount of backing tracks to
allow a banjo sound plus piano when he sang Walking In Memphis. The microphone effect brings a big sound to a
small venue – while other acts offer us the feel of a Nashville Honky Tonk,
Cody and his band are without doubt bringing us the US Stadium sound, even in
Birmingham on a Friday night.
The Cody Pennington Country
Show delivers exactly what it says on the tin – some of the biggest hits of
modern country performed as they should be.
For many, this is the only way they will hear the likes of Luke Combs
songs performed live. People will come
out for covers, and they will love the originals. UK festivals would do well to get Cody on
their line ups – before Luke Combs steals him away!
The Cody Pennington Country
Show is touring the UK throughout the year, with four shows in Scotland in
November. Tickets are limited for many
dates – see CodyPennington.com for details.
If you can’t make it to a
show, check out Cody’s music on Spotify, and follow him on Facebook and
Instagram.
Silverball Country attended The Country Show as guests of Cody Pennington
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