The Yamaha Music Stage came to a close tonight with a performance from Frankie Ballard. The second act to play the stage today, the Sunshine and Whiskey star has been performing around C2C: Country to Country all weekend. Before he embarks on a UK tour this week, he performed a two track acoustic set following Chris Stapleton’s main stage performance.
Anyone following Chris Stapleton was going to have a tough time and unfortunately it definitely didn’t help his cause. Ballard kicked things off with his single Sunshine and Whiskey and despite some superb guitar playing his vocals sounded a bit off. I’m not sure if he was a bit hoarse or if there was a sound issue but it was hard to hear what he was singing, and it certainly didn’t sound a whole lot like the record.
The second track was a cover of Night Train to Memphis and it didn’t really improve things. Once again the guitar playing was fantastic but the vocals were weak, which was a real shame. I’ve heard Ballard sing live before and he’s always sounded a lot better than he did at The O2 Arena tonight.
Hopefully with a bit of rest, Ballard will be on form when he hits the road with Charlie Worsham in the UK this week. He’s got a new album coming out later this year so fans can expect a taster of that. Unfortunately I wasn’t all that impressed with his performance, mostly because I know he can do a lot better.
Set List: 1. Sunshine and Whiskey 2. Night Train to Memphis Performance Date: Sunday 13th March 2016
