Club Reports
This is where you can read about clubs from their members or club promoters to see what is happening on the Country music circuit. It is updated as and when we receive reports and get the time to include them.
Hickory Lake CMC, Feering, Essex
Ian Highland Band
by Nick Catford
18th October 2024
Hickory Lake CMC in Feering Essex rarely have anything more than a duo but on 20th October they booked the CNN 2024 Band Of The Year, the 5-piece Ian Highland Band. The club stage is too small to accommodate a 5-piece band with drums so it had to be extended 4 feet into the dance floor so that everyone would fit. The current lineup of the band is Ian Highland (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Aaron Herrod (lead guitar and vocals). Mark Dunn (pedal steel guitar), Terry Downing (bass) and Matt Baker (drums). The band play traditional Country and Ian had a well chosen selection of classics to entertain us.
Many people were keen to see a live band and the club was already pretty full when the Ian and the boys took to the stage. It’s always good to see a club that is well attended. Charley Pride’s Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’ opened the first set and quickly got the dancers on their feet with the dance floor remaining busy from start to finish. Keith Whitley’s The Birmingham Turnaround kept the toes tapping but throughout the evening it was always slower songs that filled the dance floor which, early on these included another Keith Whitley favourite Don’t Close Your Eyes.
Early in the first set, JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze showed what a good guitarist Arron Herrod is with the first of many complex guitar solos. The thing I have always liked about many bands is good instrumentation complimenting good vocals, far better than backing tracks ever can. The Ian Highland Band have two lead instruments with pedal steel guitar tonight in the very capable hands of Mark Dunn. I felt Arron and Mark complemented each other superbly.
Although Ian Highland is the lead singer, Aaron Herrod provided good harmony vocals and sung lead on a number of songs including Vince Gill’s Liza Jane. You can’t have an evening of traditional Country without a few George Strait songs which tonight included The Cowboy Rides Away, Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind and The Fireman. You also need some Merle Haggard and Ian obliged with Big City and Okie From Muskogee.
The band were smartly turned out and brought some of their own lights which greatly added to the overall experience. A few other songs that stood out through the early evening included George Jones’ Pass Me By, Alan Jackson’s Don’t Rock The Jukebox, Willie Nelson’s Good Hearted Woman, Gene Watson’s Carmen, Mark Chesnutt’s Brother Jukebox and Ronnie Milsap’s That Girl That Waits on Tables.
We heard a couple of instrumentals during the evening which I always think makes a pleasant change. Mark Dunn ended the first set with Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys’ Steel Guitar Rag which took us back to 1936 and brought plenty of applause and cheering. Pedal steel guitar is one of the traditional Country instruments that is rarely heard these days since the demise of bands in clubs. We had another instrumental interlude when lead guitarist Aaron Herrod played The Shadows’ Apache.
Since returning to the Country club scene in 2016 after 20 years in the wilderness the one thing that really struck me very quickly is the loss of bands. Through the 1990s I went to clubs every week, sometimes several times a week and it was always bands, trios and occasionally a duo. I don’t remember seeing many solos. Now it’s all solos, a few duos and backing tracks. I do, of course, understand that dwindling club numbers and few new young members make it impossible for many clubs to afford anything more than a duo. In my view the atmosphere is so much better when there is a proper band with a real drummer. I commend Wendy and Dave Haylock who run this popular Essex club for booking The Ian Highland Band.
A few more songs that stood out for me during the latter part of the evening included Ronnie Milsap’s Don’t You Ever Get Tired, Gene Watson’s Farewell Party, Buck Owens’ Excuse Me and a couple from Ray Price, Crazy Arms and Pride. A well chosen selection of Country classics kept the maximum number of people on the floor through the evening. The band took us out with Merle Haggard’s Today I Started Loving You Again which brought loud applause and shouts for more. I think Hickory Lake liked the sound of a live band. A double encore was requested and Ian gave us two from The Mavericks, All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down and There Goes My Heart, possibly the most recent songs we heard all evening.
