As I climb the stairs to the Rausing Circle in the Royal Albert Hall, people around me are chattering enthusiastically about how many Country to Country shows they’ve been to. Their love for the genre is palpable. It’s going to be a special night.
For we’re here to see the cast of hit TV show Nashville, filmed in Music City itself, play their hearts out.
Charles Esten is first to take to the stage, raising his arms wildly to amp up the room. He launches into a rousing Buckle Up, part of his Every Single Friday project (he’s been releasing new music every Friday since last July) and another original, Simple As That, sans guitar. Laid bare, you can hear just how impressive his voice is.
Songs from the TV show are also featured. Chris Carmack’s bluesy vocals shine on his character Will’s song Spinning Revolver, and Jonathan Jackson, who plays Avery, thrusts forward with each high octane guitar strum on Keep Asking Why. He howls: “Is this what you wanted?”. The answer, of course, is yes. It’s foot-stompingly good.
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| Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio and Chris Carmack (L to R) |
Even original songs have their origins in the programme. Charles plays I Climb The Walls, inspired by his character Deacon’s battles with alcoholism, admitting: “Some days it’s tough to play them.” It’s a moving song, and as he reaches up to the sky on the line “light at the end of the tunnel is you know who” it feels as though he is singing to Connie Britton’s character, his wife Rayna, who was killed off earlier this year.
But it is Jonathan who brings emotion firmly into the fray with the softer Love Rescue Me by U2, rivalling Bono and his “shalalalas”. The climactic high notes are impeccable.
When Sam Palladio, who plays Gunnar, enthuses: “It feels good to be home, London”, his English accent is startling. His performance of I Will Fall (originally a duet with Clare Bowen’s character Scarlett) works oddly well as a stripped back solo piece, but then he says the magic words: “I want to bring out a couple of my dear friends.”
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| Charles Esten and Clare Bowen duet |
This is what we’re here for. At the heart of Nashville are the group performances. And this one does not disappoint. The doll-like Clare, twirling in her white dress with her hair in a bow and glitter on her face, looks in awe when she gets on stage. Jonathan returns, too, and they sing an electrifying version of their song Borrow My Heart.
As Chris says, “It’s better with friends”. When Charles joins Clare for Hand To Hold, the pair go into the crowd to take selfies and shake hands – you can tell they value this fan interaction
Yet the standout duet of the night is Longer, Clare’s performance with her “very own best friend”, fiancé Brandon Young (she says they’re going to get married straight off the tour), who isn’t on the show but often performs with the cast. The simple track offsets the lyrical variations perfectly – it’s a heartrending mix of love and near-anger, captured in the transition between Clare’s “I want to give you more, for nothing in return” to Brandon’s “Oh I did wait for you darling, did ache for you darling”.
In the encore, Charles introduces David Bowie’s song Heroes, and the other four cast members join him, unifying them all on stage for the first time. It is an impressive blend of voices, with Chris on saxophone (he’s the most talented instrumentalist). They erupt into And Then We’re Gone, a humorous song about reaching the end of a gig, and we all sigh, savouring Charles’s husky vocals in this “one more song”. Fortunately, this is misleading – what has become the show’s anthem, A Life That’s Good, is the true finale. And after a concert like that, life is most definitely good. Great, even.
Originally published: PA Diploma News
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