התמלול המלא של We Love You Long Road! | The Open Road Episode #3

group of you who went down. I've I've seen the pictures, you know, the group chat. I'll be talking about something of it. Someone will just randomly throw a picture in the other day. So no, it looked like a good weekend, I suppose. My initial thought would be you went last year when it was in its in infancy. I suppose it's still its infancy. When it was in its debut year. Yeah. what's changed? What's what's got better? Anything got worse? Anything the same? So I think the biggest change this year was having the camping. Aye, I think, yeah. That was a really, really key thing, I think, because especially in the the field where they've got country calling, there isn't much shade there. Well but actually no shade. There isn't any shade. No. I mean it's a farm, there's not really any any shade, but they did have some marquees up with benches, but everyone's wanting to sit in the shade. So yeah. And it was nice just to be able to go back to the tent, have something to eat, grab a drink and just sort of sit and chill for a little bit, especially as an artist that you're not that bothered about or you just kinda want a bit of space away from you say something to eat, was that cold food? 'Cause I I didn't see the old the old ban on any cooking equipment. Yeah, so I mean quite rightly banning it the any barbecubes, gas, camping stoves, all that, you know, protecting everyone really with the firework risk and actually having the Government alert coming out on the on the Saturday. Everyone's sort of looking at her phone. I'm thinking, wow. So we got it on the Friday up here. And I was I I had had a I think it might have been the Friday everywhere though. I was about to go into the gig and I'd just gone to the toilet if I'm being honest. Right. And there was obviously a few people in this toilet and just like one cubicle after another. I got the fright of my life. I had no idea what was going on. And it's the funny thing is it's going risk of wildfires. I'm like, I'm in the middle of the city. There is not a risk of wild. But yeah, anyway, back on what you back on with country calling. Yeah, we we won't go into that otherwise. It would be here for hours with me ranting about that. but yeah, having having the camping, obviously with the the ban, they did do something rather than just banning. They did have a tent with a couple of microwaves, a couple of tools, and we did think that there was gonna be this. Massive long queue every morning. Well that was my thought as I read that. There wasn't. Alright. It was completely deserted. You know, maybe you had one person in front of you, but apart from that we didn't see any queues and it was the same for the showers as well. There was no queue for the showers and I've gotta say, the showers and toilets throughout that whole weekend were absolutely pristine. No issues with them whatsoever. I mean, I know you're a fan of talking about the toilets and the the conditions and Yeah, because I I just It's so horrible at a

festival when you walk into like some of the toilets and it's just piss everywhere, and it and they're just grim. Yeah. But these wow, they were clean them like every hour. Not once. So it's good. Nice touch. Nice touch. In terms of the actual festival that what's changed not a great deal to be honest with you. I think the amount of people possibly was I well this is one this is one thing I heard that a lot of people said it was very quiet. Yeah. I think when you think of festival you think of Pack to the Rafters and all that. And and it you know it obviously wasn't that. I think the vibe I got from what I've seen online was they have tried to make it more of a a family festival. Yeah you know there's a lot of stuff going on for the kids and I suppose if you've got that then You don't want it too busy because kids are not gonna enjoy that. was there p was there pets there as well? Was there No. no th no there wasn't, but yeah, I mean it was quiet, but I like that. Yeah. Because obviously anyone who follows social medias will see we're posting some content whilst Being there, the Royal We obviously you weren't you weren't with me for the weekend, but just me. So it was good because we for a lot of the acts we were stood quite near the back by the sound desk because there was a little bit of shade provided by the sound desk, but also because we wanted just to sit down so we had blankets out and whatnot. But it was quiet enough that I could