On the surface, Tenille Arts and Caylee Hammack may seem like an unlikely pairing, but they’ve both become very popular among country music fans for their blend of sassy, smart lyrics, powerful yet distinctive vocals and amazing audience connections. Now, following trips across the pond for both of them earlier this year (a solo London show for Tenille and a C2C main stage debut for Caylee), they’re teaming up for a short UK tour together ahead of their sets at The Long Road Festival this weekend.
We’ve seen that this type of duo show can work before – Matt Stell and Elvie Shane at Country Music Week last year being a recent example – but it’s always interesting to see exactly how artists choose to approach it. In this case, it was as a pair of separate sets, with Hammack taking to the stage first. Accompanied by her two-piece band, she kicked off with ‘Redhead’, a number as fiery as its title with a funky bassline and tongue-in-cheek lyrics about her childhood, then moved into the wry ‘Just Friends’ which featured a bait-and-switch slow intro before bursting into a grungy kiss-off in the chorus.
Throughout her set Hammack mixed tracks from her debut album ‘If It Wasn’t For You’, such as the defiant, soaring ‘Forged In The Fire’ and the moving, introspective ‘Small Town Hypocrite’, with tracks from her new album. Particular highlights for me were the warm, optimistic ‘Only Good Things’, ‘History Of Repeating’ (a co-write with Ashley McBryde) which showed her softer side with a big singalong chorus, and ‘That Dog’ with its rock-influenced sound and offbeat spin on a breakup song.
However, my favourite was the driving 70s rock-influenced ‘All Or Nothing’, which really highlighted Hammack’s skills as a stage performer as she pounded the mic stand on the stage whilst tossing her hair and highlighting the accents in the music with her arm movements. It really strengthened her connection with the audience, alongside her frequent jokes and stories about what inspired her songs, and made her whole set incredibly engaging and easy to warm to. I also enjoyed her selection of covers throughout her set, from a shouldn’t-work-but-does countryfied spin on the disco classic ‘I Will Survive’ (along with some impressive whistling) to belting out ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ with some fantastically animated expressions and a raw, powerful take on Tom Petty’s ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’, which featured her showing off her harmonica skills and a spectacular a capella ending.
After performing new song ‘How Long’, an acoustic ode to an illicit romance which saw the crowd clapping along and yet more incredible vocals, Hammack closed her section of the show with her breakthrough single ‘Family Tree’. She encouraged the audience to join in – which they did happily – and I loved the playful, warm quality she brought to the song as well. I think she won over a ton of fans and it definitely set the bar high for Tenille Arts’ set afterwards.
Not to be outdone, Arts began her set with ‘Back Then Right Now’, which featured a stripped-back intro before shifting into a swaggering melody with plenty of punchy drums. I always really like seeing artists putting a different spin on their songs in a live setting – it really brings out another side of their sound, and judging by the crowd almost instantly singing and clapping along it seemed like plenty of them agreed! She followed that with recent single ‘Last Time Last’, a fun, poppy look back at being young and making the most of the small moments whilst they last, which featured some gorgeously smooth, sweet vocals.
For me Arts particularly shone in the slower moments of her set. ‘I Hate This’ was an early highlight, which saw her pointing out a fan’s sign and cracking jokes about her experience playing the song on ‘The Bachelor’ in her intro before switching things up by delivering an emotional performance as well as a massive note towards the end, whilst the bittersweet, keyboard-led ‘Jealous Of Myself’ provided a surprisingly emotional moment. Elsewhere ‘Growing Old Young’ saw her invite the crowd to raise their hands in support of mental health as they sang and swayed along, and recent release ‘Summer Don’t Go’ had a dreamy, wistful quality that balanced Arts’ yearning vocals beautifully.
That said, there was plenty of space for fun moments too, whether that was the uptempo ‘Wildfire And Whiskey’ (which Arts mashed up with Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ to the delight of the audience), or jamming out with her band on a 90s and 00s mashup which featured hits from the likes of Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Shania Twain – particular props to her spin on ‘Goodbye Earl’! However my particular favourite was new song ‘Wonder Woman’, which saw Arts show off her more soulful, sultry side with its 90s-style beats as she sang about sticking by her lover’s side through thick and thin. It was nice to hear a different sound from her and one I’d be interested to see her explore further down the line.
To finish her set – and the evening – Arts delivered a rocky version of her body positivity anthem ‘That’s My Friend You’re Talking About’, followed by her signature song ‘Something Like That’. The song had a stomping, joyful feel about it, enhanced by the crowd singing along at top volume before they burst into enormous cheers at the end. it was a really uplifting way to end the evening and sent the audience away on a high – but not before plenty of them piled into the foyer to say hello to her and pose for photos.
Overall Caylee Hammack and Tenille Arts both delivered excellent performances with fantastic vocals and great stage presence that provided a great warmup for their sets at The Long Road as well as a fun, entertaining night out in its own right. I loved hearing them showcase different aspects of their music and they were both clearly having a brilliant time playing to a crowd that loved them just as much as they love us! If I had one criticism, it would be that I would have loved to hear them duet together for the encore, but there’s still hope that they might pop up and do a collaboration this weekend (you never know…). Given the huge enthusiasm from the audience for both their sets though, hopefully it won’t be long until they’re back in the UK again.
Set list: Set 1 – Caylee Hammack: 1. Redhead 2. Just Friends 3. Only Good Things 4. Forged In The Fire 5. I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor cover) 6. History Of Repeating 7. That Dog 8. Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover) 9. All Or Nothing 10. Small Town Hypocrite 11. I Ain’t Coming Over Tonight 12. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty cover) 13. How Long 14. Family Tree Set 2 – Tenille Arts: 1. Back Then Right Now 2. Last Time Last 3. Wildfire And Whiskey/Love Story (Taylor Swift cover) 4. I Hate This 5. Wonder Woman 6. Growing Old Young 7. Blue (made famous by LeAnn Rimes)/Any Man Of Mine (Shania Twain cover)/Goodbye Earl (The Chicks cover)/Oops I Did It Again (Britney Spears cover)/Party In The USA (Miley Cyrus cover) 8. Summer Don’t Go 9. Jealous Of Myself 10. That’s My Friend You’re Talking About 11. Somebody Like That Performance date: 23rd August 2023
See Tenille Arts and Caylee Hammack live in the UK this August:
24 August – Canvas, Manchester (with Alyssa Bonagura)
Tenille and Caylee will also both be performing at The Long Road Festival, Lutterworth this weekend (25th-27th August). For more information and tickets please visit The Long Road website.
