I had the pleasure of joining our news editor Richard Parkinson for this year’s Long Road Festival, and with some 70 acts playing over the three days our paths crossed for some acts, but not for all. With so much great music to enjoy, over four stages, I hope my highlights below give the flavour of the weekend.
My opening night started at the Interstate with Campbell/Jensen—the duo comprising Ashley Campbell, daughter of Glen Campbell on banjo, and her partner Thor Jensen on acoustic guitar. They are masterly exponents of finely crafted acoustic folk/roots music, their set blending traditional and contemporary compositions, with impeccable musicianship, self-described on the night as “soft folk”.
Their set started with a run of self-penned songs, including ‘Everything is Fine’ recorded in Ireland in a 250 year old cottage in early 2023, and featured on their album “Turtle Cottage” released in November 2023. The instrumental ‘Edge of the World’ was inspired by Leon Redbone, we learnt. A run of well-chosen covers followed, with Jensen demonstrating his excellent guitar chops on Glen Campbell’s ‘Gentle on My Mind’, Buck Owen’s traditional country number ‘Crying Time’ and George Jones’s ‘An Empty Bottle, A Broken Heart and You’re Still on My Mind’, before the duo closed their set with ‘With You’, described as “another sappy love song.”
Continuing the acoustic vibe, Kassi Valazza played a gently spellbinding set of chilled alt-folk at Buddy’s Good Time Bar, on acoustic guitar with added keys/synth and electric guitar, lap steel and harmonica. Too many highlights to list, but special note for ‘Watching Planes Go By’, with an extended dreamy psychedelic instrumental staying on Eb, which wouldn’t be out of place in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, ‘Rapture’, inspired, she told us, by a friend who used to start fires as a child, and opening number ‘Room in the City.’
Colby Caillat came to fame with her big pop/country hit ‘Bubbly’ in 2007, playing it after recounting the story of how it came to be written, her guitar left in unfamiliar open D tuning by a fellow musician, and her experimenting with new chords gave the song it’s sunny vibe. Back on the road with new material, Caillat performed ‘Worth It’ from her latest album ‘Along the Way’, reflecting that after the end of a relationship one can still look back on the good bits with pleasure, before closing her set with Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Cecilia’, with spirited audience participation.
Newcomer to the UK Meg McRee made an immediate impression with her exceptional super-tight band, with an all-originals set, opening with ‘Is It Just Me’, followed by her new single due out this week ‘Red Yellow Indigo’. On ‘Gone As It Gets’ she and the band had a serious rock out moment, before performing her song co-written with Lainey Wilson ‘Tried and True’.
On ‘Usually You’ she asked us “to imagine a beach in California”, before finishing with her breakthrough single from 2023 ‘Mary Jane and Chardonnay’, with a hooky guitar riff reminiscent of Rod Stewart’s ‘Gasoline Alley’, and its sweet chorus “And it’s just paper and leaves, a bottle of grapes from overseas/And nowhere to go, nobody to be/Little something to smoke, little something to drink / Get the good kinda carried away, it’s all alright, it’s gonna be okay/ Turn on the night, stop the day/ With Mary Jane and Chardonnay/ Hey-ey-ey”.
Kaitlin Butts, from Tulsa Oklahoma, delighted her full band audience on the Interstate stage with a spirited rocking set, with fiddle, interspersing her numbers with background stories. Announcing that she’s “an angry person” but that “she’d decided it was better to channel (her) anger through music than get creative about burying a body”, she put one of her exes in a song, with the refrain “You ain’t gotta die to be dead to me!” Telling us that she’s a big fan of the movie Oklahoma and especially the sassy character Ado Annie, she played ‘Other Girls (Ain’t Havin’ Any Fun’ — “for the bad girls”–as a full on rocker.
Following Butts on the Interstate stage was Pokey LaFarge, playing his unique contemporary take on traditional roots music in all its forms. An engaging live performer, never at rest, his mariachi-style ‘Run Run Run’ prompted some energetic running on the spot, while ‘For a Night’, with mariachi trumpet and cheesy organ, inspired the title of his latest album, “Rhumba Country”, spanning these genres. ‘Goodbye Barcelona’, in spaghetti western style, a mid-tempo ballad in 3:4 time, was described as the “loneliest song you’ve ever heard.”
Blending playfulness with serious musicality, LaFarge is a snappy dresser, and would have walked off with ‘coolest dude at the festival’ award were it not for Jake Vaadeland snatching the crown (more later!).
UK acts have an increasing presence at the Long Road, and on the outdoor Front Porch stage The Deep Blue, a four piece all female band with one member each from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales were on my “don’t miss” list. They didn’t disappoint, with great vocal harmonies and fine arrangements from the guitar/bass/keys/drums lineup. Stand-out moments were ‘Orange is the Only Colour’, a story song about a missing young woman, and ‘How About It?’, about their surely not unreasonable aspiration as women of being able to walk home safely alone at night. They enjoyed an enthusiastic reception, despite a rainy afternoon.
