What an easy review this is. Perfection. There is nothing I would change. The music was great, the songs were great, the band were great, Tyler was great, the view was great, the lighting was great and the sound was great.
You may have guessed I enjoyed it. It was nearly two hours of the finest country / country rock you are likely to see. The musicianship on the stage was a different level, most of them multi instrumentalists and at any stage there was a mix and match combination of banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, fiddle and bass. All of these ably backed up with a demon keyboardist and drummer.
Arriving early on stage the band launch into an instrumental jam for a few minutes to set the scene with a little ‘Bat out of Hell’ outro from the keyboard player and then they immediately leave with just Tyler and a fiddle on stage for a five or six song cycle that brings a rare hushed moment to just kick back and absorb these moving songs. It’s a nice touch to cover Floyd’s ‘Time’ and again in another rare moment in the evening where I was one of the few people in the audience who knew all of the words but they soon got their own back with singing along to the rest of the evening.
The set takes in songs from across his catalogue and I couldn’t have written it better myself with most if not all of my favourite tracks getting an airing from Hank’s classic ‘Old County Church’ to get the feet tapping through ‘Country Squire’, ‘All Your’n’ and set closers ‘House Fire’ and ’Universal Fire’ with its spectacular light show to end the night.
Childers star is definitely on the rise from seeing him only a year ago in front of 900 people at Islington Assembly Hall to selling out two nights at the 5000 capacity Apollo. And on this form it should be many more.
A true five star review for this super talent. If you are a fan of good music, light humour, humility on stage and a superb band then he has now become a must see.
Keep on country rockin’ y’all