The second day of The Long Road 2024 arrived with clouds and rain. Not, apart from 15 minutes in the afternoon, torrential, but a general swing between light and heavy drizzle. The latter tended to be focused on the occasions when the stages were most exposed to the elements.
First business of the day came at the small Showground stage where Andrew Combs played his first set of the day. Punctuated by the drum soundcheck from the main stage, I saw him do four songs including ‘The Ship’, ‘Rainy Day Song’ (a co-write with Brent Cobb which was covered by Lee Ann Womack as ‘Shine On Rainy Day’) and his Ingmar Bergman inspired ‘Anna Please’. Combs’ performance warmed the damp and relatively sparse crowd, and his stage banter raised a few laughs.
A trawl though the mud and up to the Interstate stage led to Julian Taylor’s first set of the weekend. Taylor was backed by three UK musicians, one of whom we were delighted to see was a fully recovered Michele Stodart on bass and backing vocals.
Taylor and band performed as a trio before being joined by Raevennan Husbandes on national steel for ‘Wide Awake’. Taylor is of West Indian and Mohawk heritage and his song ‘Seeds’ is a powerful statement on the efforts of the Canadian European settlers and their descendants to oppress them. After a lightly bouncy ‘Desert Star’, Taylor led into ‘The Ridge’ talking about his time spent at his grandparents’ farm in British Columbia. Husbandes turned in a fine national steel solo.
The set closed with a funky rocking ‘Sweeter’. Taylor has been playing a long time but only recently started touring the UK. Let’s hope we see a lot more of him.
With the rain now let up, it was time to head to Buddy’s Good Time Bar for Adeem The Artist. They kicked things off with “I Never Came Out’ the first of several songs addressing the experience of growing up non-binary. ‘Nancy’ meanwhile focuses on the challenges of a difficult relationship.
Adeem talks of their admiration for the Stonewall activists and plays ‘For Judas’ dedicated to Marsha P Johnson which they played at the Grand Ole Opry. In the face of a bit of a tech meltdown, Adeem steps out and plays unplugged with ‘I Wish You Would’ve Been A Cowboy’ a tilt at Toby Keith ending rather tastelessly to a large burst of laughter from the audience.
The harrowing ‘Rotations’ follows before they introduce ‘Asheville Blues’ celebrating the degrees of rightwingness in the city and its suburbs. Adeem ropes in the audience for a singalong on the set closer ‘Going To Hell’. It’s a fitting end to a show that’s been both poignant and downright hilarious – occasionally at the same time.
After a triumphant performance at The Garage in North London and across a number of club and festival dates in the UK and Europe, Katie Pruitt is closing the tour with two shows at The Long Road. The first is at the Front Porch and Pruitt starts the set with the same three songs as in London – ‘All My Friends’, Grace Has A Gun’ and ‘White Lies White Jesus And You’. Things take a more unexpected as they pick out the introduction to ‘Expectations’. Pruitt’s three-piece band featuring Austin Webb as foil on lead guitar is tight and in tune with their leader.
Pruitt introduces Nirvana’s ‘All Apologies’ as their favourite cover and it’s a great version. It’s followed by ‘Wishful Thinking’ and a superb ‘Leading Actress’. Throughout the set the audience is growing and the applause mounting – given they’re not necessarily that well known to the typical Long Road crowd it’s encouraging to see how Pruitt’s music draws in so many music fans when they get to hear it.
Appropriately enough, ‘Out Of The Blue’, with its strong vocal and sweet guitar, brings out the sun for some much-needed warmth. Pruitt and band take it home with a one-two of their hymn to anxiety ‘Worst Case Scenario’ and showstopper ‘Loving Her’ during which Pruitt and Webb go at it with their guitars and some serious hair shaking. It’s been an exhilarating set.
A truncated set means missing Kyle Daniel while the heavens opened just as Wyatt Flores hit the main stage so ended up listening to the set from shelter a few hundred metres away.
After Katie Pruitt’s set, the Front Porch was taken over by Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country project. First up and the only set that didn’t cross with something else was Michael Warren who hails from Birmingham (AL). He is backed by Palmer’s band, who are working with all the artists.
Warren’s style is very much in the country soul space echoing Palmer’s rallying cry “Country music is for Everyone!”. His song titles – ‘Cowgirl’ and ‘Fishin’ In The Dark’ celebrate the country side. Warren introduces ‘Oh My My’ as a breakup song picking up at the point where you think you still might get the partner back. A new song ‘Where She Ain’t’ is on a similar theme with the deserted Warren wondering what his ex is thinking and doing while only knowing where she ain’t.
The remainder of Warren’s set includes ‘Another Round’ and final song ‘What’s Country To You?’ both of which have contributed, along with impressive streaming numbers to him being named one of Spotify’s Artists To Watch in 2024. The audience reaction is enthusiastic.
With the rain abated, it’s time to head for the main Rhinestone stage where Brittney Spencer is due on. Flanked by Harvey Scott (guitar) and backed by John McNally (drums) she struggles with a poor mix for the first song ‘First Car Feeling’. The sound improves markedly as the languid chords introduce ‘Desperate’ – the music at odds with the emotional lyric.
Spencer takes off her guitar for ‘Bigger Than The Song’ in which she extols her musical heroes ancient and modern. McNally swaps the drums for an acoustic guitar and the three musicians gather round a single microphone for ‘Better As Friends’. Spencer released her debut album on Elektra, no less, earlier this year getting a lot of praise including on here. Her rendition of its title track ‘My Stupid Life’ is a great mix of defiance and celebration. Spencer is very definitely her own woman.
The set is wrapped up with ‘Friends in Low Places’ /’ I Got Time’ a funky country party song with its “You make me want to dance all night” outro. A joyful experience and a rare chance to see an artist who has both recorded with Beyonce and played live as part of Bob Weir’s band.
The ring of steel around the Interstate stage from the massed ranks of chairs and trailers restrict opportunities to see Cobe Caillat and the Red Clay Strays to two or three songs each from a distance. Caillat’s acoustic guitar and pedal steel set up sounds excellent. The Red Clay Strays meanwhile didn’t do much for this listener so any frustration with access was suitably tempered.
That means closing the day out with Katie Pruitt’s second set and her final show of her tour. It’s shorter and looser than the earlier performance but just as much a stormer. She opens with ‘Expectations’ leading into ‘White Lies White Jesus And You’ with some choice comments on those who weaponise religion.
An emotional ‘Self Sabotage’ follows after which, right on cue, Pruitt proceeds to make a mess out of tuning. They laugh it off – along with the audience – as a typical end of tour fuck up. None of which applies at all to a shimmering ‘Leading Actress’ and lovely ‘Out Of The Blue’.
At this point, Pruitt offers the crowd a choice of “Dance or Cry” – the answer is of course “Cry” but not so much that they’ll play a request that goes a bit too far in that direction.
Instead, Pruitt and band finish it up with a hugely moving ‘Normal’ followed by an equally defiant ‘Loving Her’. It’s been a privilege to see three of their shows in the past fortnight – come back soon Katie Pruitt – we haven’t forgotten the December promise.
