Two Step Inn’s inaugural year bowed out with an incredible run of performances, cooler temperatures, and cooler people.
I started my second day of the fest running through the merch line, dropping off my stuff in the media lounge, and heading over to the Showdeo stage to see Kaitlin Butts and…what the hell. How unfair is it to start a day at the fest with someone as amazing as Kaitlin? With her stage presence, her songwriting, and her personality, Kaitlin was such a fantastic way to start the day. While I wish she could’ve got a longer set time, I loved being able to see 30 minutes of her and I’m so excited to see her again this Friday at Cotton Fest. I wasn’t the only one who wished for more of her though because as soon as she walked off stage, the crowd started a “one more song!” chant that eventually morphed into “WE WANT BUTTS! WE WANT BUTTS!” For the record, I didn’t hear that at any other artist’s set the whole weekend.
After Kaitlin, I hit a lull in my schedule that I filled by eating, going to the press lounge to snack some more, then heading over to the Country Curious Stage to see one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend, Hailey Whitters. For those who haven’t heard me gush about Hailey, you’re going to right now. I love this woman’s music so much. Her album Raised wasn’t just my favorite country album of 2022, it was my favorite album of 2022 period. The sense of place presented in the album and Whitters’ voice that calls back to Natalie Maines or early Kacey Musgraves, she’s just awesome and that’s why I was so thrilled to finally get the chance to see her. Her set lived up to every expectation I had for it and more. She has such great positive energy, and this isn’t something I’ve really brought up in recaps but her fashion matched her music and her performance perfectly. I also ended up getting to meet Hailey backstage on my way out of the press lounge and it made my weekend I think.
After Hailey, I couldn’t not head back over to the Big River stage to catch the last 15 minutes of Mavis Staples. A member of the legendary Staples Sisters, at 83 years old, Mavis still brought the heat. She was in such great spirits and was still so happy to be on stage. She sounded great, her band behind her was equally as good, and it was such a perfect Sunday set. If it weren’t for another day of dealing with chair people. I will say, Sunday was less crowded but all the chair people at the Big River stage seemed a bit more careless than they were on Saturday. At one point during my time at Mavis’s set, I looked over to the left and noticed a group of six or seven people, all in lawn chairs, all with their backs against the barricade and looking away from the stage. It hurt my soul. After Mavis, I grabbed some food and headed back to Big River to catch Clay Walker who I was really looking forward to seeing but I left this set disappointed as the sound was just so quiet. I wasn’t really able to make out anything he said in between songs and even his songs were tough to make out at points. I did get to hear Hypnotize the Moon live though so the set wasn’t a total bust.
I left Walker’s set early to go see Paul Cauthen and it kicked off an incredible final trio of sets to close out my weekend. I had seen Cauthen in January when he was doing a solo and acoustic tour and that show blew my mind. With his full band, Cauthen was even mightier. The songs hit harder and Cauthen’s dance moves are so much fun to watch. The energy of his set never dipped down once and it was just consistently a blast. The crowd was amazing too. This is a bit of an aside but I do hope the fest books some more Texas country artists next year. Cauthen, Kaitlin Butts, and Charlie Robison had some of the biggest and loudest crowds of the weekend. Booking someone like Randy Rogers, Cody Johnson, or Flatland Cavalry would likely be a slam dunk for this fest.
When Cauthen’s set ended, I miraculously found my group and got a really great spot two or three rows behind the general admission barricade for Wynonna Judd. When I was back in the press lounge, another writer there told me about how it’s better to wait a little bit to write about concerts or fests because it gives you time to process what you actually saw, felt, and experienced. Well, it’s been a few days and I’m still having trouble processing Wynonna’s set. When I saw her name on the lineup, I knew her show would be great but man, I’m still floored by how good her set was. I think what still is sticking with me the most about her set was a moment during her second song, Ain’t No Thing. During an instrumental break before the second verse, Wynonna looked out at the crowd and asked “How many of you is it your first time seeing me perform live?” Just about every hand in front of and behind me was raised in the air and Wynonna’s jaw just dropped looking out at everyone. Maybe that caused her and her band to bring a little more fire but I think she would’ve been amazing regardless. I didn’t expect this to happen when I originally saw the lineup, but Wynonna Judd is the artist I most desperately want to see again in the future out of everyone I saw. I could’ve ended the weekend extremely happy at the end of her set but there was still one more set to get through.
The festival’s inaugural year closed out with a 90-minute church service hosted by Tyler Childers. Now I want to preface this by saying that Childers’ shows have been subject to some controversy recently due to his setlists but I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about it. So many times over the weekend I heard, “I wanna see Childers but I’m bummed he doesn’t play any old stuff” or “I hope Childers just plays the hits and doesn’t sing a bunch of gospel songs.” All of this is spurred by the fact that Childers doesn’t play two of his biggest songs, Feathered Indians or Whitehouse Road, and hasn’t since 2021 when he returned to the stage after getting sober. A lot of people take this to mean that he doesn’t like the album Purgatory and wants to avoid it. Well, at 8:30 PM, Tyler and his band The Food Stamps walked on stage with no intro music or anything (the lights didn’t even go down), Tyler grabbed his acoustic guitar, and the show opened with a solo, acoustic performance of the song Lady May.
A question I got asked yesterday was which headliner I thought was better, Childers or Saturday’s headliner Zach Bryan and it’s hard to compare the two performances. It breaks down this way for me, Bryan was a better show but I really enjoyed Childers more. The two shows were just so different. Bryan’s was rowdy, energetic, and rarely ever took its foot off the gas for a crowd full of people that hung on to every word. Childers on the other hand was much more laid back. He’s not really an entertainer, he’s more of a “stand there and sing” performer, but his voice and his songs are so great that no one really cares. Another contrast, Bryan’s set gave me the energy to run through a brick wall and Childers’ set did things to my soul that I would love to feel again. Also, his band was incredible. Every time there was a solo, I was consistently blown away by how much talent Childers had in his band. From the extended guitar solos in Heart You’ve Been Tendin’ and House Fire, the organ leads in Old Country Church, the amazing steel guitar solo at the end of the redone version of Purgatory, there were so many amazing performances during his set that would leave me laughing at times because they were so good. Before his closing performance of the song Trudy by Charlie Daniels, Childers took time to address the crowd and his setlist saying, “If I didn’t play your favorite song tonight, sorry, maybe next time.” He and his band lit the stage on fire one last time before he said good night, walked off stage, and a fireworks show began as a final goodbye.
In the immediate aftermath of his set, there was a group of fans next to me that started booing and singing Feathered Indians which honestly, they brought upon themselves to be mad at that omission. I still think Childers’ setlist was way better than it could’ve been and the crowd seemed to be having a great time the entire set but I still have songs I wish I could’ve heard. Childers tends to switch up his setlists pretty drastically from night to night so just because I didn’t hear a song like Universal Sound or Nose on the Grindstone this time around, it doesn’t mean I won’t hear them next time.
I wanted to end this article with a top 3 sets of the weekend but it’s kind of tough when the only set I didn’t think was amazing was Clay Walker. If I had to try, it would probably be some sort of arrangement of Wynonna Judd, Paul Cauthen, and Tyler Childers but everyone is interchangeable honestly.
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