Live Saturday from the CMAfest Greased Lightning Riverfront Stages

First up this morning was the one of the jewels of the day. Buddy Jewell, in fact. Buddy opened this gig with "Help Pour Out the Rain"(Lacy's Song) amongst thunderous applause.
Buddy showed the audience every reason why he won the first Nashville Star, and his star is still shining bright. He included a wonderful song from his new cd, "Me Loving You". This song has the qualities of being song of the year if Sony would release it as a single.
He also performed his latest hit "If She Were Any Other Woman". He left a wild crowd wanting more with "Sweet Southern Comfort". Buddy, you are certainly a jewel of a Jewell.

Michelle Wright is back on the scene and performed next. She is just as pretty as ever sporting a longer hairstyle and lightened hair color. She opened her portion of the show with the rousing crowd pleaser "Take It Like A Man". She did a few new songs from her upcoming cd.
She really showed the crowd what she was made of. Welcome back to the USA Michelle. You were gone way too long.

The Grascals took the stage next and these guys are the best! Anyone remember Jimmy from Garth Brooks band? He's the fiddler in this bunch and really showed the audience that he still has the stuff to make the gals swoon. He is also an excellent fiddler in his own right.
These guys were backing many of the bluegrass greats. This is truly an artists' band.
They opened with a wild bluegrass rendition of "Viva Las Vegas" that had the crowd on their feet stomping and singing along. They included an original number called "Me, John and Paul". Listening to the words of a song is very Moving- It's about childhood friends.
If you get a chance to hear this song for yourself, play attention to the lyrics.
Move over Ricky Skaggs and Alison Kraus, The Grascals are running full speed ahead and their train is getting faster with every concert. They are a much needed shot in the arm for bluegrass music scene..

Jace Everett is a new artist that is in Sony's stable, he's so new he even forgot to bring his harmonica on stage with him and it took a few minutes to get it, but was worth the wait. We want to see more of this guy, but so far we like what we see.

The second Nashville Star of the day came out to shine next, this years winner Erica Jo took the stage by storm. She did a truly stellar performance of the old Robin Lee classic "Black Velvet". Sony needs to release this song as a single. If she keeps performing it this flawlessly, she could be a contender of song of the year. She also shined on Jesse Colter's classic "I'm not Lisa".
Her originals were acceptable but not as strong as the classics she performed. She ended singing her current single "I Break Things". We're anxious to hear her new cd release.

John Berry could sing all day(almost) and not repeat one of his hits. He graced us with "She's Taken A Shine", "Kiss Me in the Car", "Your Love Amazes Me", "I Think About It(all the time)".
Early in John's career he had a serious brain tumor but John recovered beautifully Hopefully music row and radio will take a fresh listen to you. Your long, long overdue for a commercial hit again.