The CMA Songwriters night, hosted annually at the Indigo stage inside the O2 Arena in London, is considered most people’s unofficial start to the whole C2C festival. An intimate night of stories and songs from some of the brightest and best writers that Nashville has to offer. This year the main songwriter was the legendary Ashley Gorley, who has over 50 number hits to his name, from Luke Bryan’s ‘My Kinda Night’ right through to last year’s smash from Cole Swindell, ‘She Had Me at Heads Carolina’.
Alongside him was one of the hottest artists in Country music right now, Lainey Wilson and rising stars Nate Smith, with one number one under his belt with ‘Whiskey On You’ and Dalton Dover. There were also a string of surprise appearances from artists appearing over the weekend at the C2C festival.
There was some concern before the show about Lainey Wilson’s voice after she lost it earlier in the week through illness but those concerns were soon put to bed during her opening song ‘Those Boots’. She did ask for a little prayer for the high part during ‘Heart Like a Truck’ a little later although she didn’t need it, nailing the note like a pro. She did, however, declare that she didn’t know how she did it but we sure enjoyed the fact that she did! Lainey was full of wit and southern wisdom, as you would expect, hanging the show together with transitions and introductions throughout.
‘Hillbilly Hippie’ was a down-home, redneck romp and ‘Things a Man Outta Know’ was delivered with style and power and if you listened hard enough you could hear most of the audience singing along with her. There’s a southern charm and sharp wit about Lainey Wilson that makes her an engaging and entertaining performer to sit and listen to before she’s even started singing. A major star in the making, Wilson also gave a nod to the UK crowd, who were singing all the words to her songs before most people in America even knew who she was.
Special guests were the three ‘Introducing Nashville’ artists. Alana Springsteen, who played a very heartfelt ‘Twenty Something’, Tyler Braden, who raised a hearty cheer during ‘Try Losing One’ as he impressed the room with the power of his vocals and Caylee Hammack. Her story about getting Chris Stapleton to guest with her on ‘Small Town Hypocrite’ was the sort of tale that evenings like this are made for. There’s a tremor and tone to her vocals that make Hammack the natural successor to Dolly Parton, it just needs Nashville to wake up and see what we can all see. Earlier on in the day I saw her play three songs at a showcase hosted by Snakefarm records where she referenced David Bowie and the bible in the same sentence which led me to believe that she might well be too esoteric or even too damn intelligent for this genre!
I’d had the pleasure of sitting down with songwriter Ashley Gorley before the show and asked him how he would decide which of his 60 number one songs would he choose to play. He settled on ‘One of Them Girls’, ‘You Should Probably Leave’, ‘You Had Me at Heads Carolina’ and ‘Sand in My Boots’. Seated at the piano and suitably self-deprecating, Gorley is a better singer than he made himself out to be. All four song choices were spot on and had the crowd singing along. The cheer that greeted his introduction to ‘Sand in My Boots’ prompted him to implore the crowd to calm down as ‘Morgan wasn’t there’ but there was a big singalong anyway.
The line up was completed by rising star Nate Smith and newcomer Dalton Dover. Smith is a rare talent who hooks you in the moment he starts singing. His vocals are clean, strong and pure and songs like “Sleeve’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Go to Heaven’ and ‘Whiskey on You’ only highlighted that. He’s one of those vocalists that make singing seem effortless and is surely destined to cement a place for himself in the Country music industry in same way that artists like Luke Combs and Ashley McBryde have.
Dalton Dover will be a new name for many people but not for long! He played songs like ‘Giving Up on That’ and ‘Baby I Am’ (interestingly co-written by Nate Smith) and impressed the crowd with the power of his vocals. There’s some Combs in there, a hint of Stapleton and a whole lot of soul too and he elicited a series of whoops and hollers from the crowd at all the right moments in his impactful songs.
Nate Smith described the atmosphere in the Indigo as being akin to something like the Opry and these pre-C2C songwriter nights are about as close as we get to something like that over in the UK. The real crime here is that we don’t get more of them, instead having to wait for the annual one to kick off the C2C festival each March. Yes, I get the expense versus the ticket sales and capacity of the Indigo but it’s a shame that the CMA can’t get a regular night going in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow, maybe, as the writing round format is many people’s favourite way to access this genre that we love. What a way to start the C2C weekend this night is. Long may it continue.