Click below to see a couple of songs I videoed on my phone …
Golden Spurs CMC, Herstmonceux, East Sussex
Nancy Hays
by Nick Catford
18th October 2024
Nancy Hays began her professional career playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as a teenager. She went on to work as a singer and dancer at Six Flags over Mid-America (a theme park in Missouri) and at Opryland in Nashville. Working in Nashville, she recorded many demos for Nashville songwriters, wrote and recorded her own music and appeared on popular shows there during her 20s. After graduating top of her class with a degree in advertising and gaining a graduate degree from Northwestern University, she formed a band, Nancy Hays & the Sawyer Brothers Band and started playing festivals all over the US. She was, however, never able to get a major recording contract. Despite this lack of recognition from Nashville, she started organising her own tours in 2000 and has opened for many major US artists including Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Conway Twitty, Marty Stuart, Ronnie Milsap, Crystal Gayle and many others. She has also recorded six studio albums.
She came to the UK for the first time in 2005. Since then she has been a regular visitor beginning her 6th UK tour in September 2024. For the first time she has taken bookings in the south of England and one of those was at the Golden Spur CMC at Herstmonceux in East Sussex on 18th October.
It’s always been common practice for touring American Country artists to perform at some of the bigger Country festivals but it’s not so common for them to take bookings in Country music clubs. I think the last US artist I saw at a club was Linda Cassady who toured with West Virginia in 1992, 32 years ago! So when I saw the dates for Nancy’s current tour, I knew I had to be there. The Golden Spurs is a friendly club run by Angela Fox who is a line dance instructor, she always warms the dancers up before an act takes to the stage.
Nancy opened proceedings with Barbara Mandrell and George Jones’ I was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool. Barbara Mandrell is another singer that Nancy opened for on stage back in the day. This was followed by Reba McEntire’s One Thin Dime one of many songs Nancy recorded when working as a demo singer in Nashville.
During the first set, Nancy included songs by some of the Country singers who have influenced her over the years. These included Suzy Bogguss’ Someday Soon which Nancy included in her 2010 Big Band Country album which is a well chosen fusion between swing and Country. Next we heard Loretta Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter and a couple from Patsy Cline, Walkin’ After Midnight and Crazy. Nancy sat down for Crazy and delivered this beautiful song with crystal clarity. Although she played guitar for some of her performance many of her songs were sung without an instrument which gave her a good opportunity project her personality.
Nancy is a good storyteller and talked a lot about her early career and her family. We heard Mary Chapin Carpenter’s I Feel Lucky and two from another of her big influences The Judds with Mama He’s Crazy and Why Not Me. Nancy has always been a prolific songwriter and for the rest of the evening we heard a lot of her own songs starting with Try Everything and Heart Like A Train, the title song of her latest album released in September 2024 to coincide with the start of her latest UK tour. 8 of the 16 songs on the album are self penned, one being co-written with John Denver. The album is only on vinyl but with a very small run of albums which are already much in demand. I persuaded her to let me have one. Most of the songs are available individually by streaming.
More original songs from the album quickly followed including 123 Too Many Times and Dad, a song she gave to her father (who is her forever hero) on Thanksgiving Day in 1986. When her father passed away on Thanksgiving Day 1989, it was on a cassette in a Sony Walkman by his bedside in hospital. Since that day, there has never been a live Country music show that she hasn’t performed this song and dedicated to him in heaven.
Another song I particularly liked was Come Dance With Me, the title song from her second album released in 2002. The song is particularly popular with line dancers and won a Crystal Boot line dance award in 2024 at Norbreck Castle in Blackpool. A few more songs in the second set included Man What A Man from her 2005 album Get In Line, Mr Sandman a countrified version of The Chordettes 1954 hit with bass vocals from Randy Gardner her producer and sound man at the Golden Spur. We also heard Friends For A Day And Age which is a nice waltz; Nancy wrote for her oldest and dearest friends. Next came Linda Ronstadt’s Poor Poor Pitiful Me; Nancy described Linda Ronstadt as one of her favourite Country singers. She ended the second set with a couple from her Big Band Country album, True Love and the beautiful Tell Me I’m Crazy.
The final set opened with a couple more songs from Nancy’s Come Dance With Me album; Spread A Little Love Around, a Darryl Worley song and The Ground another Nancy Hays original. A few more songs from some of her favourite Country artists followed. I liked Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man which she sung with a lot of power, a real belter and Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman.
Nancy often performs with her children, daughters Mary and Caroline who sing harmony vocals and fiddle playing son Matthew. She sung Cowboys Are My Weakness which was originally sung by Nancy Hays and The Heffernans (Heffernan is her married name). This was a good opportunity for a barn dance.
