Even a day of hard rain was not enough to prevent Rodney Atkins and Sammy Kershaw from helping the Southern Tier celebrate 4th of July weekend at Tags in Big Flats, NY on Sunday, July 2nd.
By the time Sammy Kershaw took the stage at 7pm, it was light sprinkles and by the time Rodney Atkins took over the rain had completely stopped and made a wonderful night of classic and modern country music.
Sammy opened the night with one his most popular hits “Cadillac Style”. Along with the wonderful gift of his music, Sammy took the fans down memory lane with mini stories of his life in between songs. How he started playing the “Honkey Tonks” and bars of Texas as early as 12 years old. He also told a tale of his life with Country Music legend George Jones. His hit “Queen of my Double wide” got a huge ovation.
Rodney Atkins hit the stage with his hit “Backroad”. Atkins, a native of Cumberland Gap, TN, has been banging out hits since 2003 with his debut LP Honesty. Fast forward to 2023 with Atkins supporting his latest LP Caught up in the Country witch the title single has set a record for the longest run on the Country Singles charts.
During a recent local interview Rodney stated that Charlie Daniels was a major influencer to his chosen path. He honored Charlie Daniels tonight by adding the opening segments of CDB “The South’s Going to do it Again “ into his hit “About the South” and played Charlie’s hit, “Long Haired Country Boy”.
Rodney told a story about how when was getting started and how the “suits” in Nashville tried to influence him on what he could and could not write about. The song “Cleaning My Gun” was a direct response to wanting to be in control of his subject matter and lyrics which has proved very beneficial for Rodney.
The night ended with huge CMA hits “Watching You,” “It’s America” and “ These Are My People.” Coming back for one more, Rodney treated the mildly soggy crowd to a encore with his huge single “Going through Hell”.
Local fans missing this show can catch Rodney very soon on August 5th at the Buffalo Country Music Fest in Akron NY. This show was a continuation of the 30 year anniversary of concerts at Tags, in Big Flats NY.
Big shows still coming up is next Saturday July 8th rock fans will fill the place as Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, joins Stephen Percy (Ratt) and the all-girl band Vixen come to the Summer Sound Stage. After that country music sensation Dustin Lynch will play for the Southern Teir on Aug.11th. For more info on Tags and tickets to their remaining events go to tagstickets.com.
The post Rodney Atkins helps bring in the 4th at Tags in Big Flats appeared first on NYS Music.
