On Saturday, February 6, Lee Brice brought his Life Off My Years Tour to the Ryan Center on the campus of the University of Rhode Island. You could say that Lee is an honorary member of New England, as no artist played more in the area in 2015 than he did…9 times! There was a line of anxious fans waiting in the cold for doors to open when New England Country Music arrived for what promised to be a great night of music. Once inside, fans were having some fun and taking turns with a selfie stick courtesy of our good friends at Cat Country 98.1(WCTK), who helped bring this show to fruition. You could feel the anticipation in the crowd as people filed in awaiting the lights to go down and the music to start.
Curb Records recording artist Dylan Scott was first to hit the stage and get the crowd amped up for the rest of the night. Dylan would pepper his impressive set with, ‘Hurtin’ In the Morning’, a great cover of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Bands, ‘Fishin’ In the Dark,’ and a few new original songs that had the crowd eating out of his hand. ‘Crazy Over Me’, got the best reception from the crowd as his debut single has been climbing the charts at country radio and for good reason. Scott left the crowd wanting more and for a new artist that is a sure sign of staying power in the industry.
Now right about this time was where Tyler Farr should’ve been beginning his set for the evening, but he unfortunately had to back out of the tour due to vocal cord surgery. The crowd certainly wasn’t left with nothing though, as Maddie & Tae stepped in to pinch-hit for Tyler on this stop of the tour. Before the show, NECM had the chance to sit down with the ladies backstage to chat about filling in for Farr, “We were excited about it. We were having a meeting with our manager as we share a manager with both Lee and Tyler and we’re already like a big family. Talking about going overseas this year and kind of just game planning and then she’s like so Tyler has to get vocal surgery, would y’all be able to be direct support for Lee? We were like…let’s do it! We went from being opener on the Dierks Bentley tour to being direct support in the same year, it’s so crazy!”
Also, the pair spoke about their nominations for this years ACM awards, “Woke up and our manager called us and she was like congrats on the two nominations. It’s amazing the fact we’re nominated for Duo of the Year and New Duo of the Year, people are acknowledging all the hard work we’re putting into all of this. The fact they want us to even be nominees for those categories is really fun. And we’re up against some awesome competition, all of our buddies too…Old Dominion is in the New Group or Duo category, A Thousand Horses and the Brothers Osborne as we love those guys. We’re kind of happy with whatever happens.”
The extremely popular duo took the stage to an an amazing reception from the URI crowd. No time was wasted as the girls got the crowd energized with ‘Right Here, Right Now’. This was the perfect song to open with, as it showcased the girls’ amazing vocal talents and had the audience in the palm of their hands. ‘No Place Like You’ kept the tempo up and was a good ol’ fashioned country jam. The girls had previously had the pleasure of playing this song on the Disney Channel show, Girl Meets World. Now one of the best and most fun songs off of Maddie & Tae’s debut album was easily ‘Sierra’. Maddie gave a brief intro into the song. “There was a girl who told me I wasn’t good enough or pretty enough to be a country star. Unfortunately for her… she got a song written about her.” Next up was the girls’ latest hit single, ‘Shut Up and Fish,’ which was met with the audience singing every word right back to the girls in unison. Fun fact, the girls first recorded a video for the single using fan submitted photos of themselves fishing, one of those selected was NECM’s own Jimmy Stearns! ‘Waitin’ On A Plane’ and a great cover of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors’ slowed things down just a tad for the time being.
Before picking up the pace again, the duo performed their very poignant ‘Fly’, which was the second single released off their album. It’s such an inspirational song and you could feel how much it resonated with the fans in attendance. Maddie & Tae couldn’t let their set go by without a nod to the man they replaced, Tyler Farr. They performed a great rendition of ‘A Guy Walks Into A Bar’ and were surprisingly joined onstage by… Lee Brice! The crowd went nuts for this and was nice to see that Tyler was there in spirit. With the time in their set running short, ‘Downside of Growing Up’ and an extremely energetic rendtion of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, setup their final song of the evening. “Thank y’all for making this our first #1 song and thank y’all so much for coming out tonight!’ the girls proudly exclaimed as they broke into their huge hit, ‘Girl In A Country Song’. Never was Maddie & Tae’s chemistry more evident to the crowd than when they were performing what has become an anthem for their female fans.
