It might seem hard to believe but it’s been a whopping five years since Charlie Worsham played a live show in the UK. In that time he’s released his 2021 EP ‘Sugarcane’, performed alongside Old Crow Medicine Show and Ashley McBryde and started his own Pickers Radio show on Apple Music. Now, at long last, he’s finally made it back across the pond, opening for Ward Thomas for the past few weeks before playing his own headline show last night at The Slaughtered Lamb in London.
After some minor technical difficulties which he brushed off with his trademark good humour, Worsham opened his set with ‘Kiss Like You Dance’, a new song he’s been playing on the road with Ward Thomas. It’s a toe-tapping, upbeat number with a lovely touch of playfulness and a big chorus, as well as allowing Worsham to show off one of his trademark guitar licks. The crowd burst into huge cheers and applause at the end of the song and it was clear he was very touched by their reaction, telling them “Y’all are the best” – just one of many times over the course of the show he expressed his gratitude to the audience, including asking if they’d come back over to Nashville with him the next day!
New music was a consistent theme of the evening, with Worsham talking about how he often debuts new songs in the UK because of the audience’s reaction ahead of the heartfelt, nostalgic ‘Hang On To That’ from ‘Sugarcane’. Among the new tracks were ‘Things I Can’t Control’, an uplifting, soulful number which saw him hit a very impressive note, and the delicate, mellow ‘Magic Trick’ with its Beatles-esque melody. He also mentioned he has a new collaborations project coming out in September which I’m very excited to hear more from soon (and already have a few ideas about who some of those collaborators might be…).
That said, there were plenty of old favourites in the show too. ‘Lawn Chair Don’t Care’ was an early highlight with its singalong moment, ‘Cut Your Groove’ featured a new folky twist and the wistful ‘Young To See’ provided a moment of calm as Worsham thanked the crowd ‘for loving music like you do’. Elsewhere, ‘Southern By The Grace Of God’ had a bright, joyful quality that brought out the lush details in the lyrics, whilst ‘Fist Through This Town’ took on a new meaning as a call for change. He also threw in a couple of cover versions, including a rollicking, punchy spin on ‘Calling Baton Rouge’ and rocking out on his take of Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’ which featured some excellent vocal runs.
One thing which particularly stood out to me during the performance was Worsham’s willingness to mix things up. Midway through the show he swapped from his guitar to mandolin, talking about how working up some of his older songs on the instrument had given them a new lease of life. ‘Tools Of The Trade’ was a particularly strong example of this, with the mandolin adding a sharp, rattling effect that enhanced the narrative and provided a really nice contrast to Worsham’s rich vocals. He also kicked off the section with an outstanding Marty Stuart-inspired instrumental, highlighting that he’s an utterly brilliant instrumentalist as well as a skilled songwriter and performer.
I also loved the humour Worsham brought to the show, whether that was the laugh-out-loud new song ‘Short Grass Summer’ – the country answer to Fountains of Wayne’s 00s hit ‘Stacy’s Mom’ – bantering with the crowd or cracking jokes about stealing riffs on the tongue-twisting ‘Take Me Drunk I’m Home’ before throwing in a snippet of ‘I Feel Fine’. He even preceded the soft, emotionally raw ‘Mississippi in July’ with a snatch of Kid Rock’s ‘All Summer Long’! It’s the complete antithesis of his own sound, but shows just how talented he is in being able to turn his hand to anything musically in the blink of an eye.
After closing the main section of his show with a bluegrass take on Vince Gill’s ‘High Lonesome Sound’, Worsham asked for requests from the audience in lieu of an encore. He kicked off with ‘Believe In Love’, a sweet, gentle ballad written about his now-wife, before moving into a lively rendition of ‘I Hope I’m Stoned (When Jesus Takes Me Home)’ that had the crowd clapping and singing along. To finish off, he played two new songs – ‘Poster Child’, a reflective, hopeful look back at his childhood love of music that name-checked the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and the moving ‘Grow Up’ which he dedicated to his two-year-old son Gabe.
For his final song, Worsham played ‘Could It Be’ from his debut album, 2013’s ‘Rubberband’. For me it really summed up the whole show – the crowd were singing along the whole way through, complementing Worsham’s distinctive vocals particularly on the soaring chorus, as well as allowing him to show off his musical skills with a fast-paced guitar riff. The audience burst into huge cheers and applause (as they had been doing all night!) when he finished and it definitely left me feeling on a complete high.
Overall Charlie Worsham showed why he’s so well-loved by UK audiences with this show. I feel like he comes on leaps and bounds as a performer every time I see him, with a really warm and engaging stage presence alongside his obvious talents as a songwriter and a musician. He promised at the end of the show that he would “be back as soon as I can”, and based on the audience reaction I don’t think that can come soon enough! And in the meantime, we’ve got that new music to look forward to…
Set list: 1. Kiss Like You Dance 2. Lawn Chair Don’t Care 3. Cut Your Groove 4. Hang On To That 5. Short Grass Summer 6. Marty Stuart Instrumental/Southern By The Grace Of God 7. Things I Can’t Control 8. Calling Baton Rouge (made famous by Garth Brooks) 9. Tools Of The Trade 10. Fist Through This Town 11. Magic Trick 12. Young To See 13. Little Red Corvette (Prince cover) 14. Take Me Drunk I’m Home/I Feel Fine (Beatles cover) 15. All Summer Long (Kid Rock cover)/Mississippi In July 16. High Lonesome Sound (Vince Gill cover) 17. Believe In Love 18. I Hope I’m Stoned (When Jesus Takes Me Home) 19. Poster Child 20. Grow Up 21. Could It Be Performance date: 19th April 2023
