For myself (and many others) every year County to Country (C2C) begins with the Songwriters event in the Indigo at O2 on the Thursday night. This is always a highlight of the whole weekend and really sets us up ready for the three days ahead.
The last few years though the event hasn’t been the same. Some of the artists have been newcomers and people not really known to us and have played new music. Most of us don’t want that, we want people like Shy Carter to say “here is a song I wrote” and then belt out ‘Stuck Like Glue’ recorded by Sugarland! We want people like Ashley Gorley, who has written hit after hit after hit! Who can ever forget Lori McKenna when she sang ‘Girl Crush’. Shane McAnally told her to stop and to stand forward of the microphone. Then he told the crowd we were being too polite & we needed to sing. So we sang and Lori cried!
This year sharing the stage were Wyatt Flores, Mickey Guyton, Jessi Alexander, Tucker Wetmore and hosted by none other than Darius Rucker! Jessi has appeared at Songwriters before, that was the year I found out about the Songwriters night, I didn’t know about it before then!
It was a great night and in my opinion, was the best since the ‘Covid break’. There was a range of stories told, with Wyatt talking about his family, including his grandparents decent into dementia, Mickey talking about her son being gravely ill, Darius and his relocation to the UK, Jessi and her marriage to fellow songwriter Jon Randall and Tucker showing up to a songwriters session with a raging hangover only to discover all the others in the group also had hangovers!!
Songs sung included Wyatt’s ‘Oh Susannah’ (which brought me to tears!) ‘Whiskey Again’ (Tucker) Beers and Sunshine’ (Darius), ‘The Way I Talk’ (Jessi) and ‘Black Like Me’ (Mickey). The atmosphere in the room went through the roof though when Jessi sang ‘The Climb’!
I don’t know if the performers all knew each other before this evening, but there seemed to be a really good atmosphere between them with Wyatt seeming to gain the most love (and a hug from Mickey!)
Of course, the night had to end with ‘Wagon Wheel’! Everybody stood and we were all dancing and singing our hearts out! All of a sudden, the guy just in front of my friend next to me, dropped to one knee and asked his Girlfriend to marry him!! She said yes! We all started cheering at the top of our voices & my friend and I started bawling our eyes out! Neither of us knew why we were crying … we don’t know either of them at all!! Who doesn’t love witnessing a proposal though – well men probably aren’t interested, us girls love it though!
At the end of the day it was a really good night and I certainly left the room with my heart full of love!
