Kristi, one of our fabulous CMTT readers had the pleasure of attending the Country Throwdown Tour last week. We have been telling you about this tour for months now and it is a MUST SEE! We normally don’t post reviews that are this long but because this is an ENTIRE DAY full of great music we thought we would let you read all about it. Just make sure to click the link at the bottom to read the rest of the review. It’s worth reading from beginning to end.
The creators of the Vans Warped Tour have finally done what they should have done a long time ago – they created the first traveling country music festival, the Country Throwdown Tour. Seeing as this is their first year doing this festival, they have a lot of kinks to work out for 2011; but, overall, it was a great show.
I attended the show in Bakersfield, Calif. on June 18. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since every show on the tour had been at an outdoor amphitheater and this one was booked at an arena. It’s an all-day event with multiple stages, so I went in not knowing what to expect since the area around the arena has no room for something like that. It turns out that the entire thing was indoors: the Bluebird Café and Outlaw Stages in the theater connected to the arena, and the Main Stage in the big arena. The fact that the fans and the artists didn’t have to melt out in the heat was a major plus; however, the acoustics and the lighting inside were less than desirable. I was a bit disappointed with that aspect of it, but I quickly got over that once the music really got going. It was a non-stop party from beginning to end.
I started my day off at the Bluebird Café stage watching local singer-songwriters do their thing. I think it’s so great that the tour is bringing in local artists at each stop to try and give them a “break” and give them their first shot at playing for die-hard country music fans. The crowd was sparse at this point, which wasn’t surprising since it started at 1 p.m. on a weekday. It didn’t begin to get real busy until about 3 p.m. or so.
After watching the locals perform, I headed over to the Rockstar Energy truck for the Eli Young Band signing. There were a ton of people in line; thank goodness for my VIP wristband. Sorry to all you folks I got to go in front of, but I was very thankful to not have to wait in line for 45 minutes! They were an incredibly kind group of guys with immense talent. There’s more to them that “Always The Love Songs,” and I can’t wait for people to hear what they’re really made of.
Immediately following the Eli Young Band signing, I headed back over to the Bluebird stage to see some of my absolute favorites, Sarah Buxton and Jedd Hughes (now known as the duo, Buxton Hughes). I have been listening to their records constantly lately and I was so excited to finally get to see them live. Let me tell you, they did not disappoint. They were absolutely fantastic. One of the highlights of the day was an “enthusiastic” fan dancing her rear-end off during every single one of their songs, even though I don’t think she had a clue as to who they were. Why do I say that? Because she screamed “Rocks In Your Shoes!!!!” as a request…and that’s an Emily West song. Sarah and Jedd were obviously getting a kick out of this woman. It looked as though they were doing all they could just to get through a song without laughing. Emily West, who was watching sidestage, and Dave Pahanish, a singer-songwriter that was playing with Sarah and Jedd, ended up joining the crazy woman in front of the stage for a little dance session. It was absolutely hilarious. After Buxton Hughes finished their set (which was entirely too short, by the way), I headed over to the Capitol Records booth to meet them. I had met Sarah once before, but this was my first time meeting Jedd. They are both total sweethearts. No one deserves a “big break” as much as they do.
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