go up to the front of the stage and actually be at the barrier to take some photos. Yeah. and a couple of little clips. But then not so packed that I'm have to fight my way out. I can just turn around and absolutely and and even for acts like Parmalee, Randy Houser, you know, the main headliners wasn't that packed at all, really. I could still get up to the barrier if I wanted to and it was really, really good. So good good times. I do hope that it gets busier because I think with the the battle now between country calling and long road. And speaking to people at the festival, I think a lot more people are gonna be boycotting Long Road and everything, but and I think that will drive more people towards country calling. So I think it will get busier, but I hope in a little bit of a selfish way it doesn't get too busy. but yeah, no, it was it was I think for me, I I I put a comment on on Facebook on somebody's post earlier on, and I just said the thing is by the sounds of what I've heard of it. It's a different vibe to Long Road. And so I suppose everybody's making it into this battle. you know, who's gonna win? Maybe it's just not a battle, and maybe it's you want one thing, you go here, you want a different thing. Cause I I think for one thing, again, I've not been, but seeing Country Calling and it seemed very chill, very relaxed, very family friendly. Whereas I feel like Long Road seems to be more of party party. Yeah, it does. Yeah. yeah, there's families there, yeah, there's pets there and, you know, all that. But overall it seems more of like the social, the jolly type type thing. So if if that's gonna be the if that's gonna be how they're both laid out, then you know, I think there's space for both. But yeah, coming years are gonna see headliners, pricing, getting down there, conditions, there's gonna be loads of things that impact it. So I I I'm I'm looking forward to seeing when the early bird prices come out and seeing the comparison between the two. Yeah. and and I suppose that'll spell a lot of of what what they both look like moving forwards. But away from comparing, contrasting, what what were the highlights for you? So I think I mean there were a lot of highlights from that weekend, but I think the biggest one for me actually came from Parmalee's set. And I know we joked last time Parmalee The big name on the poster and whatnot. But what was the real highlight of that was actually they did a cover of Usher's Yeah. And no words. Yeah, I think everyone was a little bit caught out by that, a little bit shocked to be honest with you. But yeah, They perform this cover. I just feel like you just reliving it in my head right now because I'm just like, wow. It I'm honestly speechless by it because it's that good. But no, so in that second bit where Little Little Lil Jon Little Jon. I keep thinking Little Wayne for some reason, I know why. Little Jon does his rapping bit. They actually got it was the Parmalee bass guitarist who did the rapping. And mate. You could tell he was in his element He was waiting for this shit. Yeah. He is definitely one who's turned round to Matt, the lead singer of Parmalee and gone, I got I got ya. I want this on the set list and I wanna do this. Yeah. And do you know what? Fair play, it was brilliant. And I think that was probably one of the biggest highlights. Well, I I haven't seen that yet online, so I'll have to I'll have to keep an eye out as the as the content starts making its way onto the the old social lights. It will definitely be on on our highlights for sure on on our Instagram and it will be Yeah. I I'm pretty I'm I'm sure I got a clip of anywhere. no I'll have to yeah. I s I didn't go obviously I know you were there repping the pod in full full gear. We got the shout out to to Dan over at Lowton Creative who sorted us some T shirts, some hats. thanks for that Dan. Definitely be in touch with small and You obviously were repping the pod in style. Yeah. The key thing, and I'm hoping you've got something for me here, is I gave you some microphones, I gave you a gimbal for your phone. Did you actually get any content there? I did. I did. I did. I did. So absolutely. So we What did we get? I mean, I think you know, it's it's one of those We're very new to this. I say we. I'm very new to this whole creative world. So it There's a little bit of jitters and nerves, obviously. But sat down with with a couple of people, one being Reegan, also better known as Wannabe Cowboy. Yeah. Man, that was a good sit-down.

It really was. And he's he's a funny guy, Reegan. He cracks me up. Such a good guy. And we had a chat for about It was about maybe half hour. Well it's not gonna be half an hour going up, maybe just to let everyone know. It might be like it might only be like 20 minutes or something. Knowing me, I'd just think half hour. But no, it was really, really good. Really good. We had a lot of things to talk about, a lot of joking around as well. Yeah. And and that was really good. And the second interview from a very, very good friend of ours who I knew would come through. Big Al. Big ow, Mr. Alan Finlan Wow, that was hilarious. I did pose a post a little teaser clip earlier. I didn't watch this with the sound on. I think I was saying to you earlier, but I just saw there was a moment where you were reaching to get a beer and I was like, Yeah Joey doesn't drink, what's going on here? Yeah, so he he basically asked me, he'd said to me, there's some coronas in my tent if you want wait you don't drink, do you? I said, No, he said Yeah, but you can pass me one, can't you? Of course he yeah. That's like classic. You know what? Fair enough. Like he's got me there. So yeah. I'm looking forward to Thankfully we we did catch that bit on camera though. So that was quite funny. but yeah, both those interviews hopefully will have dropped by the time this pod episode goes out. Yeah, because we're putting this out next next Monday. Yeah, next Monday. Well, I say Monday on Monday and Yeah, so we hopefully we should have them clips out. I'm excited to see because I haven't seen any of this yet either. So But they will be on YouTube, Instagram, so make sure you follow us, and yeah. Make sure you watch those interviews because they were good fun and they were great. Overall positive vibes then from Country Calling? Absolutely. So one of the one of the artists though who was that country calling James Johnston, you got to spend a little bit of time with on Friday in Manchester. I did, yeah. I I I suppose one of the reasons I wasn't down joining you on Friday night I was I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go and have a chat with James prior to the Manchester gig. And I suppose to get an idea of what it was like. I turned up in Manchester during the day, caught up with some friends, you know, had a had a coffee, and we were sat just in the student union the quad. The quad quad. outside, and then all of a sudden, just hordes of line dancers turn up with a boom box and I'd I've put up some of the video and you know, maybe put up some more. And it was just wild. shout out to Katie and Maz from Honky Tonk Highways line dancing. I think they were the prime instigators behind it. and yeah, just prior to the gig, there's this massive like line dancing session out in out in the quad, which was just I mean, it was wild just to I it's the type of thing, I mean it could go on at any gig, but just nobody's done it before. Yeah. And Part of me secretly thought, 'cause I think we all saw James Johnson in Birmingham line dancing with everyone in the street. They were obviously trying to get him out. Yeah. But I, you know, I'll I'll come on to that. but yeah, great, great start to it. And I know my some of my photographer mates got some really good pictures, I think, of of some of the line dancing as well. So that was that was pretty good. Then I think it was Then I had the emergency alert that we just spoke about. Then I went up to go and interview James. really accommodating team. his tour manager was was was really good to have us along to do that. and yeah, sat down with him for about 10 minutes on the UK Country News page. I've put a couple of the clips out already. Probably by the time this drops, they'll all be out because I think I'm gonna sta stagger them throughout this week. what a nice guy. Yeah. It was It was just so genuine. Like it was the type of thing where he was just so happy that people were like appreciating his music as much as they do. And you could you got that from him straight away. There was nothing rehearsed. There was no kind of fake answers that you got from it. It was all just so genuine. And you just kind of were like, You can't dislike this guy. He's just he's such a genuine human being. you know, he's traveling around with his family doing this tour. The guy never even like set foot in the UK and his two are sold out in what what did you say it was, aren't they? Eight minutes. Eight minutes. Like I'm not being funny. Jordan Davis or like Luke Combs. Maybe Luke Combs. Jordan Davis or like Brett Young, they don't sell out in eight minutes. I mean, granted, you know, Academy versus an arena may be different, but I mean that's that's class. Really, really. and yeah, some some really good questions. The one thing, and I think I've I spoke to you about this comment earlier is I didn't try and get negativity out of him, but a couple of the things I was saying, what do you not enjoy about this? And he just couldn't answer. He just didn't have anything except for, I love it. And I'm trying to think what the example that was it. I said, When you used to do these shows and do like cover songs, what song did you for fuck's sake, they're not asking for this again? And he's like, I didn't. Like I love doing the songs that people may normally think that you 'cause people are singing along and people are enjoying and or some some really, really positive stuff and Just a nice guy to chat to. And you know, I've said it a few times, just so accommodating with with having us along. the gig itself was phenomenal. You know, everybody, the place was packed. wow. And I mean, I think I saw you at Jordan Davis where it was packed, packed. It was worse than that packed. Wow. It was shoulder to shoulder. But again, nobody was, there was no complaining, there was no fighting, it was just genuinely like everyone enjoying themselves. And he put on a show and a half. He was so lively, so animated. He opened with