Right around 9:15 PM, the lights went down and video started to play of Lee Brice and his band. Before you knew it, Lee was standing there onstage, guitar in hand, and a spotlight on him as he opened his set. Right from the start you could tell Lee had brought his ‘A’ game to the Ryan Center. The audience showed they were on top op their game as well, singing the chorus of ‘Hard To Love’ right back to Lee as intensely as he sang it to them. “Here’s the first song we ever had on the radio”, Lee told the crowd before breaking into ‘She Ain’t Right’. The stage was setup with a microphone at center stage, stage left and stage right for Lee to use throughout the evening. He put all of these to good use as he sang a huge smash with the crowd, ‘Beer!’ It was easy to see how much fun Brice has performing and wants to make sure every person who bought a ticket gets the same experience. ‘Friends We Won’t Forget’ led into Lee’s current hit single, ‘That Don’t Sound Like You’. Before the song, he took a moment to address the crowd. “Welcome to the Life Off My Years Tour and thank you to everyone for coming out. My boy, Tyler Farr, was supposed to be here but he got sick. He’s tough but needed to see a doctor this time.” The crowd really came alive for this song as everyone was clapping and singing at the top of their lungs.
“I feel that there is something really cool about best friends and people you love. This is the first time we’ve performed this song together besides in the studio,” Brice said as he brought out Jerrod Niemann to perform ‘More Love.’ As the two are singing, Jerrod takes a moment to hold up a #DSTRONG sign from the crowd to great applause. At this point, Lee took the opportunity to catch a breather and left Jerrod out to sing his hit, ‘I Can Drink To That All Night.’ The Ryan Center exploded for this and reached it’s highest energy level of the night…so far. Niemann then left the stage and Lee returned and took a seat on a stool, he was joined by his band for a stripped-down performance. “This song is the reason we’re on the road we’re on. Sometimes boys…if you want a girl to her what you’re saying, you need to whisper,” this advice was provided before what I consider to be Lee’s best song, ‘Woman Like You.’ At this point, Lee was alone onstage. “This is my favorite part of the night right here. I grew up playing in my living room, my front porch and in a hotel room with my friends. I was down in Boston about a year ago and went to my hero, Garth Brooks show. Somehow I ended up onstage, singing a song I wrote and singing it with Garth!” The song, ‘More Than A Memory’ was the one of which Lee was referring to and you could feel the pure emotion pouring out as he sang to the crowd.
Brice has written many songs, some of which have become hits recorded by other country artists. ‘Crazy Girl’ was recorded by the Eli Young Band, but always has a special place at one of Lee’s concerts when he sings it and this night was no different. The crowd was into this big time and kept the good times rolling as it led into ‘Drinking Class’ and ‘Good Man.’ As he had many times already, Brice addressed the audience. “We have to appreciate every moment we get and that’s why my tour was named Life Off My Years, as I would take years off my life before I take life off my years. I’m thankful for all of you for giving me this job.” Of course the next song out of the chamber was the one from which the tour drew it’s name, ‘Life Off My Years.’ Lee than made one lucky fans night as he removed his guitar, signed it and passed it to them in the front row.
Every so often a song comes along that just touches everyone that hears it and is deeply emotional to both artist and fans alike. ‘I Drive Your Truck’ is that song for Lee Brice and country music fans worldwide…especially for those of us here in New England. “We are all so blessed and a big reason is we get to do what we want to do in a country like this. Huge thanks to all of our soldiers as it’s their everyday sacrifice of leaving everyday and the chances they take for our freedom. Soldiers, firefighters, police officers, EMT’s…this song is for all of you and all of your families,” Brice exclaimed. During this song, The Ryan Center was filled with ‘fireflies’ (cell phone lights) and an overwhelming flow of emotion from both Lee Brice and all those in attendance. Tough to follow up a song like this, but ‘Love Like Crazy’ was the perfect choice before Lee would thank the crowd and leave the stage.
It didn’t take long for Brice and his band to reappear, but they didn’t do it alone. Maddie & Tae and Dylan Scott shared the stage for, ‘Parking Lot Party’ which had the entire place singing along. Once again the stage went dark as everyone cleared the stage but the show wasn’t over quite yet. The giant video screen at the back of the stage started to play clips from Lee and his wife’s wedding video. Brice would then take a spot behind a piano to play the intro of, ‘I Don’t Dance.’ Most artists wouldn’t close a show with a ballad but he is no ordinary artist. The crowd had been waiting all night for this moment with many thinking Lee simply wasn’t going to have it on the set list. It proved to be a perfect end to the night as the crowd was left to sing the chorus, which left Lee to say, “Y’all sound like angels singing from heaven.” Brice and his band would then take a bow and call it a night.
Overall, the show was a huge success from top to bottom. Dylan Scott got a chance to show what he can do and has a bright future in the industry and Maddie & Tae proved that they deserve every honor and ounce of praise that has been given to them as people and performers. Lee Brice…he simply gives you every ounce of blood, sweat and energy that he has in him from the second he takes the stage until the last chords of ‘I Don’t Dance.’ Make sure to catch him when he plays in Lowell, MA, on St. Patrick’s Day, the Cape Cod Melody Tent on June 23rd and 24th, and the South Shore Music Circus on June 25th and 26th.
This recap was conducted by Mike Sullivan- contributing writer for New England Country Music.