Back at Buddy’s, Brown Horse, a six-piece from Norwich, demonstrated their multi-instrumentalist chops, with frequent exchange of instruments as their set progressed. With echoes of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance and The Band, and perhaps Brinsley Schwarz, and a well-regarded recent album release ‘Reservoir’, the band have plenty of potential, but unfortunately their set was marred by poor sound.
Moving to the main Rhinestone stage, Morganway have been a regular feature on festival stages in the last couple of years, but this Long Road was their first main stage appearance, and their powerful performance made a compelling case for their being the UK’s leading country/Americana band, born out by an enthusiastic crowd reaction to their classic fiddle-driven anthemic tracks including ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Feels Like Letting Go’, their new single which got them their first national radio play on Bob Harris’s show earlier in the week, and a “don’t miss them” endorsement from Whispering Bob.
The Rhinestone stage was also the perfect setting for a crowd-pleasing set from Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours, kicking off with ‘Family’, its anthemic “we’re all in this together” message setting the tone for the set. ‘Tennessee’, an ode to Holcomb’s home state was followed by ‘Dragons’, dedicated to his grandfather, described as a “big fish person”, ie someone prone to regular exaggeration. Holcomb admitted to assuming a story his grandfather told of being given a lift by the Queen in her Land Rover when visiting Sandringham was just such a tale, only to find it true when a letter from the Queen arrived after he passed away, expressing her condolences.
‘Fly’ was the first of several songs from last year’s highly regarded album ‘Strangers No More’, together with ‘Find Your People’, and set closer ‘Dance With Everybody’, a joyous end the set, with Holcomb and his band joined by the members of National Parks, hot foot from their set on the Interstate stage.
Don McLean, headlining at the Rhinestone on Saturday night, demonstrated his enduring appeal across the generations, keeping his audience’s attention throughout his 90 minute set. Playing with a full band including two electric guitars to complement his acoustic, keys, drums and bass, his set was a blend of new songs from recent album releases, including ‘Botanical Gardens’, a reflection on his life and loves,‘Thunderstorm Girl and some well-chosen covers including a rocking version of Elvis Presley’s ‘Little Sister’, better known to many through the Ry Cooder version, and songs from his classic album ‘American Pie’. Delving further back to his first album ‘Tapestry’, McLean introduced ‘And I Love Her So’ as his attempt to write an old fashioned song, and on telling us that it was played at Megan and Harry’s wedding to some prominent boos he announced “well I’m going to play it anyway”.
Spirited versions of ‘Not Fade Away’, ‘Cryin”, ‘Midnight Special’ and ‘Fulsom Prison Blues’ followed, interspersed by a sensitive rendition of ‘Vincent’. This was the cue for McLean to talk of his admiration for the Weavers, the US folk group active from the late 1940’s to the 1960’s, and only then to claim that “no-one does dangerous songs anymore as they’d be cancelled”. Don–you’re listening to the wrong people! Songs from artists at The Long Road as varied as Gangstagrass, Adeem the Artist and The Deep Blue tackled topics spanning race, sexual identity, religion and sexual violence, continuing the long tradition of making music that challenges.
Ending his set with a rousing and extended sing along version of ‘American Pie’, McLean was a fine conclusion to the festival Saturday line up.
Last but not least to my personal favourite set of the weekend, the closing act on Buddy’s stage on Sunday night, Saskatchewan’s Jake Vaadeland and his band the Sturgeon River Boys, gave a stunning performance, with charismatic Vaadeland pipping Pokey LaFarge to the post for coolest dude at the festival, in bright red suit, with slicked back hair, and a fine line in repartee in between numbers, which came thick and fast—20 songs plus encore in their allotted hour. Combining rockabilly with bluegrass, and with a set peppered with lively stage craft, including Vaadeland showing off some dance moves, leaping on the double bass and finding time to tell a couple of jokes too, and banjo player Jaxon Lalonde fretting strings on Vaadeland’s banjo, the sense of sheer fun on stage rubbed off on the audience, it was a set guaranteed to bring a smile to the face, with an enthusiastic response from the late night crowd.
Musical highlights included ‘(Ain’t Going Back To) Nashville’, about a less than happy trip to the city, ‘Retro Man’, Vaadeland’s self-description of his unique style, and a delightful spoof sponsorship ‘thank you’ to Diet Pepsi, complete with a song dedicated to the Pepsi Corporation, delivered in a style firmly from 1950’s US (or Canada!) TV. Vaadeland was my top tip for his live show in my preview, and more than lived up to expectations.
I’m looking forward already to returning in 2025!
Thanks to Nick Barber and Chloe Hashemi for their pictures
