Last week was a HUGE week for country music at Mohegan Sun hosting The Voice season four winner Danielle Bradbery on Sunday (you can find a recap of that show here) and season three winner Cassadee Pope on Thursday. Pope followed up one great show with another, and did not leave fans disappointed.
I got to the venue early expecting a large crowd, which turned out to be a good move. As the venue filled fans watched the Patriots game on televisions at the bar as we counted down to 8 o’clock (“it’s just the pre-season” doesn’t mean anything to loyal New England fans). After an anxious wait, Pope came out to a huge ovation and opened her set with her current single on country radio ‘I Wish I Could Break your Heart.’
After this song she went into ‘Champagne’ the second track off of her album, ‘Frame By Frame.’ Next she played ‘I Proved you Wrong,’ a song she wrote with Emily Shackelton and Phil Barton. Unlike many reality show winners, Pope wrote many of the songs on her debut album. She introduced the song saying that she wrote it about “negative nancies” that we all know. Up next was Shania Twain’s classic hit ‘That Don’t Impress me Much.’ The song had everyone in the audience “ah-ah-ah-ahhh-ing” along. Twain is one of Pope’s influences and it was a really good cover which her and her band had a lot of fun with.
The band then went into album cut ‘Easier to Lie.’ Next were two songs, ‘Cinematic’ and ‘Edge of a Thunderstorm’ off the deluxe version of ‘Frame by Frame‘ which is available now on iTunes. Cassadee then sang a song that she wrote with Grammy Award winning producer, Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’). She described the song, ’11,’ as being about “a particular subject that’s hard.” Before going into ‘You Hear a Song’ she again gave the audience some insight explaining that her goals as a performer are for the audience to have a good time and to learn a little about her. ‘You Hear a Song’ featured song great instrumentation by her band. After a cover of Bon Jovi’s ‘Bed of Roses,’ Cassadee called up a couple on stage. After she asked the couple some funny questions about their relationship such as “does Kurt hog the bed” one of the guys in the band began strumming Extreme’s ‘More than Words’ and Kurt got on one knee and asked Beth to marry him. Beth said yes! Congrats to the happy couple! After much cheering from the audience Pope and her band went into a rocking version of Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down.’
The show kept rocking with the upbeat jam ‘This Car.’ ‘One Song Away’ was up next and really showed off Pope’s awesome vocal abilities. As she began talking to introduce the next song one of her bandmates interrupted her. Thursday was Pope’s birthday and the band led the audience in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ as a cake was brought out on stage
After blowing out her candles Pope rocked the lead track off her album, ‘Good Times.’ Cassadee then sang a cover of Miranda Lambert’s ‘Over You’ before closing out the set with her biggest hit to date ‘Wasting All These Tears.’
I had no doubt going in that Pope had a great voice, she won The Voice after all. She did not let down in that regard. She also did not let down in bringing a rocking energy to the stage. You may not know Cassadee had actually fronted a rock band, Hey Monday, which had been on the Van’s Warped Tour and had a song featured in Glee before going on hiatus.
Like many of the artists who come to the Wolf Den, Cassadee hung around after the show to meet and take pictures with fans. She is currently on Darius Rucker’s True Believers tour which has stops New England stops coming up at the Bank of America Pavillion on September 12th, the Meadowbrook Pavilion September 13th, and the Big E on September 19th. If you have the chance to get to those shows, be sure get in early and check out this very talented artist.