December 10, 2018

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The beautiful Goodyear Theater turned into a country honky-tonk on Saturday night.  Two of country music’s up and comers, Jillian Jacqueline and Charlie Worsham opened the show while Kip Moore headlined the all-acoustic performance.

 

Moore walked out on the stage and poured himself a whisky before he played the first song.  Sporting blue jeans, a black t-shirt and his trademark backwards baseball cap, Moore professed his love for Akron.  He said that he has “played here quite a bit” and that “the first time I ever heard my song on the radio was in Akron.”  

 

The sold-out crowd gave that love right back to Kip as they stayed on their feet and sang along with him on every song.

 

Moore recently released an EP titled Room To Spare, and is out playing all acoustic shows to support it.  He noted that he was only going to be playing a few acoustic shows, but the response has been so good that they decided to book twenty-five acoustic shows next year.

 

Opening the show with “Bittersweet Company” Kip played two more songs solo before being joined by a steel guitarist, another acoustic guitarist, a drummer and a bassist.

 

“Sunburn” and “Just Another Girl” became old fashioned sing-a-longs.  In the middle of the set, Moore brought out Charlie Worsham to perform “Love You To The Moon” and “It Ain’t California.”

 

He closed the first set with two of his biggest hits, “Last Shot” and “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck.”

 

The band returned to play stripped-down versions of “More Girls Like You,” “Beer Money” and ending the show with “Guitar Man.”

 

The aforementioned Worsham and Jillian Jacqueline opened up the show for an hour of their own set of acoustic songs. Worsham noted that it was going to be like a “Bluebird Cafe show in Nashville” where they were just going to sit and play songs.

 

Each artist traded off songs where Worsham would sing one of his, then Jacqueline would sing one of hers.  A couple of times they accompanied each other and their voices blended nicely together.

 

Both singers have great voices and I would keep Jacqueline on your radar.  She may just blow up in the very near future.

 

She has already had Keith Urban and Vince Gill appear on her records and on Saturday night she proved that she has the talent to make it to the next level.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan