Seasick Steve, Kezia Gill, Twinnie, One Night In Nashville, and Johnny Cash Roadshow

You won't meet a nicer, more down-to-earth artist than Blues musician, Seasick Steve. I first saw him on Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny in 2007. I loved his myriad of customised guitars including “The Three-string Trance Wonder”, “The Morris Minor” and my personal favourite - “The One-Stringed Diddley Bow”.

I saw him before his performance at Latitude 2008 walking around, big smile, soaking up the atmosphere - you could tell he was a genuine, humble character. On stage he told us some stories from his past, travelling on the freight trains around the US getting work where he could. He admits he’s spent time as a hobo, a tramp and a bum. I only know him as a fantastic musician.

During his Latitude set he played “Cut My Wings”, “Dog House Boogie” and even pulled a girl out of the audience to sing a love song to her on stage. His whole performance went down a storm, with thousands of fans stomping the ground to his Blues. For a few songs he brought his son on stage to play with him which was a lovely touch.

All in all, whether you're a Blues fan or not, Seasick Steve is one of the artists I recommend you see live before you pop your clogs. He won't disappoint.

Monday 13th May, O2 Islington Academy, London, Cassadee Pope. We were first introduced to Cassadee about a year ago when she joined Sam Palladio on stage with the excellent Striking Matches at Bush Hall. Fast forward to March this year and we caught her again playing a short afternoon set in Jason Aldean’s bar in Nashville. So it was great to see her back over here on what she says is her first headlining tour for eleven years since she fronted Hey Monday on the very same stage.

This the first time that CMT have taken their ‘Next women in Country’ tour to the UK and given the plethora of talented female country artists over in the states at the moment they could probably run this show every week for a year with a different line-up. Tonight Cassadee is supported by Logan Brill and local girl Twinnie. By local I mean she lives in London although she is clearly from up norf.

Both provide strong sets with Logan playing a little bit straighter country while Twinnie adding a dash of pop melody and sass to the show. Both have great voices and luckily in this hit and miss venue the sound is really good tonight. There’s a twist in both sets with Logan segwaying into a bit of Floyd’s ‘Wish you were Here’ while Twinnie unleashes her inner Whitney with a brief blast of ‘I wanna dance with somebody’.

Next up is the headliner. The set tonight is an equal balance of tracks from both of Cassadee’s solo albums ‘Frame by Frame’ and this year’s excellent ‘Stages’ with a couple of other songs thrown in for good measure. What’s refreshing is that Cassadee lets the music do the talking, it’s a no frills, no gimmick show, just her, a guitar and the three piece band.

At the heart of it all is great songs. I am glad to say that the songs keep their feet firmly in the country ground with some pop touches thrown in but not falling into this country/pop mashup that seems to be inflicting itself on us at the moment. I understand the commercial pressures to cross genres but when you are as good as Cassadee I think she can stand her ground with any country artists out there.

Highlights tonight for me were ‘One more Red light’, the Lady Antebellum cover of ‘Need you Now’ where Logan and Twinnie join her on stage and there’s a lovely duo when Sam Palladio joins Cassadee for ‘Think of You’. A great night further showcasing that all of the interesting country music bar a few limited exceptions is coming from women.

A word too for the band tonight who were the perfect backing to these three talented women especially the guitarist who played all three sets.

Till the next time keep on country rockin y’all