![]() Still, Bryan retains the same raw earnestness as the standout video, filmed around a campfire while he was in the army. These days, when he sings “Heading South” – the 2019 YouTube hit that blew him up – a full band accompanies to crowds of devoted fans. But his fantastic six-piece band picked up any slack and then some, as Austin native/star fiddle player Lucas Ruge-Jones busted out dizzying reels between choruses to give Bryan a chance to catch his breath. According to a fellow audience member who went to his Stubb’s show on Wednesday, Bryan was still getting over a cold. As a writer, I’m jealous of the effortless vulnerability in his words – the ultimate gift he gave Friday’s denim-heavy audience with an eight-track performance of seminal hits like “Godspeed” and “Heading South.” Bryan opened 15 minutes late to an impatient crowd with high-energy “Open The Gate” off May’s American Heartbreak, sporting a Southwestern-style striped shirt that, combined with the lyrics, could be interpreted as a statement on the Texas border. ![]() – Christina Garcia Zach Bryan Stages Modern-Day Revival Through Vulnerabilityīorn on an army base and raised in Oologah, Okla., 26-year-old country sensation Zach Bryan delivers the two best things in country music: storytelling and camaraderie. Or maybe they were imagining their crushes, actually. ![]() Coherence (or say, familiarity) of that effort remains debatable, as the feel-good zydeco romp ended and an upbeat but psychedelic original, “Consequence Remains,” stilled an older audience – clearly not raised line dancing in Dallas’ West End every weekend and heading home to think about their crush to slinky R&B jams. Vibrant, Louisiana-born twins Torrence and Thurman Thomas curl and bob around their guitars, hinting gently at their latest Southern rock touchpoints of – checks notes – ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, as they “redefine” Southern music to include pop, R&B, funk, and lots of other genres country musicians have been cashing out on for years. Their drummer and lone background singer joined in. In their cowboy era, sartorially, THEBROSFRESH took the Tito’s stage in Western shirts only to open with Brandy’s Nineties R&B classic, “I Wanna Be Down.” They wrapped with Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and easily prevailed over the audience of hundreds to line dance for “a zydeco two-step” in between, keeping the cowboy hats on. – Doug Freeman THEBROSFRESH Two-Step Between Southern Rock and Slinky R&B Recalling having played the Tito’s tent stage in 2019, Strings noted, “We’re always proud to be the ones to bring some bluegrass to you.” The Michigan guitar-slinger just might be the one to break the genre into mainstream appeal. At times, the show pumped more towards bro-grass than bluegrass behind the warped effects pedals, but even tender touches like “Love and Regret” held the crowd enthralled. Strings played to the audience, racing around the stage and shaking his ass and pulling up his T-shirt to slap his tattoo-speckled stomach. As a five-piece with fiddle, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, and Strings on guitar, the outfit tore through an hour of acid-reflexed jams – “Red Daisy” blistering a 10-minute stomp to start. Billy Strings has the bona fides, from a Grammy to a slew of International Bluegrass Music Awards, but it was far from certain whether he could hold a general festival crowd to close out the T-Mobile stage. Kudos to ACL for having the guts to put a bluegrass act as a big-stage headliner. (photo by Gary Miller) Billy Strings Brings Bluegrass Mainstream Looking for our review of The Chicks' Friday night headliner set? Find it here. Closer “Hard Drive,” a brilliant achievement of spoken scene writing, proved the exemplar of material you want to hear amidst the daytime sobriety of a music fest. Delivering lyrics with eyes closed, her lime eyeshadow sometimes gave the impression of glowing green corneas – fitting for superhuman empathy. ![]() Fronting a sax-inflected quartet with compositions leaving room for real-time introspection, Jenkins’ 30-minute set pulled largely from last year’s An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, though recent single “Pygmalion” rocked harder live than in-studio. A voicemail from jail presaged “American Spirits,” contrasting her life experiences with those of an incarcerated friend – exemplifying the Brooklyn songwriter’s charitable style: soft voice, sharp writing. Perhaps, for me, the singular moment of ACL’s Friday was bearing witness to Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu leading the Tito’s tent in a hyped refrain of “ Get the fuck out!” but Cassandra Jenkins’ whisper-sung vignettes brought me the most emotional comfort. Cassandra Jenkins (photo by John Anderson)
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