Morgan Wade has just wrapped up her Europe leg of the ‘Obsessed’ Tour and made a stop in north London. Supported by Brighton-based songwriter Sammy Harrison and Nashville’s Karley Scott Collins, the London gig made for a wonderful night of country music.
For a Tuesday night, the crowd was exceptionally riveted. The opening act, Sammy Harrison, took the stage, armed with just a guitar and a mic and while the first opener might be the optimal time to pop to the bar or toilets before the main act, Harrison quickly transfixed the whole venue, especially with his recent single, ‘Shining Boy’.
Next up was Nashville’s Karley Scott Collins, who debuted in 2022. Before performing her recent single, ‘Runner’, Collins explained that it took her seven years to be fully honest enough to write the song, which recounts a painful breakup. Also featured in the set list was ‘Quit You’, a single released last summer that saw a lot of attention. Collins wrapped up with ‘Marlboro Reds’, a song dedicated to her grandmother, who “smokes and drinks like a sailor”.
Alongside bandmates Clint Wells and Tyler Jade, Morgan Wade took the stage later in the evening, opening up with her underrated song ‘Phantom Feelings’, before moving onto ‘Matches and Metaphors’ from her 2022 debut album, ‘Reckless’.
Upon playing her latest single, ‘East Coast’, the audience was completely entranced and silent, in a 2,300-person venue. The chorus, “hope you know I loved you the most / Yeah, but you took the life outta me” was especially haunting in such a large, quiet space. Later on, ‘Run’, an earlier hit, brought out the same excitement within the first couple chords.
Amid Wade’s stellar, smokey voice, Wells and James brought incredible atmosphere with the instrumentals, including, at one sudden and inexplicable moment during ‘Deconstruction’, James whipped out a trumpet and performed a stunning solo. Wade’s vocals shined even further on the expressively beautiful ‘Crossing State Lines’ and afterwards on ‘Psychopath’. With the simple and thoughtful chorus, “was there life before there was us”, this song ultimately sums up Wade’s music as a whole: a meditation on old mistakes, old flames, and the difficulty of leaving the past behind.
It is always special to hear a song in the city that inspired it and the audience certainly felt that weight with ‘2AM in London’, off of ‘Obsessed’, which alludes to Wade’s sobriety: “it’s a good time to get into trouble / But I don’t do that stuff anymore”. “WE LOVE YOU MORGAN!”, one fan shouted at the end.
The concert ended, appropriately, with ‘Wilder Days’, Wade’s biggest hit and a definite crowd favourite, inspiring the entire venue to sing along at the chorus. “You’ve got a secret, I wanna keep it / I wish I’d known you in your wilder days” sang at full capacity made for a kickass conclusion to a fantastic setlist that devoted time to each album of Wade’s career.
