C2C Country To Country: The Festival Stages

livefestivals

13 Mar

If we’re being honest, the main stages at C2C were a little lacklustre in 2023, a set of returning (for the third time) headliners and some less than stellar acts in 3rd and 4th place on the bills. But, as always, it’s the Festival Stages where you can have the most fun. And here we pick our favourite acts of the weekend.

Amanda Shires

It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Amanda Shires. Her 2013 record Down Fell The Doves grabbed me and she’s never let me go. To that end I caught Amanda three times across the weekend and each set brought something different. The Bluebird Cafe set dusted off ‘Wasted and Rollin’’ for one of Amanda’s very few self proclaimed happy songs, turns out it’s about bats and Jason Isbell. Kinda. The real highlight across the three sets was her solo interpretation of the title track from The Highwomen album. Amanda’s unique voice cracking at moments, sounding both vulnerable and powerful throughout, it’s a devastating song and brought tears to The Bluebird Cafe.

Madeline Edwards

One of the revelations of C2C was the songwriting chops, and out-of-this-world vocal ability of Madeline Edwards. Her 2022 record Crashlanded is great but didn’t really prepare for seeing her live. Her voice is really special, and songs like ‘The Wolves’ and ‘Hold My Horses’ are excellent. The one that people will really remember though is ‘Mama, Dolly, Jesus’ which has hints of Maren Morris’ 2018 breakthrough song ‘My Church’ about it.

49 Winchester

These guys are my kind of band, trucker hats, sunglasses indoors, and beards. Oh, and a wealth of terrific country rock songs built for barrooms. I only managed to catch their set on the BBC Radio 2 Stage, which was a full on country-rock show, but they played sets on more intimate stages as well. Casually knocking out songs like ‘Annabel’ and ‘Russell County Line’ endeared them to a whole new audience here in the UK.

Jillian Jacqueline

With her wonderful, long-delayed, debut album Honestly released in mid-2022, it was about time we saw Jillian Jacqueline back in the UK, and with a long wait over she didn’t disappoint. Weaving stories about her songs in with great acoustic versions of them, she let the songs breathe and the songwriting shine through. Lots of stand-out songs but ‘Better With A Broken Heart’ (a duet with TJ Osborne on the record) was really excellent.

Kezia Gill

Not just a token Brit on this list, Kezia Gill showed again that she’s got both the vocals and the songs to live on the same stages as some of Nashville’s finest. Kezia’s also got a great stage presence, both warm and abrasive (in that British way), she fun to listen to and to watch. It’s been fun to watch her career grow to this point but you feel the foot is ready to go down hard and take her to the next level. Mixed metaphors much?

Tickets for C2C Country To Country 2024 are on sale now.

c2ccountry to countryamanda shiresmadeline edwardskezia gill49 winchesterjillian jacquelinefestivallive

Max Mazonowicz

I’m the editor-in-chief. The guy who looks after this whole damn place. And the music you see here is the kinda sounds that I’m into. They’re my questions, but not my answers.