A couple more I particularly liked towards the end of the evening were Back In Illinois her personal tribute to her birthplace in the Midwest and Never Been Rocked the only Country reggae song I have ever heard. Nancy ended the evening with a couple of old classics Hank Williams’ Hey, Good Lookin’ and Dolly Parton’s Rocky Top.
This has to be one of the best evenings of Country music I have had for a long time. Lots of nostalgia and a whole heap of songs I have never heard before written by a very talented icon of Country music who really should have had a major record deal. I went home a very happy man.
Click here to see four songs I videoed on my phone …
Milton CMC, Gravesend, Kent
Joe Keeley
by Nick Catford
13th October 2024
After being raised on classic country music and heavily influenced by his musician father Bob Keeley, it is no surprise to anyone that Joe Keeley is now following in his dad’s footsteps. As he was growing up, he would often join his father on tours while he was fronting the popular Country rock band Blackjack in the 1990s. Having experienced life on the road where he was surrounded by this type of music he quickly fell in love with artists like Steve Earle, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, all considered ‘outlaws’ of Country music. As much to the dismay of his mother, Joe found artists like these to be of a huge inspiration to him and his music.
I first saw Joe Keeley solo in November 2018 when he was backing touring American band Royal South with our own Glen Mitchell. On that occasion, he sung a lot of his own songs and really impressed me as a singer/songwriter with thought provoking lyrics drawing on his own life experiences. Joe started his career busking on the streets of Ipswich but since coming onto the Country club circuit first as part of The Keeleys Duo with his dad in 2018 and then as a soloist in his own right in the summer of 2019, he has developed into a first rate modern Country singer with a programme that suits a line dance audience but can also appeal to a traditional Country & Western audience when required. He generally doesn’t sing any of his own songs in clubs but if you want to see that side of him he also fronts his own 4-piece Joe Keeley Band where you will see a totally different side of this very versatile Country entertainer. Check his web site for forthcoming gigs.
Joe opened proceedings with Rodney Atkins’ If You’re Going Through Hell, Hal Ketchum’s Past The Point Of Rescue which included a good guitar solo and a couple from Midland, Out of Sight and Mr Lonely. There were three in a row from Luke Combs, The Kind of Love We Make, Leaf Clover and Half Past Tipsy and a double from George Strait, One Night At a Time and I Just Want to Dance with You. Drake Milligan’s I Got A Problem and Old Dominion’s Memory Lane ended the first set.
The second set opened with a trio of Neon songs, Brooks & Dunn’s Neon Moon, Joshua Hedley’s Neon Blue and Josh Mirenda’s Til the Neon’s Gone. After these, Joe swapped guitar for banjo for the rest of the set. Joe’s dad Bob Keeley had an afternoon gig nearby and called in to the Milton on his way home to see Joe. He was also there with Joe’s mum Tracy to celebrate Bob’s 60th birthday. Naturally, Joe invited Bob to join him on stage to sing with him. Bob pretended to be reluctant to sing but he was clear he was enjoying it. Although they have been performing together as The Keeleys Duo they seemed to be struggling to find a song they both knew but eventually settled on The Soggy Bottom Boys’ I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow. Bob certainly gave it some welly, much to the delight of everyone in the club. It was good to see both Bob and Tracy taking to the dance floor many times during the evening.
Steve Earle’s Johnny Come Lately ended the second set and after I won nothing in the raffle, as usual, Joe opened the third set with two more from Steve Earle, one of his earliest Country influences, Copperhead Road and The Galway Girl.
Joe is a prolific songwriter but he didn’t do any of his own this evening which I thought was a shame; I know a dance has been specially choreographed for one of his songs, End Of The World. He did however include a couple of songs from one of his favourite American singer/songwriters Zach Top who I’m not familiar with; these were These were I Never Lie and Sounds Like the Radio. I also liked Jelly Roll’s Son Of A Sinner.
Hank Williams Jnr’s Family Tradition meant it was time for a barn dance and as the evening drew to a close we heard Rodney Crowell’s Lovin’ All Night Long, Cody Johnson’s ‘Til You Can’t and Darryl Worley’s Messed Up In Memphis, a song he sung at one of his first gigs 10 years ago when he was 18.
