Metis from Tennessee, Kane Brown landed a record deal after getting noticed on social media. We can see why: he has one foot in country music and the other somewhere between hip-hop, rock and R
Before becoming one of the great current figures of the country, Chris Stapleton had several lives. He has written for many others, from George Strait to Luke Bryan to Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley and Kenny Chesney. He also played bluegrass and southern rock. There’s less grass now, but still a rock-soaked blues undertone in his often introspective country, dominated by his soulful vocals (Luke Combs is following in his footsteps on that front, by the way). We can easily guess that this charismatic singer, who performed the national anthem at the last Super Bowl, is going to rock the house. White Horse, an epic-toned track, gives a taste of his album to be released in November. Perhaps we will be entitled to other grandiose firsts…
The young Morgan Wade quickly stood out with her powerful voice, cracked by an elegant hoarseness very well highlighted on a song like Wilder Days. The singer with heavily tattooed arms passes through Montreal two weeks before the release of her third album, Psychopath, to be released on August 25. The two excerpts unveiled to date, Fall in Love With Me and Psychopath, suggest a potentially softer record, but inhabited by its burning vocals and yet imbued with something a little pasty which is part of its charm. Right after Morgan Wade, another character girl, Elle King, performs on the prairie stage.
A little banjo, a pop way, a little pedal steel, a je-ne-sais-quoi in the nose that reminds Shania Twain, Gaby Garrett hit hard with her song Pick Me Up. The former American Idol Nashville contestant doesn’t step out of the country pop mold that’s in vogue at the moment, and Glory Days, the first single from an album to come in the fall, features production and arrangements that have something something almost disneysques – that is to say very conventional, but also very effective. Gabby Garrett will make a lot of new friends if her performance is as convincing as her songs are catchy.
The presence of Francophone artists at LASSO is almost anecdotal – it’s the same thing at Osheaga. The Acadian trio Les Hay Babies, scheduled Friday at 5 to 7, is the best positioned in the schedule. The girls, who released a free, psychedelic and very colorful folk record three years ago, will perhaps give hints of the direction they will take on their fourth album, written in part for a creation residency in Louisiana. Francis Degrandpré, Lendemain deveille, Lydia Sutherland and Andie Thério are also part of the French-speaking poster of LASSO.
