17. March 2025
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C2C Country To Country Berlin 2025 – Opening Event (6th March 2025) – The Bluebird Cafe

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

6th March 2025 was time to kick off the Country To Country Festival 2025 in Berlin. While the main festival was about to start “properly” on Friday, the organizers put up the (more or less already) traditional Bluebird Cafe session, named after the famous music cafe in Nashville. The lineup was really promising, so that I felt gifted to be able to cover the event held at the Passionskirche for you. Here is my concert report.

This posting comes with 168 major size pictures in the C2C 2025 Berlin section of the concert galleries.

 

Passionskirche – About The Venue

The Passionskirche (translating to “Passion Church”) is a protestant church in the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. Actually, it is just a few blocks away from Columbia Theater, from where I covered the Nathan Evans show the day before. The church is still used for religious services, but also used as a cultural venue, for which is comes with a capacity of roughly 700 people. The closest public transport stop is Marheinekeplatz, which is served by bus line 248. Alternatively, the closest underground stop is nearby Gneisenaustraße, which is served by the U7 line.

 

C2C Berlin 2025 – The Bluebird Cafe – The Artists

The kick-off event of the festival was really interesting. First of all, there was uprising US-American artist Dasha, who arrived in Berlin from tour stops in Munich and Hamburg. She is one of the headline artists of the festival, playing on Main Stage on Saturday. Dasha is followed by over 300k users. Remarkably, the non-genre specific chart peak ranking of her most recent album What Happens Now? (2024) was worse in her home country (#117) than in Canada (#48), Germany (#93) or the Netherlands (#8).

Isaac Gibson is part of 49 Winchester, who are the second main act of the festival on Friday. I featured the band’s most recent album Leavin’ This Holler (2024) as well as their 2024 show in Cologne. You can also find a review of their 2022 album Fortune Favors The Bold in my album reviews. The country-rock and roots rock band from Virginia is very popular, also in Europe, and has established as one of the finest acts of the genre.

Max McNown was scheduled for three side stages shows on Friday in Berlin. He came to Berlin with his excellent new album Night Drivin’ (2025). The Oregon Native mixes country and folk elements in his song. In 2024, he also released his debut album Wandering (Love Me Back) and the EP Willfully Blind.

Last, but not least, the Bluebird Cafe session featured Charlie Worsham. He grew as member of the band Old Crow Medicine Show. The Mississippi native is also part of Dierks Bentley’s band. So far, Worsham released two albums and two EPs. His most successful track is the 2013 track Could It Be, which peaked 13th in the US Country Airplay Charts.

 

C2C Berlin 2025 – The Bluebird Cafe – The Show

The show started right in time on 19:00 with an introduction of the artists. They finally agreed that, in the perspective  of the audience, they did any of the five rounds of songs from left to right. There was no intermission, so that this kick-off event almost lasted two hours. Max McNown opened the videos on the unique stage with one of his earliest releases, Freezing in November. Isaac Gibson chose Damn Darlin’ as his opener. Charlie Worsham commented on it that it was a perfect song for the church setting of the evening – but would also work in a German beer hall. He chose a “church song” by himself, going with How I Learned To Pray. Dasha was last in this round, kicking off with her second part of the Austin saga.

Overall, the atmosphere at the Passionskirche was lovely with the vast majority of the audience listening respectfully to the artists. With the second round, the four artists (and Max McNown guitarist) opened up a bit more. Before Whiskeysippi, he explained how he ended once up in a bar in Munich, sipping and buying some drinks – just to find out that the bar is cash only. The song was very appreciated by the audience who clapped  in the rhythm of the track. Berlin also loved the two following songs, Dasha’s Even Cowboys Cry and Max McNown third one, Better Me For You (Brown Eyes). Isaac Gibson also made this evening memorable in a special way: he forgot a shorter part of the lyrics of this third song Everlasting Lover. In the fourth round, he completely missed how to continue Hays, Kansas, so that he spontaneously went for a classic, Russell County Line.

Dasha and Charlie Worsham also played some new songs, which was a nice and rather characteristic way of having a songwriters’ round. Dasha also received two UK Radio Awards for her achievements – unfortunately at a time when professional photography was no longer possible. During the final set of songs, Washam declared that The sprit of the Bluebird Cafe has gone worldwide, praising their management, but also German Sina Hall, who has been awarded for her effort in the genre last year. Charlie Worsham joined Gibson on the guitar for Yearnin’ For You, playing High Note right thereafter, which he wrote for Dierks Bentley and Billy Strings. The last song of the evening was Dasha’s Austin (Boots Stop Workin’), which has been a huge European success as well, like Top 5 year-end chart placement in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) and Estonia (Airplay).

 

C2C Berlin 2025 – The Bluebird Cafe – The Gallery

There are 168 pictures of the event. You find them in the C2C Berlin Gallery Group of the concert galleries:

 

 

C2C Berlin 2025 – The Bluebird Cafe – My View

Four excellent musicians defined a remarkable kick-off of the Country To Country Festival in Germany. I especially loved Charlie Worsham, whose musical genius became more than obvious in the Passionskirche. However, it was a lovely mix of very different characters. The audience obviously appreciated artists like Dasha, who are doing remarkably great on the German market.

 

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