On Saturday August 22nd the Season 10 winner of American Idol and Mercury Nashville recording artist, Scotty McCreery, came to the Maine State Pier in Portland, ME. Scotty played songs off all three of his albums, his latest single, and some traditional country from what he calls “the good ole days.”
Massachusetts native Jillian Cardarelli kicked the show off with a cover of Miranda Lambert’s ‘Baggage Claim.’ She performed three songs off her upcoming EP including, ‘Just Another Sundown,’ ‘Give Me Something to Go On,’ and ‘Rest In Pieces.’ Cardarelli ended her set with a couple of throwback songs that had the crowd singing right along with her. She performed Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ended with Garth’s ‘Friends In Low Places.’ Jillian is a name that we are going to be hearing a lot of in the future.
Around 8:00 Scotty took the stage singing ‘Now,’ before singing ‘Whiplash’ and ‘Water Tower Town’ in rapid succession before taking a moment to take a breath. Scotty told the crowd that his father was born and raised in Eliot and Kittery, Maine and that as a result he taught Scotty all about the great sports teams in New England. He said, “I’ve got two pairs of boots that I wear pretty much every night on stage. Tonight I’ve got on, uh what kind have I got on tonight?” then he pulled up his pant leg so the crowd could get a view of the boot, and the crowd went nuts as he said, “I’ve got my Red Sox boots on tonight.”
Scotty told us he got to go on a “tiny show” called American Idol and “because of y’all I got a chance to win that show and now I get to sing country music for the rest of my life, so thank y’all so much.” He told us it’s great to look towards the future but sometimes it great to look at the past and he took that opportunity to sing his very first single ‘I Love You This Big.’ He later sang his brand new single ‘Southern Belle’ and afterwards he asked the crowd “what do y’all think Portland?”and gave a big smile as the crowd cheered. “I’m loving it Portland, I am loving you tonight. Y’all look like y’all are having a good time.”
Scotty said, “we live in definitely not one of the best, but the best country in the world- the United States of America. I would definitely say one of the biggest reasons behind that is because of the men and women protecting our country everyday overseas.” The mood changed and Scotty said this next song had become really personal to him and his band especially the bass player Nathan whose cousin was married to a member of the Marine Corps Andrew Carpenter. Andrew was deployed to Afghanistan just before the birth of his son Landon and he was killed in action. “As sad as the story is to us it does have a silver lining in the fact that while Landon is gonna grow up without his father, he’s also gonna grow up and know his dad died a hero.” As Scotty and his band played ‘The Dash,’ the screen behind the stage showed photos and video of Andrew’s wife and their son Landon.
“Folks are forgetting about the guys like Merle Haggard and George Jones and that’s an absolute crime. I tell you what. So something I like to do at my shows to kind of combat that, if it’s cool with y’all, I’d like to take a few minutes outta my show and go on back to the good ole days and play some traditional country music. Is that ok with y’all in Maine?” He followed that up by singing ‘King of the Road,’ ‘Mama Tried,’ ‘Folsom Prison Blues,’ and ‘Chattahoochee.’
Scotty never stopped moving when he was on stage. He was dancing all over the place, and the few times he was standing still, he was tapping his foot to the beat of the music. He performed songs like ‘Walk In The Country,’ ‘Buzzin’,’ and his first top ten single, ‘See You Tonight.’ He ended the night with ‘Feelin’ It.’ Before Scotty left the stage for the night, he told the crowd to “keep it country!” He then yelled “FREE BRADY!!” before thanking the crowd and exiting the stage.
Scotty is a great performer and as someone who has seen him perform before, I can say he is just getting better. He is going to be around country music for a long time.
