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Rob Childs made a welcome return to the Country Revival CMC, Dagenham, Essex on 4th August. Phil Mann, who runs the club, told him “you can play whatever you like” and what we were treated to was three sets on mainly classic Country from, in my view, one of the best soloists on the circuit. I have known Rob for 34 years, he might look a bit different now but he certainly knows how to please an audience. He always has something interesting to say and is very good at interacting with the audience and had little problem creating a great rapport very quickly.
He started in fine style with William Michael Morgan’s Missing, Alan Jackson’s Gone Country, Hal Ketchum’s I Saw The Light and Dierks Bentley’s Free And Easy.  Rob is a multi-instrumentalist and has a large collection of guitars and always brings four to each gig so, as usual, he was switching between guitars throughout the evening.  Guitar players tend to play many different styles of music and each guitar suits different styles and has a different sound.
Rob asked for requests and was inundated with them, he has a very wide repertoire of songs and he got through most of them. Early on there was a request for a song by The Kentucky Headhunters so he promised a song in each set. The first of these was Dumas Walker then Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine and at the end of the evening, The Ballad of Davy Crockett.
To end the first set I was pleased to hear Randy Travis’ new song Eyes Like Diamonds. Randy Travis is one of my favourite Country singers who very sadly had a near-fatal stroke in 2013, which severely limited his singing and speaking ability. He made his first studio recording since his stroke earlier this year, when his voice was re-created using artificial intelligence.
The second set opened with Alan Jackson’s It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere, a request for me.  There were a number of George Strait songs during the evening including Adalida and All My Ex’s Live in Texas – a good western swinger and a good barn dance song. A few other songs that stood out during the evening included Toby Keith’s White Rose, Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road, Drake Milligan’s Save It For A Sunny Day, Kevin Sharp’s Nobody Knows and James Otto’s Just Got Started Lovin’ You.
Vince Gill’s One More Last Chance gave Rob the chance for some name dropping as he told us he had recently played at guitarist Albert Lee’s 80th birthday party at London’s Cadogan Hall. One of the guest singers was Vince Gill on a break from his UK tour with the Eagles.  Classic Country continued with one good song after another! Garth Brooks’ Two of a Kind, Workin’ On A Full House was another good barn dance song. On a hot night it was the slow songs that always filled the dance floor like Ricky Van Shelton’s Life Turned Her That Way and Alan Jackson’s Remember When.
In the third set Rob swapped guitar for mandolin for a couple of songs, Billy Ray Cyrus’ Trail Of Tears and another Steve Earle favourite The Galway Girl. It was a fun filled evening with lots of good Country music and plenty of good humour and lively banter. At the end of proceedings there was well deserved applause and Phil Mann asked for a double encore and Rob was happy to oblige closing the evening with Ernest Tubb’s Waltz across Texas and BR5-49’s Seven Nights To Rock.  Rob will be back at Dagenham in February.
I was pleased to see The Country Revival has been nominated for a CNN for Country Music Club Of The Year. It’s one of my regular clubs where I am always made welcome and I would like to wish the best of luck to Phil and Teresa Mann.
I videoed a couple of songs on my phone which you can see here