The Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun has a long history of bringing through amazing country artists to perform free shows. Saturday, May 16th was no different as they presented one of the most inspiring and talented artists country music has to offer, Craig Morgan. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Craig perform live or see a show at the Wolf Den before, so I was thrilled to draw this assignment for New England Country Music. It was going to be one helluva show as NECM sent their bearded duo to cover the concert and speak with Craig before he took the stage that evening.
Fans were lining up outside the Wolf Den hours before the show to make sure they were able to get into see what was sure to be a great night of country music. The Wolf Den ended up at capacity with fans lining the outside rim of the venue to catch a glimpse of Craig Morgan. Craig took the stage just around 8:00PM and wasted no time getting the place rocking with ‘International Harvester’ followed up by ‘Little Bit of Life.’ The crowd was rocking as Craig broke out two of his biggest hits but then slowed things down for his next song, ‘That’s What I Love About Sunday.’ His first number one single had the crowd singing along to every word, as everyone can relate to it’s message and is truly one of the best country songs to come along in the past 20 years.
As he would throughout the evening, Craig took some time to interact with the audience, “Just finished up my new album and going to play you some of the new stuff. Hope to encourage you go buy it as I have four kids and need to sell… A LOT!” He joked, “Especially because one of them isn’t so sharp.” This led into one of the new singles that will be on his album, ‘She’s All Cried Out,’ which is a song about a heartbroke woman. Next was one of the most emotional songs that Morgan has in his arsenal, ‘This Ain’t Nothing.’ It’s a song that he told the crowd, “is about an old man going through some tough times.” ‘Guess You Had To Be There’ was next on the setlist and was a fun tune that is about his monitor engineer Corey involving a pretty girl, a hardware store and a tall tale. The band then played a great cover of The Eagles, ‘Life In the Fast Lane,’ followed by ‘This Ole Boy.’
‘Almost Home’ is in my opinion one of the most powerful songs in Craig’s aresenal and hearing it live only strengthened my opinion on that. Morgan introduced the song as, “This is the song that got it all started for me. I know there’s someone here tonight who doesn’t listen to country music and thank you to whoever brought them.” You could feel the emotion surging through the crowd as the song played and even more so when Craig stopped to let the crowd sing the last verse along with him. Next Morgan and his band took a hard left turn and played a great cover of Justin Timberlake’s, ‘Drink You Away.’ Obviously the song choice had to be explained, “I have a 16 year old son and I drive him down the road to see what he doesn’t listen to. He’ll plug his phone in and this song came on, I liked it so now we play it in our set. It’s certainly not a country song and I didn’t know he was a singer…thought he was an actor.”
We were then treated to the a brief chorus of The Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker,’ but that quickly turned into one of Craig’s biggest career hits, ‘Redneck Yacht Club.’ Before the song he took some more time to have some playful banter with the crowd about people who are fans of his due to this song and to have some fun with an obviously intoxicated couple in the front of the stage. The crowd exploded for this performance and was a big highlight of the evening with everyone singing along to each word that was being sung.
Throughout the show, Morgan and his band peppered in some more songs off the new album. The next one the crowd was treated to was, ‘Without You.’ It’s an amazing song and if released as a single to country radio, will easily be his next number one single. Craig gave some background into the new song,
“Anyone out there tonight about to get married? I’ve been married to the same woman for 26 years. We start real young in Tennessee and didn’t start college until after we had kids… make it interesting. This is a brand new song and I figured out in all my years of travel between 60 countries and a few different wars… women are all the same! Y’all have the same needs and desires, us as men need to find the one who will put up with us. A great friend of mine told me just say yes as you’re going to eventually anyway. Just remember that you’d be nowhere without her.”
‘More Trucks Than Cars’ got the Wolf Den rocking again before Craig played another new song off his upcoming album, ‘Country Side Of Heaven.’ This song was already very familiar to the crowd as it was penned and recorded by a good friend of NECM, Eric Paslay. Morgan’s version of an already great song was amazing and will certainly be a highlight of his upcoming album. Craig took some more time to thank the crowd and talk about his road into country music, “I got in the music business to be a songwriter and not a singer. I left the Army to be a songwriter but stayed in as I wasn’t convinced this would work. Please request the new songs at radio and if not I’ll be back in the Army. Which is ok as I enjoy shooting people (laughing)…just kidding as people will think bad of me now.” A very unique and entertaining part of the show was when Craig had the crowd throw out three random words (sexy, fireball and elevator) to him and the band. On the spot, they came up with a melody, added in the chosen three words and created a fun song right on the spot.
As the night was drawing to a close, Morgan thanked the crowd for hanging out and played “a hurtin’ song,” which was written by Josh Osborne and Old Dominion’s Matt Ramsey and Trevor Rosen, called ‘Wake Up Loving You.’ His latest single had the energy in the crowd pulsating throughout all of Mohegan Sun and was the perfect song to end the set on. This crowd wasn’t going home without an encore though as Tte Wolf Den went dark and fans started chanting for one more song. “Where I’m from, on any given night we call our friends and have a bonfire”. Morgan exclaimed to the roar of the audience as he broke into, ‘Bonfire.’ There was no louder point in the entire performance than this as every last person knew the words and was a great end to one big party. Craig ended with this, “My name is Craig Morgan and thank y’all for letting us be a part of your night.”
I’ve been a fan of Craig Morgan’s for years and hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing him live until this show. He didn’t disappoint one bit between his incredible performance, one talented band and the personal connection he made with the audience. Not enough artists take the time to make that personal connection with their fans while on stage and that isn’t lost on Craig as he made everyone feel like a friend. Make sure to catch him when he makes a stop in your town as it’s not a show to be missed!
You can keep up with Craig on his website, follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook.
