Lainey Wilson lays down her high energy Country Rock show with all musical guns blazing hot.
It was the band that had all the musical chops and delivered a high octane fuelled set without relying on any pyrotechnics or psychedelic effects.
The audience were weighted towards younger women dressed in big cowboy hats and tassels, but this was a family night with scores of pre-teens staying up close to 11pm on a public holiday night.
Wilson first appears on stage high above her band on a raised platform as the show begins with Whirlwind, title song off the album first released in 2024, and the title for this Whirlwind World Tour of 2026.
I was a lonestar/ But I finally found a rebel who’s on the same level.
Wilson has a delightful broad Southern country accent, until she puts things in perspective to tell us that Kiwi’s speak in their own distinctive drawl.
She was born in a small community of Baskin, Louisiana and she explains that growing up there was to be immersed in the culture of the music you sang about and immortalised in the subject matter of her lyrics.
Whilst you can hear the strong influence of Buck Owens and the classic Bakersfield sound, there is the robust nature of her lyrics from the influence of Dolly Parton.
There was a time in her early days when she used to impersonate Hannah Montana for shows. She has a higher register than Miley Cyrus.
The move to Nashville, Tennessee came in 2011, and it was hard graft and stubborn persistence which finally led to her breakout song Things A Man Oughta Know, which gained for her the first major chart success. Its played tonight, with a sturdy syncopated rhythm that leans into a more traditional country fare with plenty of swing.
Hold My Hand and Good Horses quickly follow the opening song. A teardrop weeping pedal steel accompanies Devil Don’t Go There.
First of two support acts tonight is Kaitlin Butts, a brash and quite theatrical Country singer originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She opens with a dramatic and impassioned version of Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Dead, one of the classic tunes first recorded by Cher, and written and produced by her then husband Sonny Bono.
Surf guitars ring out on the following two tunes which blend beautifully with racy Rockabilly which immediately energise her opening set.
She has a fiddle player, but you don’t hear him until their closing number.
Flatland Cavalry are a six-man ensemble based in Lubbock, Texas and I am immediately reminded of Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
They play an infectious blend of Rockabilly and Pop whilst adding many of the regional elements of the area. A fiddle player features, which adds a touch of Cajun swing and step.
The band was formed by Cleto Cordero rhythm guitar and vocals, and college roommate Jason Albers drums, who formed the group in 2012, whist attending Midland College in 2012. Prior to that they were jamming together at junior high school.
They do start with a brace of rowdy and raucous tunes, but then Mountain Song brings the tempo down to a gentler Folk pace, the drummer keeping everything tight with metronomic precision. A fiddle break takes the song out.
On And On is announced as a new one. Starts as a radio song in the manner of Van Morrison’s classic early Seventies period, but really is about love. Going on and on.
Cordero’s wife Kaitlin Butts comes on to duet with the lead singer on the lovely A Life Where We Work Out.
Lainey Wilson brings her band to the front of the stage, where they take the music down to the back porch roots. Matt Nolan drums, Tommy Scifres bass (including standup), Kevin Nolan guitar keyboards, Sav Madigan violin mandolin banjo guitar, and musical director Aslan Freeman guitar.
Wilson plays solo with just her acoustic guitar to showcase one of the best story songs, Whiskey Colored Crayon.
Teacher I can’t draw daddy/ Do you have a whiskey-colored crayon.
Immediately follow with more down home farm reveries and the comedic Counting Chickens.
Wilson treats us to a new one, Can’t Sit Still which has a resemblance to an early Helen Reddy song, Angie Baby.
Keep Up with The Jones is a straight homage to the early Rockabilly style of George Jones from the Fifties. I could get up on a little wild hair white lightning/ Do a little two lane John Deere riding/ Lead me to a neon sign and the race is on.
That is two of the Fifties George Jones classics, The Race Is On, and White Lightning (written by the Big Bopper J.P. Richardson).
Hillbilly Hippie is one of the best examples where the band can lock into Southern Boogie and rock out in style. Wildflower and Wild Horses can unleash this energy with some rage and fury.
There are enough slow ones to keep the more purist fans happy. Somewhere Over Laredo unashamedly taps into a little of the Judy Garland classic, a dramatic song which ends in a beautiful fiddle coda.
The majority is fast-stepping tunes like Watermelon Moonshine and Hold My Halo, the first time the audience get to sing along en masse.
They work up to two monumental songs to close out this show which ends on a riotous note. Southern boogie with lashings of Power Pop and Outlaw Country attitude, 4X4XU and Heart Like A Truck.
Lainey Wilson has stormed in and blasted a full auditorium away with furious Nashville country energy on her debut show.
Rev. Orange Peel
All Photos by Den, including galleries of openers Flatland Cavalry and Kaitlyn Butts
Flatland Cavalry
Kaitlyn Butts
