HomeMusicRaintown Nashville Meets London live review

Raintown Nashville Meets London live review

Scottish husband-and-wife duo Raintown are one of the most popular UK country acts, and they got things off to a strong start on the first day of this year’s Nashville Meets London festival in Canary Wharf.

The band kicked off their set with If This Was A Love Song, the lead single from their 2015 album Writing On The Wall. Claire and Paul’s voices blended really nicely together and the uptempo song got the crowd singing and dancing along despite the bad weather! They followed that with the infectious, toe-tapping rhythms of Nineteen Again and the uplifting Hope In Troubled Times.

Throughout the performance Raintown delivered plenty of party songs such as Right Here With Me, Ship Of Fools and Writing On The Wall, combining traditional honky-tonk-style melodies with twangy guitars. Their high energy and great chemistry with their band kept the audience’s spirits up and it was clear to see that they were having a great time on stage. They also produced an acoustic, countrified cover of Blue’s One Love, which was oddly brilliant in a shouldn’t-work-but-does way!

However, the band particularly shone on their ballads, including a take on Little Big Town’s Girl Crush which showcased Claire’s beautiful voice and held the crowd spellbound. Other standouts included the introspective In Your Heart and Better Beautiful, where she hit a seriously impressive high note.

Raintown finished the set with a mashup of Feel Much Better Now and the Cranberries’ Dreams, before going into Shut The Front Door, an almost anthemic kiss-off to a ex-lover. It showed off their strong harmonies, soulful vocals and the combination of traditional country melodies with rock influences which has become their trademark. An opening act needs to get the party started, and they definitely did that!

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Set list: 1. If This Was A Love Song 2. Nineteen Again 3. Hope In Troubled Times 4. Light The Fuse Up 5. Girl Crush (Little Big Town cover) 6. Right Here With Me 7. Writing On The Wall 8. In Your Heart 9. One Love (Blue cover) 10. Love’s Got A Hold On You/Jackson (Johnny Cash cover) 11. Forever Isn’t Long Enough 12. Run With The Night 13. Ship Of Fools 14. Better Beautiful 15. Feel Much Better Now/Dreams (Cranberries cover) 16. Shut The Front Door Performance date: 22nd July 2017

Laura Cooney
Laura Cooney
Laura has been writing for Entertainment Focus since 2016, mainly covering music (particularly country and pop) and television, and is based in South West London.

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