After a one day break, the Sound of Nashville Open Air2024 was back in Cologne. Sunday, 25th August 2024, featured four additional artists (and one already well-respected one). Here are my impressions and thoughts of the second day at the Freideck of the Kantine.
This posting comes with 712 major size pictures as part of the concert gallery.
Sound of Nashville Open Air (Day 2) – About The Artists
The Sunday line-up of the first Sound of Nashville Open Air was taken over by male acts. The headliner of the day were The Red Clay Strays. The country rockers have been founded in 2016 in Mobile, Alabama. Their 2022 debut album Moment of Truth peaked 29th in the US Country and 11th in the US Americana / Folk Charts. The album was also very successful in the United Kingdom, where it made it up to the fourth spot. The follow-up, Made by These Moments, released in July 2024, entered the US Country Album Charts’ Top 10.
The second key act on Sunday was Brent Cobb. The 1986-born Georgia artist, has released six studio albums so far, the latest being Southern Star in 2023. His 2016 album Shine on Rainy Day received a Grammy Award nomination for the Best Americana Album. I also reviewed his 2020 album Keep ‘Em on They Toes and And Now Let’s Turn to Page… (2022)
Canadian Country on Sunday
The two other Sunday act were Canadian artists. First of all, there was Tebey, who is already quite familiar to the German country music scene. He was a main stage artist at the 2020 Country To Country festival in Berlin. The 1983-born Ontario artist has released three studio albums so far. The latest one has been The Good Ones released in 2021. His song Who’s Gonna Love You topped the Canadian Country Charts in 2018.
Tim Hicks is another act, who somehow partied his reunion with German country music fans in Cologne. For example, he played at the 2020 C2C Berlin side stages. He is originally from Niagara Falls in Ontario. Since 2012, he is a professional music artist. His discography includes five studio albums, the latest being Talk To Time released in 2022. In 2019 and 2020, two Tim Hicks singles in a row topped his domestic county music charts, What A Song Should Do and No Truck Song.
Sound of Nashville Open Air (Day 2) – The Show
Tim Hicks opened the second day of the festival. As he stated during his set, It’s a sunny day, good friends celebrating live music. It doesn’t get better than that. Indeed, the open air space of Die Kantine held significantly more people than on the same time on Friday. And they partied the Canadian being back on German stages. He opened with Get By from his debut album Throw Down, followed by the 2015 album track So Do I. From the very beginning, he had a good connection to the German fans. Before his Canada-praising song Stronger Beer, he explained the fans between the NFL and CFL (Canadian League) rules of American Football. The set closed after an hour with Talk To Time – and a really good feeling to have him back on stage.
Tebey continued the Canadian country party in the German Rheinland region. The opener of his 80 minute set was Country Music Kinda Night. He thanked the people that they spent their hard earned money on country music and supported him and the other artists music. Apart from originals from all his career, he also added some covers, like Avicii’s Wake Me Up, which Tebey however had released with Emerson Drive as an own song already. His set was energetic and indeed attracted the people. My favorite was Denim on Denim towards the end of his set – a song I simply love to listen to again and again. Tebey partially used the same musicians on stage like Tim Hicks.
Like on Friday, Tyler Sjöström was the man of the side stage. He typically made the stage change intermissions more enjoyable. Again, he did really great and impressed with guitar and his voice only.
Brent Cobb and Red Clay Strays
The third act of the day was Brent Cobb. He majorly concentrated on guitar rock with Americana influences. A treat for Southern rock fans with a nice groove – but overall, the Cologne crowd was a bit less enthusiastic than during the two Canadian acts before. He kicked off his set with two rather slow songs from the 2020 Keep ‘Em on They Toes album, the title track and Shut uo and Sing before he also went for more powerful songs like Sucker For A Good Time and Southern Star. You felt that the band had a long trip from Denmark, where they headlined a festival the night before. Nonetheless, Cobb and his band played a good set of rock tracks, closing with songs like .30-06. The set was a but shorter than expected and just lasted some 65 to 70 minutes.
I was really looking forward for the last band, The Red Clay Strays. Many people at the festival ground asked me way before their 80 minute set, when the US band will be playing – quite a lot of people felt to have traveled to Cologne just for that occasion. Their idols kicked off their show a bit earlier than scheduled, so that they almost played a full 90 minute show. The fans were already delighted, when the band opened with two of their recent songs, Wasting Time and Stone’s Throw. The front row felt predominantly female now and cheered for the band. For Sunshine and Ghosts, Brandon Coleman took over the piano. The energetic set ended with the band’s most popular on Spotify, Wondering Why and Don’t Care.
Sound of Nashville Open Air (Day 2) – The Gallery
Here are 712 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:
Sound of Nashville Open Air – Day 1 Post
Here is my concert report of the first day of the Sound of Nashville Open Air 2024:
Sound of Nashville Open Air 2024 (23rd August 2024, Day 1, Cologne)
Sound of Nashville Open Air (Day 2) – My View
The first-time ever Sound of Nashville Open Air was a success. Quite a lot of new faces, interesting bands and a nice mix of music gave another country music party. The weather was perfect for an open air festival as well, so that one can hope that this event will continue, maybe without the disturbing free Saturday. The unsung hero of the festival was Tyler Sjöström, who perfectly shortened the intermissions for the Cologne crowds. Two lovely nights in Cologne, Germany.
Sound of Nashville on Flyctory.com
Here are all postings related to the Sound of Nashville concert series in Germany and the Netherlands:
Travel Postings About Cologne
Here are all my travel postings related to Cologne: