The Night I Heard Country Music

It started out as a bright sunny Thursday afternoon. The concert was free, the coke was mildly cold, and my chair was broken. I was dressed in a t shirt and sports jacket because it’s awesome and don’t argue. I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Lee Brice before today. Now, I don’t think I’ll forget him anytime soon. This isn’t the exact order of the song, but I think this is the right song list:

Sumter County Friday Night

Crazy Girl

Beer

Love Like Crazy

I Drive Your Truck

Friends We Won’t Forget

Beautiful Every Time

Hard to Love

Woman Like You

Drinking Class

Parking Lot Party

Brice enters the stage to a driving drum beat and a guitar riff with rock inspiration.  This song has a hard rock feel until the chorus when a more country feel is present. A technique similar to call and response is used with the guitar and vocals. The solo contains what seems like a blues influence. An improv bridge occurs between this song and the next.

They caught my attention with the next song. Why? Bass solo. It began with a bass solo. Brice tunes his guitar to what looks like drop D tuning. Until now they could have fooled me into thinking I was at a rock concert. Then I heard the guitar riff for this song. It was so country it was wearing worn out jeans, a cowboy hat, and had a piece of grass in its mouth. The chorus is where we hear the first vocal harmony. And the solo is country mixed with a little Guns N’ Roses.

Next we start an acoustic guitar set. Capo on the 1^st fret and the chord progression is a variation of 3 to 4 major chords. Mid verse it gives a more country feel with a little bit of bluegrass. (No banjo, though.)

Next song begins with a catchy piano tune that sounds like a pop song. Acoustic guitar and piano duet while Brice sings his first country ballad. Drums and bass gradually enter for effect.

Wait…what is this? Another bass intro? After a few measures the drums and guitar with the guitarist playing a few power chords. Harmonies are barely noticeable in the chorus. The solo consists of a repeated guitar riff and a declining scale.

Another piano intro as Brice introduces this song as a tribute to the soldiers in the military. The guitar comes in with one chord, but a progression of singular notes in the chord. All instruments are present in the chorus as he sings the title of the song, “I drive your truck.” This is continued throughout the song.

Drum intro to the next song with a Caribbean feel to it. Remember the country riff I mentioned earlier? This one makes it seem like a stuck up city boy. During the verse guitar and bass have a 4 note progression that is driving behind the vocals of Brice. Once again, the harmonies are there, but unnoticeable.

Capo on 2^nd fret, and a 4 chord progression intro to the verse. Piano comes in at the end of verse 1. Chorus doesn’t come in till after 2^nd verse.  At the end of the verse we have the first noticeable held note. He holds it for about 15 seconds. Bass comes out in a short riff after the chorus and an effective rest before chorus for effect. End with a revisit to the 1^st verse.

This one’s a brand new song. There's a drum and guitar intro while Brice introduces it. Descending power chords throughout the verse until the full chords come in mid verse. Chorus introduces all instruments. Same for 2^nd verse and chorus. I was a little disappointed because the solo was just a guitar riff repeated over and over. But then it caught my attention with a harmonic guitar in the breakdown before the final chorus.

Drum and bass groove to open the next song. This is obviously one of his most popular songs. He just says the words, “parking lot party” and the crowd makes it to where I can’t hear for the next 2 hours. Guitar riff backs up the vocals in the verse. Chorus is mainly drums and guitar. 2^nd verse has a variation of guitar and vocals. Guitar solo with an obvious country feel goes into a breakdown with drums and vocals dueting.  Bass enters after a couple of lines. Chorus is revisited. And the show is ended with a classic rock improv.

Overall rating? 7/10 the concert itself was very successful and Brice was quite the crowd pleaser. It had the perfect song to begin and end with, and a few in the middle that were very effective. The downsides? Harmonies might as well have never been there at all, guitar was boring and repetitive at times, and the bass was also almost nonexistent. Good points though? 2 bass solos, a few complex guitar solos, drums that made my bones rattle, and I was very impressed with the effectiveness of the harmonic guitar at the last song.  Overall, besides the heat and the broken chair, it was a pretty good experience. If you’re into country, I would highly recommend going to a Lee Brice concert.