Festival Round Up - The Long Road 2024

With 2024 being our second year at the Long Road Festival, the iconic sign saying “welcome back old friend” seemed extra poignant – and the “friend” part really does sum up the vibe of the festival.  With around 8000 attendees you could expect to feel crowded and just one person in a sea of humanity, but that’s not how it feels at all – instead you wander around a well-spaced out event, either to a plan based on the very useful app or just drawn by the sound of music coming from one of the five stages – six, if you include the new, intimate stage in the VIP area.  If you’re a regular at TLR or on the UK country scene you will no doubt be bumping into friends along the way – but if you’re not, you’ll quickly make friends in the shared spaces around the stages, or squeezing onto a table to eat some of the great food on offer around the site.  “Can I sit there” is always answered with a smile and a “yes”.  For those attending solo, the Facebook group for attendees had a wonderful idea of badges so that people could meet in real life those they had met online!

This feeling of being one big family extends to the artists too.  We’ve long held that the UK country scene is a supportive family, and as we watched acts on stage it was heartwarming to see other artists stopping to watch a set – Chrissy and Ben from the Shires caught the First Time Flyers on Sunday, Alan Finlan and his band watched Oscar Corney from the side of the Front Porch stage before their own set and we bumped into Dan Smalley from Nashville catch some early morning folk from Clara Mann

The UK scene was well represented, although many of the sets were on Friday afternoon.  Kezia Gill popped in to watch Jade Helliwell and joined her on stage for a duet on her second set, and the VIP stage saw a range of UK artists gather quite a crowd, including bands heading back from the Main Stage – Colour Me Country All Stars and Morganway certainly enjoyed some shows.

 

What of the rest of the festival?  Tickets for most big events are sold on the headliners – this year we had the legendary Don McLean and on Sunday Russell Dickerson – but The Long Road is more than that.  Many people attending are wondering who will be the “new find” of the weekend (and that’s a very personal find, someone you haven’t heard before even if others have).  For us Flatland Cavalry on the Interstate stage delivered a superb set with great audience participation.  Also on Interstate was Kaitlin Butts whose set was loud and full of energy – in contrast to her later, acoustic set on Buddy’s – but both were absolutely unmissable.   For sheer crowd numbers Dasha deserves a mention – her audience stretched a long way outside the tent and her start was even delayed due to safety concerns.

 

With the music, the car show, the shopping, the food, the BBQ demonstrations, boot branding, Yeti’s roping, O’Donnells Cornhole or just the chance to meet up with friends, there is something for everybody, no matter how big a Country fan you are.  Don’t forget the little possums – the event welcomes children with their own play area, and especially welcomes dogs!

The Long Road is a family.  A very very big one!

See you next year old friend

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Single Review - Best Things - Wood Burnt Red

 

Wood Burnt Red are one of the bands that we will be looking forward to seeing at this weeks The Long Road Festival as they make their TLR debut on Friday night – on The Front Porch for the Ariat take over hosted by Two Ways Home

To make the weekend even more special they are releasing their new single – Best Things – on Friday too. 

As we have come to expect from Wood Burnt Red, the song is about real life – in this case the struggle to have it all, and the expense that goes with that!  Many of us can probably relate to the lyrics

I got a nice home, that I don’t own, 

And a car on the drive that’s not paid for.

It’s Wood Burnt Red, so it’s got a heavy sound, its got gruff vocal delivery but this time they have broken away a little from their Malvern roots and gone quite American with the sound, especially in the intro and opening verse.  As they hit the chorus they sound more like themselves and a little more comfortable, and there’s a lovely instrumental break where they sound like they are just having some fun with guitars and keys!

Unashamedly starting out as a “Dad Band”, each release and each stage performance sees the boys getting more polished with their playing and songwriting – but the songwriting hasn’t lost any of its realism or integrity, as they are not afraid to tackle real topics head on – which has included personal appearance in the past, and the difficulties of the modern, materialistic world that we all live in.

The Long Road isn’t the only festival this summer for Wood Burnt Red, having played main stage at Buckle and Boots, Black Deer with the BCMF in Blackpool to come

Best Things, the new single from Wood Burnt Red, is available to download and stream from Friday 23 August.  

Catch the band at The Long Road Festival, The British Country Music Festival and on their socials Facebook and Instagram.  If you stream music, give them a follow them on Spotify

 

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Single Review - Blue Ridge Road - Matt Hodges

 

Matt Hodges loves to perform music live, in fact he spends most of the year doing it.  If you’ve seen him at one of his many live shows, you may have heard him tell the story of taking a break in America and staying at a cabin for a few days, a side trip that inspired him to write his new song Blue Ridge Road.  The title is the name of the road that took them to that lakeside cabin, and the serenity of the cabin, compared to the frantic energy of Downtown Nashville led to the song.

When you consider Matt’s hectic schedule, its no surprise that he enjoyed a few days off – but the theme throughout the song is “Take me back”, as he sings of the freedom and allowing his thoughts to unload.  On Blue Ridge Road there are no cars, no “people chasing one last thrill”.  Matt is finding peace in nature and seems to have a longing to return to it.

Musically, the song is very restrained, as is Matt’s voice, which is effectively turned down for this track.  There is a yearning in the sound – and it is very reminiscent of Blake Shelton’s “Austin”, which is another song about longing for something you want to return to.  There is one break from the tempo when the song has a guitar break and a slight lift to describe the return to Nashville for a gig – a device which shows the difference between the town and the peaceful mountain view

The songwriting on this occasion appears to be not just heavily influenced by Blake Shelton, but also by American Country Music in general, using American phrasing (and it is of course born from am American road trip).  Could one of the leading voices in UK Country have written the same song from a UK perspective?  Maybe Matt’s next songwriting retreat could be to a stone-built cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, escaping the bright lights of Leeds or Sheffield?  Just as Matt has his own voice, we’d love to think that UK Country can have its own style and own voice.  The UK has many points of reference, and there have been UK songs written with a very UK feel.

Could Matt Hodges lead the charge of the new breed of UK Cowboys?  Perhaps sitting round the barbecue rather than the campfire, looking over the Brecon Beacons rather than the Blue Ridge Mountains?

 

We can’t wait to see where he goes next – both musically and physically!

Blue Ridge Road, the new single from Matt Hodges is available to download and stream from Friday 16 August

You can find Matt on the road and on Facebook and Instagram - and you can follow him on Spotify

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