RAISED LIKE THAT which love that song. I mean, that is a way to start a show. absolutely. Yeah. and then I think he did like a he he did sort of another version where he got a lot of the line dancers up on the stage behind him and he was joining in and no, it was it was it was a fantastic gig. really enjoyed it and you know I just hope that he's coming back soon. You know, I'd love to see him back in the UK again. and and yeah, check out my my interview content on on my page and on the UK country news page as well. And he he definitely seems like a very down to earth humble guy as well. I mean i him agreeing to do the little intro for the podcast that we've just put into this episode, that's such a nice thing for that guy to do. Like he didn't have to do it. We asked question and he was like, Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the way he pronounces my name Cracks me up every single time. It was hilarious. I do think I maybe owed a bit of the the problem there. Cause when I say Joey yeah, I've it it's one of those words that comes out the proper northern accent. And you know, I mean the guy's from Australia. He's from a town of like two and a half thousand people. Geordie accents are probably not something he sees every day. So no, I I'll take some some credit for that. but yeah, no, overall, really, really great gig. you obviously got to see him at Country Calling as well. I think at this point where we've had a catch-up of what we've done this week, I need to sort of address the elephant in the room from last episode. Now there was a lot of negativity, particularly from that side of the podcast, around Long Road. Long Road, I love you. I I adore you. Joey did not give that vibe last time out. So I think before we're now on Long Road Week. We are. I think we need to throw some positivity. Let's flip the script. Let's talk about the biggest country festival in the UK at Stamford Hall, twenty seventh to the thirtieth. How you must be looking forward to it now. You've got your festival vibe hat on. Yeah, absolutely. We we're ready to go a long road. Yeah. I mean, I know there's been a lot of negativity and I think a lot of that comes down to disappointment and emotion. Like human emotion. It's it's becoming a reoccurring theme of headliners dropping out, lineups not being as great as what we We used to before and I think it's just sort of a human emotion. But like we do love the Long Road weekend, we do enjoy it, we still go. I've got no sort of like ill feeling towards Long Road. Look, at the end of the day they're they're trying to make you know profit out of a festival, which everybody's doing. I think I think what we need to look at now is the posit like the stuff that is gonna be there. Yeah, I know I know Bailey Zimmerman is a bit of a man crush of yours. so that's obviously a disappointment that you didn't get to go and go and tell him that energy but I I think the one that's popped out at me this week is Steve Earl. Now we spoke about our what do you

call it Mount Rushmore last week. Yes. Yes. I'm not saying he's at the level of Dolly and and and Willie and all that, but he's certainly in the room. Like We've got Steve Earl playing at the long road. That is going to be huge. We've got Emmy Lou Harris doing a farewell tour. Those are two like staples of like old school traditional country. And I I, for one, cannot wait to see both of those. Like, yeah, we would talk about Maren Morris as well. And I know she's got a bit of a history with the country audience, so we say, but those are three. Cracking artists to have coming over to the UK to play a festival. Yeah, and I mean, Maren Morris, she's celebrating ten years of heroes this year. Yeah, yeah, ten years. And celebrating she's coming over to Long Road, she's re-released the album with a few more demo tracks and it's just such a a big deal. It's a big deal. And I'm hoping that when she's playing she does bring that sort of Maren that we used to from ten years ago, you know. Yeah. Blurting out my church, all the old classics, you know, I mean because I kind of think if you look and you went, our three headliners are Emmy Lou Harris, Steve Earl, and Maren Morris, there'd be no complaints over that. Yeah. I mean, I know Randy Houser, James Johnson, Parmalee are obviously massive, but I think certainly two of the three of Long Road just fall above the big star into the legend category. Yeah. And I think you know, for those who might not have been country fans maybe as long as others, yeah. I you know, you you've got to appreciate the the the levels that you're gonna get out of you know even an acoustic set from Steve Earl. So I think for me that's worth a shout out. On the other side, who who else are you looking forward to seeing to to name a few? Yeah so I'm I'm really looking forward to Josh Ross obviously yeah we saw him perform that in Nashville in twenty twenty four when we went out and since then I've Kind of been hooked on him really. He's such a good artist. I think he's really talented. Love the music that he's throwing out. so Josh Ross, really looking forward to that. Bec O'Malley yeah, really, really looking forward to him. And I know we were talking earlier about he's he's just got this vibe about him where he's Kind of going in a different direction to whatever else. He's making his own sound. He's not following what everyone else is doing. He's being that independent sound. And it's really, really good to see that. Yeah, being brave and having the balls. Big fan of Bec O'Malley. I'm looking forward to that one as well. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean there's there's just so many great artists who are gonna be there. And I'm really, really looking forward to it. And yeah, alright, I'll complain like till the cows come home about. about certain things but you know, deep down looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a good weekend. We obviously have the smoke and fire barbecue. the st yeah they're doing it. This little restaurant thing