At the end of an excellent evening Bob joined him on stage for a rousing rendition of the popular rocker The Lennerockers’ High Class Lady which left the enthusiastic crowd at this friendly Kent club shouting for more and guaranteeing Joe a return booking. It’s always good to see new young Country singers emerging onto the circuit. There have been quite a few in recent years and I’m sure Joe Keeley’s future is assured.
Click below to see a couple of Joe’s songs videoed on my phone
Best Of British, Larkfield, Kent
Loco Boys
by Nick Catford
12th October 2024
I first saw Plain Loco as a band 34 years ago and was looking forward to catching up with them as a duo at the Best Of British CMC at Larkfield, Kent on 12th October. These days they either appear as Plain Loco or The Loco Boys. Usually it’s Plain Loco if they are at a line dance club or The Loco Boys at a Country & Western Club. Best Of British is a line dance club so I am already confused, which isn’t difficult. What I do know is the duo are Tony Crooks on lead guitar and lead vocals and Steve Jay on bass and lead vocals so what’s not to like. Tony and Steve have been playing together since April 1997.
By the time The Loco Boys took to the stage the dance floor was already full and that’s pretty much how it stayed all night. This popular club has been running since 1981 and despite a couple of venue changes and a eight month break in 2005 when John and Mary took over the reins, it continues to thrive while other clubs are going to the wall. It was nice to see a few young people enjoying the dancing and the music.
The boys opened proceedings with Tim McGraw’s Just to See You Smile followed by George Jones’ Billy B Bad. Steve and Tony share lead vocals; they work very well together playing off each other and clearly enjoy playing together. Their infectious enthusiasm quickly rubbed off on everyone so we were all having a good time too. They stuck to a fairly up tempo programme all evening and a few more of the songs in the first set included, Luke Combs’ The Kind of Love We Make, Troy Cassar-Daley’s Things I Carry Around, Midland’s Playboys, Jill King’s Can’t Let Go and Don Williams’ First Fool In Line.
Although The Best Of British only meet once a month, they do regularly book duos with six duos appearing at the club this year. The boys closed the second set with Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Bug which gave Steve the opportunity to play his ‘gob iron’ (harmonica). The gob iron came out again later for Guy Mitchell’s Heartaches By The Number. Tony Crooks is one of the best lead guitarists on the club circuit so there were plenty of complex guitar solos on songs like Darryl Worley’s Messed Up In Memphis and The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.
Steve Jay always has a grin on his face probably going back to the time he was in a Kent based comedy show band called Sweet Illusion in the 1980s. It was nice to see two of his former band members from those days; they live locally and came along to see Steve in action.
A few more songs that stood out for me during the evening included Vince Gill’s Young Man’s Town, Josh Kiser’s I’m Never Drinking Again, Randy Travis’ Where That Came From, Drake Milligan’s Save It For A Sunny Day, James Johnston’s Old Country Barn and Lee Roy Parnell’s Fresh Coat Of Paint. The Loco Boys kept the lively songs flowing all night which suited the dancers but during the last set there were a few slower songs like Elvis’ Fool Such As I. Some of the dancers had been on their feet through all three sets and through the breaks.
During the final set we heard Luke Comb’s 5 Leaf Clover, a nice waltz, Lee Kernaghan’s Backroad Nation , Wade Bowen’s Day of the Dead and Jaden Hamilton’s Heaven’s Jukebox. At the end of the evening there was prolonged cheering and shouting for more. The boys closed with the Monkees’ Daydream Believer followed by Josh Mirenda’s Til the Neon’s Gone and William Michael Morgan’s Gone Enough. A fun filled night of great music from a class act.
See below for a video of The Loco Boys made on my phone …
Lone Wolf CMC, Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex
Badlands
by Nick Catford
26th October 2024
Ever since Badlands won the CNN award for Newcomer Of The Year in 2018, I have been getting good reports and have really been looking forward to seeing them for the first time. They were very well received when they made their debut at the Lone Wolf CMC in Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex last year so Phil and Pam booked them again for 6th October and I am really pleased I went along to see them.
They describe themselves as a modern Country band with Russ Kitchin on lead guitar and lead vocals and his daughter Heather on lead guitar and lead vocals. Julian Widdop on bass and Ash Thompson on drums complete the quartet lineup but there is a 5th member of the band as Natalie Kitchin is their sound engineer ensuring their sound is crisp and clear and not too loud – after all Lone Wolf is a Country Music Club. In my view she got it spot on tonight.
