RTP Gone Country Day 2

The storm had passed from the night before and it was another beautiful hot sunny summer day. Fans were set for RTP Gone Country Day 2.

River Town Saints got things going right out of the gate. These boys are a high energy fun country rock band from Ottawa, ON. Now I had not seen these guys live before and I was really looking forward to checking them out. I was definitely not disappointed and I’m really looking forward to catching them again, which will be at Boots and Hearts. They had a lot of fun playing hits like Dust On The Bottle, FGL’s Sundaze and then cranked it up with some Usher’s Yeah, DMX, Macklemore’s Thrift Shop and Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me. It was an awesome mixed melody of songs! They played their hit single A Little Bit Goes A Long Way and had everyone singing along! We all raised our glasses with them to Eric Church’s Drink In My Hand. Lead singer Chris Labelle said they were a bit nervous to do the next one as it would only be their second time to do it at a festival. They dropped Bring The Beat Back on us and it sounded awesome! Then asking us, “London are you ready to go back to ’93!” They kicked off Alan Jackson’s Chattahoochee. Chris then saying, “Alright London, even though it is Thursday let’s do this like a Friday!” We were set to party just like their party anthem Friday night! Chris did intros of the band just like a starting hockey lineup, they then played their final song and highly anticipated sassy single, Cherry Bomb.

The duo of Autumn Hill had the crowd on Fire with this smash hit. It was a great way to kick off their set. They played their very first song as a band Anything At All. Then right into more of their hit singles, Return Policy, She Wants This Town and their latest Mixed Tape. They cranked it up a bit with Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer and asked, “Who here loves Country? Yell if you do and we want to see you dance!” As the crowd hollered back and began to dance, they turned Bon Jovi’s song country and did an awesome job doing so! Playing yet another hit, Good Night For Going Nowhere, they did a few more covers, including Keith Urban’s Love Somebody. They then thanked the crowd for their first top 5 Canadian single and cranked out Blame. The duo put on a great set with Mike hitting all he right cords and Tareya’s beautiful voice carried throughout the entire park.

The crowd grew quite large and the park was now packed. It was time to get a little Crazy Tonight with Tim Hicks. As he took the stage it was awesome to see his whole family in the crowd there to support him. Tim and the band cranked the party up and we were all hell bent to have a Hell Raisin’ Good Time with these guys! After rockin’ My Baby, they played their brand new hit single Stompin’ Ground and there sure was a lot of boots stompin’ along! Even though they have not yet released the new album or title, they gave us a little taste of some more with Shake These Walls. Then at the end of the cat walk Tim yelled out to the crowd “You can’t take it when you go ’cause we all turned into Dust and Bones” before kicking off the song. Encouraging fellow band members out to the end of the stage to show off their stuff, he followed them out and ripped on the guitar. Then jumping right into Young Alive and In Love he had everyone singing right along. Then singing a new one Drink Along, it was a perfect song for a party crowd. I Got A Feelin’ rang through the park and the crowd echoed it back, it was incredible. Tim and his band had spent countless hours driving all over Ontario, up and down the 401 in the beginning of his career. Traveling and playing in all sorts of bars, his song Friends Around Here is about just that. Now he really doesn’t slow it down, but the closest he comes is She Don’t Drink Whiskey Anymore and he sure does it well. Then doing one for Gordie and the boys they jammed to Bones. Tim then rocked the park with Here Comes The Thunder. Playing fan favourite Stronger Beer he jumped down into the front of the crowd and said; “Wait a minute here, we got to do a little something here!” Now a fan by the name of Justine Albrechtas has a Canadian flag that she has gotten many Canadian country artists to sign. Well I know this made her night when Tim jumped back on the stage with her flag flying it proud! Tim then wrapped up his high energy rockin’ country set with Get By. We got by more than just fine with Tim and the boys!

Brad Paisley brought his Life Amplified tour to London as the final act of RTP Gone Country. He brought the speakers and jacked up the park and he definitely was Crushin’ It as he kicked off his set. Now if you haven’t seen Brad live before the one thing you got to know is you are in for one heck of a show. He rolls through hit after hit and rocking pretty much a different guitar for every song and that’s just ’cause he slays that guitar so hard. For every song he has a video or something related to the song going on the background screens. During Perfect Storm a storm rolled through onscreen and Without A Fight he was joined by Demi Lovato on screen for their duet. I loved when he played This Is Country Music and two big American and Canadian flags appeared on screen. Country music is definitely something that unites many of us throughout both our lands and many living our life through a country song. He played his hit song many guys in the crowd relate to, I’m still A Guy and right into She’s Everything. Last year Brad created a fun animated video with many celebrities and he played the video along with his hit song Celebrity. Then we went straight into jamming and listening to some Old Alabama. The next song is very near and dear to my heart. It’s my first dance with my husband and on Thursday night in London we danced to Then live. It was so beautiful, thank you Mr. Paisley for that beautiful moment. He then sang us a Whiskey Lullaby with Alison Krauss, joined in on screen singing this duet. Brad then yelled out to the crowd “How about after this long Canadian winter we Beat This Summer together!” He then played another couple summer hits I’m Going Fishin’ and Riverbank. It almost sounded like a real live coir joined Brad on stage and belted out Dixieland. Brad left the stage only to come back out for a three encore set. Closing out RTP he wrapped up his set to,  Alcohol, which had been consumed by many over the two day party.

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