that they're doing. Is that I d somebody I know has actually booked into it 'cause it's her other half's birthday, I think, while we're there. Okay, yeah. And they've got a book in there and I'm just not organised enough to book things like that. You know, if there's a if I happen to be going by and hungry and they go, we've had a cancellation Will I try it? Definitely. But yeah, I'm not that organized. so no, I mean that that's obviously a plus. For me, I can't wait for first time flyers. I'll I love first time flyers, just the energy they bring in. I like that they've got these little like movement or dance sessions to like a lot of their tracks. I wanna see you rehearsing one of them and we can get some content of that. you know, either you with with them or in the audience or something, but yeah, well I've got loads of ideas for content, so we'll come on to that later. and then the other, which again this this is a bit of a silly one, but we haven't even talked about the Shires. Like love or hate them. They were like the OGs of British country. Yeah they are. you know I know a lot of people don't like them but for me personally my original Country music crush was Chrissy Rhodes from the Shires. so I for one am much looking forward to that. brilliant. I I did again they're another one where they've just got so many songs that you know the words to and you can have a sing along to, and I think they'll bring a good atmosphere to it. Yeah. but yeah, lots of positivity about long road. And we're both gonna be there getting content. Which would be so what I would say is to any of our watchers slash listeners, if you see us, come and Say hello, come and answer a random question that Joey will come up with on the spot. and yeah, tell us tell us about the podcast, tell us your Mount Rushmore. Yeah. Tell us how much you also love the Shires and or first time flyers and what your feelings on country calling was the week before if you were there, you know, happy to chattiers. do you know what? You mentioned country calling there and just has it it's just come to me because of what we're chatting about now about coming to speak to us. I actually met one of our listeners on that country calling. Yeah. And obviously we've got a lot of friends who listen to this podcast, so we do know some of the people we do listen, but you know, this guy didn't have a clue who was because so he followed the pod and then he followed my personal Instagram and I sort of had a little look and I was like, I don't recognise this this guy at all. Not really any sort of like followers or anything there. You know, I noticed and I was like, alright, okay, cool. Like, yeah, made him reaching out, we're getting more followers, this is good. At country calling I then bumped into a an old friend of mine, Chris Green. And I mean I've not seen Chris for years. Really lovely catch-up. He was saying that he's there with his wife Zoey, and his son. And he was gonna introduce me to his son, but Son was busy, just chatting away. I see him next night at the after party and he says to me, He's like, how long you've been podcasting for then? Didn't know you were doing that. I'm thinking Yeah, I'm like, very newish thing, like a month or so. just put out episode two. I was like, I'd you know, how'd you know about it sort of thing? And he said, well, did I introduce you to my son at all yesterday? I was like, No, you didn't. So anyway, he introduced me to this lap. His son Curtis, and there's your follower. Yeah. And I was just like, hang on a minute. It's you. Yeah. You're the guy who's following me. I think me I was your Chris's son and put two and two together. And we were having a massive great chat about the podcast. It's good thoughts, and it was very, very humble, and it was it was just so nice to sort of bump in some of you like. Yeah. I think I think that sort of that that just hits the nail on the head. Like we are doing this podcast 'cause we just want to chat shit about country music. Absolutely. We're not expecting to become movie stars. No, exactly. No, obviously if it happens, you know. But but we just wanna talk about our love for country music and to get, you know, random people who happen to know somebody who you also know just come up and kind of go, you know, love what you love what you're doing, here's my opinion. That's that's what we wanna do that's what we're doing this for. You know, we we love a shout out on this podcast. We've we've worked this out by now. So Curtis, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you, mate. It keep on listening, keep sending us in your thoughts to your podcast, get involved with any of the content we put out and hopefully we'll see you very much. Come and hunt Joey down at Long Road, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you make it to Long Road, let us know and and come and hunt us down. Yeah. So So this is the part of the podcast where we have our dirt