Every year, our friends at Country 92.5 host their annual Concert For Kids at The Cadillac Ranch, with the proceeds going to benefit St Jude Children’s Hospital. New England Country Music was graciously invited back this year to attend the charity concert. The show is always a huge success and is different from most shows, as it’s presented as a “guitar pull”. This year’s show provided a huge lineup as Justin Moore, Granger Smith, Chris Janson, Canaan Smith and Brett Young all took the stage together for some great music and a great cause.
The capacity crowd was growing with anticipation as the stage was setup with five empty stools which would soon be occupied by some amazing talent. All five artists took the stage with their guitars to tremendous applause and were ready to go! Before the first song was even played, Justin Moore made an observation. “Whole lotta trouble on this stage with this motley crew.” Chris Janson was sitting to the far left and kicked off the evening with his newest single, ‘Power of Positive Drinkin’.’ This got the audience going and they would never slow down for the next two-plus hours. “How y’all doing? Yee Yee!” proclaimed Granger Smith to a huge reaction from the crowd before he broke into ‘Silverado Bench Seat.’ Not to be outdone, Canaan Smith did a fantastic live version of, ‘Hole In A Bottle,’ and newcomer Brett Young sang, ‘Left Side of Leavin’.’ Last but certainly not least was Justin Moore, who before performing, ‘Til My Last Day,’ spoke to the fans. “Granger talked about following Chris, I’m sitting here next to this guy (Brett) looking like this. I feel like Danny Devito in Twins and made up from the leftover crap. But seriously, I’m on day 11 of 14 being away from my wife and kids but I do this to help kids with these events.”
Janson found success as a songwriter before he hit it big with his debut single and album. He gave the fans a brief intro before playing two huge hits that he wrote for other artists, Tim McGraw’s ‘Truck Yeah’ and ‘I Love This Life” by LOCASH. “I write my own songs as I’m a songwriter. Want to thank 92.5 for playing our songs and putting on this show as kids make up our livelihood and music is icing on the cake.” Both songs drew a standing ovation from the crowd and you could feel both the artists and fans settling into a groove. Granger was up for his second turn as he chose to sing, ‘If The Boot Fits.’ “So I have a little girl who is 4 years old. Have a boy as well but there’s something about little girls. I’m a Chevy truck guy and tried to figure a way to get both into a song,” Smith explained. Then the party really got started, as Canaan Smith said, “I just saw the server take a shot, wish I had a shot to take!” Instantly shots of Crown Royal made their way to the stage as the guys toasted the crowd. “Thanks y’all for skipping The Bachelor to be with us tonight.” Smith than kept the night moving with, ‘One of Those.’ Brett Young is an up and coming artist in country music, but knows that the best songs come from personal experience. Such is the case with, ‘You Ain’t Here To Kiss Me,’
“I ended a six year relationship on New Years Eve last year. I’m from Orange County, CA, and moved to Nashville two years ago but the girl I was with was still living in Los Angeles. I flew home to see her and was home for seven days before I saw her and I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that. Called her to make plans for New Years Eve and told her I was ring shopping, she told me she wasn’t able to get me a ticket to an event for both of us but still wanted to go. So I told her, I’m going to fly back to Nashville and she said don’t be dramatic. I was in the air when the clock struck midnight and wrote this song two weeks later.”
More shots arrived onstage for they guys with the exception of Chris Janson who had his Mountain Dew and for Justin Moore who was brought a… cupcake! He then invited a little girl onstage who happened to be there for her birthday and everyone in attendance sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her. Moore then sang the first song off his forthcoming new album, ‘You Look Like I Need A Drink.’ Fans were crazy for this and sang the tune loudly right back to the man himself. One of the most personal songs to Janson is, ‘When I’m Holding Her,’ and for good reason as he gave some backstory into the tune.
“This is fun isn’t it? Can’t remember that last time I got to do a guitar pull with people I actually like. I saw my wife nine years ago for the first time and I knew, looked at my bass player and said I’m gonna marry that one right there. He said she’s hot and I said well yeah…watch me work! Three years later I got the chance to marry her and walked into a house that was a home with two kids in it. I don’t like when people call kids “stepkids,” as I got two bonus kids. It’s a privilege to have kids and in lieu of St. Jude, I can’t imagine anything happening to my babies. This has to do about kids as that’s our future.”
Next up was once again Granger Smith as he told the crowd he wouldn’t sing until Janson loaded up a dip and said, “I got a similar story to that, about a guy named Earl Dibbles Jr! If you really want to know who he is, you need to start from the beginning.” Granger’s wildly popular alter-ego then sang a medley of his country songs, ‘City Boy Stuck’, ‘Country Boy Love’ and ‘Country Boy Song.’ This got the crowd even more fired up and it seemed like these guys could keep the show going well into the late night. Canaan wrote ‘American Muscle’ for his first album and it was picked up by ESPN for their college football broadcasts. The tune was a hit with those in attendance, as was Brett Young’s soon to be released single, ‘Sleep Without You.’ The tune is off his just-released debut EP and many in the crowd already knew it word for word. Justin Moore’s turn was next and he took the crowd on an emotional journey with a dedication of, ‘If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.’ “I send this song out to the military men and women who didn’t make it home, to my grandpa and those little kids and their families from St. Jude who didn’t have a happy ending.” With a night full of highlights, this was easily one of the top ones, as each person at the Cadillac Ranch sang along from the beginning of Moore’s song to the end.
It was about that time for things to start wrapping up, but we had one more round to get through and each artist pulled out the big guns. “I just wanna say that Justin Moore is the real frickin’ deal! One of the very few I know that does what he says and says what he means. I come from Southern Mississippi, duck country and boat country. People ask me all the time…do you have a boat? No! Do you have a truck? Yes!” Chris Janson told the fans as his last song as his first single and first huge hit, ‘Buy Me A Boat.’ Once again he brought the crowd to it’s feet as they gave him a standing ovation for one helluva set. This wouldn’t be a party if more shots didn’t arrive onstage one last time with the artists firing them back as Janson had another Mountain Dew. The last song of the night for Granger Smith was his debut single which has now turned into his first #1 song, ‘Backroad Song.’ Rounding out their sets was Canaan Smith with his big hit, ‘Love You Like That’ and a song not on Brett Young’s EP, but will be on his debut album, ‘Olivia Mae.’ Justin Moore had the honor of singing the last song of the evening and told Janson, “If you get a boat. you’re gonna need to learn how to bait a hook!” At this point the fans were out of their seats and invited to hang out at the front of the stage as Moore provided them with more than one final song. Starting off with ‘Bait A Hook,’ he then kept it rolling with his own covers of ‘Buy Me A Boat’ and Charlie Daniels’ ‘Long Haired Country Boy.’ If that wasn’t enough, the hits kept coming fast with ‘Lettin’ the Night Roll,’ ‘Point At You’ and no Justin Moore show is complete without, ‘Small Town USA.’
Country 92.5 tops themselves every year with this fundraising show and this year was no different. Not one person in the venue went home feeling like they had any energy left as it was all left out on that floor singing and dancing along. Each artist brought their A-game and showed how great and generous the country music community is, as each one donated their time to come play this benefit. Please make sure to go check out the St. Jude website to read what they are all about, check out the stories of the kids and their families, but most of all…to make a donation if you can.
This recap was written by Mike Sullivan, NECM contributing writer.
For more photos from this concert, click here.
Photos provided by Country 92.5.