HEIDI NEWFIELD W/ BILLY CHILDERS

Thursday September 25, 2008

@ Joe’s Bar in Chicago, IL

BILLY CHILDERS – With a solid year behind him that included winning the Chicago “Next Big Star” competition which earned him an opening spot on Kenny Chesney’s Solider Field show this past summer, a main stage spot at Country Thunder, and more. On this night Billy and his band took another step in going forward, cranked it up a notch, and brought their modern honky-tonk sound to the Joe’s Bar stage as the opener for Heidi Newfield’s Chicago CD release party.

“This one has sort of become our theme song,” stated Childers as the crowd began to filter in and they dove into their set with the title track from their debut album, the up-tempo, rocking, “A Man’s Gotta Do, What A Man’s Gotta Do.”  The crowd was tapping along as Billy and the gang bopped around the stage. As the song came to a close, Billy let out a rousing “yeah!!!!” and told the crowd, “Strap on your seatbelts cause we are about to take you on a little ride,” as they pressed forward with their cover of John Fogerty’s “Southern Streamline.” Wasting no time they continued to dive into their set without taking a breath and had the crowd singing along with them as they played the recent Keith Urban hit, “You Look Good In My Shirt,” and followed with another original song, and their first slower paced one of the night, “June 99,” which kicked off the “summer” part of their set.

With the crowd already digging what they were experiencing with Billy’s set he won them over when the drums pounded and they kicked into the feel good song of the summer, Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long.” The crowd screamed the lyrics along with him and began to dance. Continuing their set with another summertime inspired song, Billy brought the crowd down south once again with “Panama,” an upbeat original penned by his guitarist Mike Aquino.

“So just across town tonight one of my favorite bands of all time is playing and they should be going on stage right about now, so what we are gonna do is put this song in stereo around the city of Chicago right now,” stated Billy as the band kicked into the Eagles recent mainstream hit “How Long.” By this time the venue had filled up and the crowd was singing along with the familiar songs and dancing right along with the originals as Billy Childers was delivering one of his most solid sets yet. He slowed things down one last time in his set with an original song, “Lonely Side of Love,” and got the crowd right back in the palm of his hand with his version of Chesney’s “Beer In Mexico.” He closed the set with his usual set closer “Cowboy Up,” a song he explains is about getting back up with everything is stacked against you and just as they did all summer long, the crowd shouted back the simple lyric of “Cowboy Up” to Billy and the gang as the bridge came along on the upbeat song.

FULL SET LIST

1. A Man’s Gotta Do, What A Man’s Gotta Do
2. Southern Streamline
3. You Look Good In My Shirt
4. June 99
5. All Summer Long
6. Panama
7. How Long
8. Lonely Side of Love
9. Beer In Mexico
10. Cowboy Up

HEIDI NEWFIELD – Everyone knows Heidi Newfield’s back story. She was the front woman for the trio Trick Pony that spawned a slew of hits including their most popular song “Pour Me.” She left the band in late 2006 and set out to find who she was at this point in her life, which led to her recording her debut, solo, effort “What Am I Waiting For,” and Joe’s Bar happily welcomed her to their stage for her Chicago CD Release party.

The band, less Heidi rocked for a few quick moments on stage to get the crowd revved up and ready to go followed by Heidi, who bounced onto the stage to a great ovation and kicked into the show with album opener “Can’t Let Go,” a familiar tune to Lucinda Williams fans, followed by “Cry Cry (Til The Sun Shines),” which originally appeared on Martina McBride’s “Waking Up Laughing” album. Heidi’s rougher edged voice added a nice feel to this song, which she made a bit more upbeat than Martina’s version, but the crowd really started to get into her show as she instructed them to clap and went into her first Trick Pony song of the night with “On A Night Like This” and had the crowd singing and clapping along with her.

“It’s really good to be back in more ways the one,” began Heidi as the crowd cheered in response to her being back, “The next song is really special to me. I had the good fortune of having a relationship with Johnny and June Carter Cash and when I wrote this, I wrote it in honor of them, but it has taken on such a bigger meaning now,” she finished as she played her current hit, “Johnny and June.” Everyone sang along with her and put a smile on Heidi’s face. As the last chorus came around she yelled out to the crowd, “your turn,” and the crowd responded by singing the lyric back to her.

She was very grateful and humbled by the crowd’s response, and thanked them repeatedly. “This next song is the title track of the album and is one of those songs that is about taking chances in life,” stated Heidi, as she played “What Am I Waiting For,” and had the crowd clapping and singing along with her again as she played her second Trick Pony song of the night, “It’s A Heartache.”

Newfield dove into the middle part of her set with the slower paced, “Love Her Lose Me,” a song she described as “one of my personal favorites on the new album.” “I had a lot of heroes growing up, but for me, it was Waylon Jennings,” stated Newfield as the crowd cheered along,” he just didn’t give a damn,” she finished as she dove into her cover of “I’ve Always Been Crazy,” and quickly had the crowd dancing along with her as he bounced around the front of the stage. She continued into the middle portion of her set with another cover of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy.”

 She dove back into her new material and slowed things down with an outstanding vocal on “When Tears Fall Down.” Her passionate delivery had the crowd screaming in approval of the song and Newfield had easily won the crowd over by this point in her show. With them already eating out of the palm of her hands, she inserted a churchy inspired version of “I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” into her set and had the crowd raising their beers high up to the ceiling.

Heidi dove into the last part of her set with the slower paced, Lori McKenna penned tune, “Wreck You” followed quickly by “Nothing Burns Like A Memory,” and her version of the popular song “Angel From Montgomery.” Newfield saved her best for last. With the slower paced songs behind her she had the crowd back up and dancing with the up-tempo “Knocked Up,” complete with it’s tongue and cheek lyric that had the crowd hooting and hollering, but the show wasn’t going to be done without Heidi playing her biggest hit to date. What started with a harmonica intro from Newfield, quickly turned into a whiskey drinkin,’ hell of a time as she closed out her show with “Pour Me.”

FULL SET LIST

1. Can’t Let Go
2. Cry Cry (Til The Sun Shines)
3. On A Night Like This
4. Johnny and June
5. What Am I Waiting For
6. It’s A Heartache
7. Love Her Lose Me
8. I’ve Always Been Crazy
9. Pride and Joy
10. When Tears Fall Down
11. I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink
12. Wreck You
13. Nothing Burns Like A Memory
14. Angel From Montgomery
15. Knocked Up
16. Pour Me