road debate. And Joey being the organized person he is messaged earlier on and says, I don't have one. Can you come up with something? So currently on the screen here, we've got two options and he has no idea which one I'm about to choose. No, I don't. and I've purposely done it that way for a a genuine sort of take. So, Dirt Road debate this week. Hit me. We're gonna call it festival fatigue. okay. and obviously we've spoken about country calling, it's expanded, you know, it's it's growing, we'll call it. It's obviously still in its infancy. We've got Long Road, established daddy of the festival world. God can't use that word. We've then got you know, several Yeah, I'm sorry. my god, the daddy of the festival world. my god. wow. Yeah, we've then got a lot of smaller ones popping up. you know, I I know we're looking at Waftsville up here in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to that next book coming out. Summers in Nashville. There's there was the one in Yorkshire we spoke about. Yeah. I think my question there is are we reaching a saturation point for UK

country festivals or have we got space for even more? I mean. The one name I want to throw in there that I missed this year, State Fayre obviously had that very American vibe about it. from what I heard and from what I saw, it was a huge success. They kind of not just went down the country route, they threw, I think, Kings of Leon were one of the headliners, so there was a good mix. Right, yeah, yeah. And is that now going to be in the country scene as a competitor? what are your feelings? Is the room, is it getting too Overcrowded. So Do you know what I don't think we are reaching saturation point? And I'll tell you why, because you look at the festivals that we've got and they're so different. Yeah. All of them are different. You take Buckle and Boots, for example. Very small, low-key festival where there's headliners that you've not really heard of. Yes, okay, I we had Gareth this year. But previous years, you know, William Michael Morgan isn't as well known as what somebody else might be. I d I don't every time I hear William Michael Morgan, I just picture Gary Quinn talking about his songwriting with William Michael Morgan. So whenever somebody says it, I can just hear his Irish accent going, William Michael Morgan. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Yeah. but yeah, and then you move down to country calling. Spoken about that where We we said earlier it's not that busy and there's big artists coming over. Long Road I think Long Road again maybe is kind of coming away from its origin or its roots potentially 'cause it's Long Road's not just that country festival, it is a country music festival, but also celebrates Americana, roots blues, blues, yeah, all sorts those sort of genres as well. Whether we've had enough of that recently or not is a completely different story which we won't go into. Yeah. But I think they celebrate something different. Yeah. Looking then at year ones about FarmTrax in West Yorkshire, I think that probably comes under a little bit similar to Buckle and Boots on a smaller scale. I think that has got potential. I'll I think I'm definitely gonna go next year because I wanna Wanna explore it, wanna see what it's all about. Yeah. things like summer in Nashville. It's a it's a weird one summer in Nashville 'cause it's almost like a touring festival. It kinda reminds me and I don't mean this badly, so anyone who works for summer in Nashville or is a big fan of it, don't take this the wrong way. Almost feels like a bit of like a travelling circus in a way. Well I I was gonna say travelling festival. I was not gonna be as as as critical as that is kind of call it more of a fair. Yeah. Where it's live music, fairground rides, shit going on. Yeah. Bang, done, move on to somewhere else. There is a lot going on. Yeah. and then even Wafsville I mean, yes, we've got a good friend of ours, Ste Ste Brown. I think it's his last name, isn't Yeah. Brown. I only remember Ste sweet, yeah. It's weird, isn't it? Yeah. But yeah, so Ste's gonna be headlining that festival. Yeah, he's closing the DJ. Yeah, and then there's a lot of tribute acts as well there over the the course of the weekend. So I think the the festivals that are popping up are very much different in what we get from them and what they bring to the scene. Yeah. I think in terms of your big festivals, your Buckle and Boots, Country Calling, long road, I don't think we will want many more of those because I think that they there will end up being a bit of competition and that I think it'd be difficult. But I mean it's it's also all about travel. What's convenient for people. There are a lot of country fans down in London who might not want to travel all the way up to Manchester. They don't want to come up to the North them Southerners, No, they don't. You know, but And vice versa, there's probably people in the Northwest who might be a little bit antsy coming all the way down to Chelmsford in Essex. I mean it took it took us about four hours to get there and then five to get home on the Yeah, it's a long way if you're not big on your driving. Absolutely, yeah. But I mean, I don't know if you've got any other thoughts on that. I I I think I'm kind of a bit split on it because I can appreciate the individual niche that they've all got, but I think the problem is, you know. Long road years ago, you get a country act, a roots act, an American act, everybody's happy. But because Americana and Roots are not having the same boom that we've seen of country, people don't want to see them. No, I don't. I want a bunch of country acts, and