Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill In Foxborough has a history of bringing in great talent to perform on their stage. Thursday, July 9th was no exception as they presented BBR Music Group recording artist, Craig Campbell. New England Country Music was on-site early as we again had the great honor to hop aboard Craig’s bus and chat with him. Right after the interview, we joined the big crowd waiting inside for the man of the hour to take the stage. It was certainly a mixture of all ages in the crowd, from the 3 year-old on his parents’ shoulders playing the air drums to interior designers out for a good time on the town.
Right around 9:45pm, the theme song to the Dukes of Hazzard played from the stage and Craig Campbell made his entrance wearing an Alan Jackson t-shirt. He wasted no time in dropping the hammer with a great cover of Brooks & Dunn’s ‘Play Something Country.’ This had the crowd pumped, singing at the top of their lungs and their was no turning back from this point. Craig’s guitarist was getting the crowd going even more as he seemed to be the hype man of the evening. Craig addressed the crowd before playing his next song, ‘Shindig.’ “My religion teaches me where there are two or more people gathering in one spot to have a cold beer, listen to country music and have a good time… that we call it a shindig!” This was followed up by ‘My Little Cowboy’ and a brand new song Campbell has been working on, ‘Hangin.’
The noise level in Toby Keith’s was brought up ten notches as ‘Outta My Head’ was played to the overwhelming approval of the crowd. This was easily one of the highest energy performances of the set and had Craig reaching out to high-five fans in attendance. It’s always a pleasure when an artist can go from a high energy song right into a slower one but not lose the crowd’s energy or intensity. This was evident when Campbell thanked the crowd for singing along, took a seat on a stool at center stage and played an acoustic version of, ‘Family Man.’ Personally, this is one of my favorite songs that Craig has recorded and even more so after this amazing live version at Toby Keith’s.
One of the newer aspects to Craig’s set is the introduction of a piano bar on stage, which he breaks out each evening for some lucky fans. New England Country Music had the distinct pleasure of being able to giveway seats at the piano bar to one of our loyal followers. She took the stage as Campbell explained his love of the instrument, “This part of the show is brought to you by Ole Smoky Moonshine. I fell in love with music right here at the piano, I’ve gotten to play piano for Tracy Byrd and another Georgia boy… Luke Bryan. This is the first song I learned on the piano, now raise your glass and let’s do this!” The first song he was referring to was one of the greatest of all time, ‘The Dance’ by the immortal Garth Brooks. Craig did the song great justice with his performance and this was the beginning of a medley of random hits on the piano. One of the loudest sing-alongs of the night came when he played ‘Let It Go,’ from the hit movie Frozen. From there it was, ‘All of Me’ (John Legend cover), ‘Steal My Girl’ (One Direction), ‘Drops of Jupiter’ (Train) and ‘Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink’ from Merle Haggard. This was certainly a great addition to his show as it brought a new element to an already stellar performance.
Sliding the piano to the side, Campbell proclaimed, “For the next three minutes, let’s pretend this is Saturday night instead of Thursday. I wrote a song for just for this situation of being at a show on a Saturday night and you have nothing to do afterwards.” This led into the appropriately titled, ‘Bar Hoppin.’ Everyone in attendance had their participation required for the next song, ‘Winnebago.’ This was a really fun song (especially for NASCAR fans) which had the crowd into it, as Craig taught them the tune to start a big sing-along. Surprisingly, it’s been awhile since Campbell has had a song out on country radio and he took time to acknowledge the fact, “This maybe the first time I’ve ever taken my hat off during a show. I was talking to some people before the show tonight about things going on with me. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a song at radio but I do now and I’m very excited for this.” There wasn’t a time all evening that the crowd popped louder than when that new single was played, ‘Tomorrow Tonight.’ The tune is the first amazing song off of what should be his next album, which is already cranking up fans anticipation.
“Talk amongst yourselves for about three seconds,” was Craig’s request so he could take a swig of his Miller Lite. At this point, we had come to the end of the evening as there was one song left to be played, ‘Fish.’ One of the earliest and best songs of Campbell’s career was met with resounding love from the audience and even featured a switch into, ‘Fishin In the Dark’ right in the middle. “Thank y’all for coming out as we appreciate it,” Craig said as he strode off the stage. No one in the audience would disperse though until a proper encore was played and didn’t take too long for it to occur. Campbell hit the stage once more with a flourish and and turned Toby Keith’s into a true honky-tonk with covers of Travis Tritt’s, ‘T-R-O-U-B-L-E’ and John Michael Montgomery’s, ‘Be My Baby Tonight.’ These had the place shaking between the loud voices of the crowd joining in and dancing to two classic songs! Now Craig was heading out but this time for real, “Now do me a favor… go out into the world and tell your friends about me.”
Craig Campbell put on a great set and was truly a pleasure for myself to see him perform live for the first time. He interacts great with the crowd, has numerous incredible songs to play and makes the show feel more like a party than just a concert. Not one single fan went home dissapointed either as Craig stood at his merch table after the show to sign autographs and take photos. Just goes to show that as much as the music means to him, his fans mean just as much. Make sure to check him out the next time he comes to town. Also, make sure to follow him on Twitter, ‘Like’ him on Facebook and check out his website.