The band opened with Cole Swindell’s Drinkaby followed by Rodney Atkins’ If You’re Going Through Hell, a track from their eponymously named second album. Other songs from the album included Travis Tritt’s Southbound Train, George Strait’s The Cowboy Rides Away and Hal Ketchum’s Past The Point Of Rescue which included a complex guitar solo from Russ Kitchen. For me the best Country acts have good singers and good players – Badlands have both with two lead singers and two lead guitarists. There style as players and singers is completely different and they compliment each other superbly ensuring a very diverse band sound.
A few songs that stood out early on included Josh Kiser’s I’m Never Drinking Again, Luke Combs’ When It Rains It Pours, Toby Keith’s Should’ve Been a Cowboy, Trisha Yearwood’s Oh Lonesome You and The Eagles’ Peaceful Easy Feeling. The band has a very good attitude; they want to be a band that put on a show and not just a band that stands there and repeats the songs they have learnt. Therefore the interaction between Russ and Heather and a certain amount of stage antics are an important part of their presentation and they feel stands them apart from many other acts. I found it all very entertaining.
Russ is a songwriter but the band rarely includes original songs in clubs as he feels people prefer to hear covers. Tonight they did do one of his songs, Strongest Hands Of All. Ash and Julian left the stage and Russ and Heather sang it acoustically as a duet. It’s a beautiful song about their dad and has to be one of my picks of the evening. The third verse was co-written by Natalie and Heather. The song is featured on Russ’ solo album Wherever You Are which won UK Country Radio’s Album Of The Year award in 2024.
A few more songs that stood out later in the evening included Midland’s Longneck Way To Go with another good guitar solo, Alan Jackson’s Don’t Rock the Jukebox, Garth Brooks’ Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) and Cody Johnson’s ‘Til You Can’t.
I see bands fairly regularly but not as often as I would like as in reality Country bands are almost a thing of the past. Most bands I have seen in the last decade generally play traditional Country & Western so it was very refreshing to see a band that plays a lot of modern songs as well as a good selection of classic songs. When Russ formed the band in 2017 it was important that he was able to perform Country his way.
Towards the end of the evening, we heard James House’s This Is Me, John Anderson’s Seminole Wind which segued into The Chain, Ashley McBryde’s Martha Divine and Sawyer Brown’s Six Days On The Road. Marty Stuart’s Tempted coaxed people onto the floor for a barn dance, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
Russ and Heather will be appearing at C2C at the O2 in 2025. They are performing on the Thursday night at The Observatory. There’s a Nashville songwriters’ show at The Indigo and immediately after that, there is the afterparty at The Observatory where they will be performing for two hours.
There was well deserved applause and cheering at the end of a very enjoyable evening from a first rate modern Country band. They took us out with another Marty Stuart song Badlands; the band took its name from Marty Stuart’s 2005 concept album of the same name. For their inevitable encore we heard Keith Urban’s Somebody Like You. I do like bands and I really enjoyed my first outing with Badlands. Check them out if you get the chance.
See a video I made of Badlands on my phone below …
Smokey 2, Wythall, Birmingham
Darren Flack
by Ray Packham
26th October 2024
Our normal November show is on Saturday 9th November and Kelly McCall and Johnny B provide the music for dancing or listening.
Silver Churn, Totnes, Devon
Jeff Gallant
by Phil Jenkins
4th October 2024
Thanks to Jeff Galent for entertaining us with a fantastic programme of traditional Country Music just the way we like it. Jeff always does his best to do any requests and if he doesn’t know any he normally learns them for the next time you see him.
Jeff kept us on our feet all night with a mixture of fast and slow numbers and a couple of barn dances and we had a lot of songs we don’t hear these days, from George Jones – Whose Going To Fill Their Shoes, from Joh,ny Cash – Cocaine Blues and from David Ball – Thinkin’ Problem, all great stuff and also a whole lot of goodies from Merle Haggard, George Strait, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Charley Pride, Dale Watson and our own Gary Perkins.
Thanks to Pam and Bill for providing homemade quiches and gateau during the break, with it being a village hall with no bar it is a bring your own drinks and snacks venue so to help club funds Pam, Bill and Bev provide refreshments, which are proving very popular.
At the end of a brilliant evening everyone was shouting for more and everyone went home happy.