that's I think the issue now is, you know, years ago you'd get a Meghan Moroney, you'd get a Jon Pardi, well, maybe not Jon Pardi, just you know But we even had Lainey coming over. But no but nowadays Them levels of artists will not come and play a festival because they don't have to, because they can sell out a tour in eight minutes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I mean James Johnson, obviously the exception here 'cause it was his first one over, but a lot of those artists, you know, a Luke Combs, he's never gonna play a festival because he's selling out Wembley three nights running. you know, Jon Pardi packed out two when he's been over. Bailey Zimmerman, I I'm surprised that he was there because he's but that's gonna be I think the issue and every time you see a country calling pop up, a Black Deer or a Red Rooster festival are folding. And I think it's become it it has become a cutthroat world of festivals because we can't afford to go to them all. No. C to C is expensive. You know, travel down to the south and then even just a normal price festival is expensive. Yeah. You know, long road. it's all money, money, money. And we're not in a sort of living situation I think most of us where we've got so much disposable income and y you think about Luke Combs, I bet you spent to go and see one Luke Combs show, what you would probably spend at a festival weekend. yeah, absolutely. And and so it

it it's becoming it is becoming saturated in the sense of that, but not saturated like where there's too many, just funds don't are that the resources to police on aunt and I mean y you mentioned there about I'm slightly digressing a little bit off top but You're saying about like the Jon Pardi and whatnot, they keep they don't need to do a festival because they'll sell out endless tours and whatnot. Do you think that's probably why we're having such an issue with headliners of Long Road? Because they're realising that now of going, I'm doing this festival actually, I'm doing a tour which is selling out. Yeah years ago you would you know, you to get go and play Long Road be my god, yeah. To go and play C to C. But now even C to C with all of its commercial power Why would you go and do a forty five minute set on one day at three different locations when you could just go, well, I'll go and do my own headline tour. Yeah. I'll get more merch out of it. I'll get more recognition out of it. And I'll probably get more people to it as well. And so it I think I think that's that's maybe a debate for another day. Yeah. but yeah, I think I think that's something you've got to take into account with it all. And and again, I suppose as we're coming to Long Road, we'd love to hear your views on Is it a saturating point? Is it not? Is there room for more? And tell us about the festivals you've been to in the comments below. You know, let us know if you see us at Long Road. We'd love to hear about more that's going on because we unfortunately do get stuck in the bubble of the North West and what's going on here. And then also, you know, the big the big names festivals. you know, let us know about if you're from London, let us know the places to go. Put comments on real DM us, Instagram, our DMs are always open, we'll always reply to everyone. Mainly me, but but yeah, we will always reply. But even things like, have you checked out Lil Nashville down in London? Yeah. No. Alright, okay. Go go check it out. Sound Yeah. Slide into Joey's DMs. Let him know your feelings. But yeah, let let us know. Open Road Pod on Instagram, TikTok. You know, comment on YouTube videos wherever, even on our reels. Just let us know. But Si, I think that about covers it. Yeah. So how about you close out today? Show your one for the road. Not two. One. I did think about going more than one because the you know, I was a bit torn on this. but I can't I can't do the same trick twice in a row. maybe next time. But no, I my one for the road this week. It's gotta be long road because we've obviously got like a long road coming up at the weekend my one for the road is classic, Copperhead Road, Steve Earl. brilliant. brilliant song. Obviously, he's gonna be playing. That is gonna be probably the one people are waiting for him to bang out acoustic. And I I think I would encourage everybody, and I'm not shouting out as a Ambassador of the line dancing community here by any means because I'm utterly shit at line dancing. for those of you who saw this at Long Road would agree, but go on watch a couple of steps, go on try and pick up a couple of steps because my thought is Steve Earl's going to come out as you know, at Long Road, and for him to be playing arguably his most well-known song out to just a horde of people in a field in the middle of Leicestershire. Dancing, even if it's not all in sync to Copperhead Road, is gonna be fucking wild. Like that is gonna be great. So I would just say, you know, give it a go. If you've never given line dancing a go, I know at the hitching post at Long Road, they're gonna be giving lessons. If you see a little short girl with a cowboy hat called Katie of Honky Tonk Highways line dancing, ask her to teach you. She does they do sessions all over, including the one prior to James Johnson. So Go and give it a go, go and get involved and yeah, Copperhead Road. You don't have to be perfect at it. I mean, I did it at country calling at the weekend. I was awful. I've got no rhythm to me whatsoever. But you know what? It's a laugh, it's fun. It's bit of fun. Join in and yeah. But yeah, one for the road, Steve Earl, Copperhead Road, give it a listen, give it a dance. Hopefully to see you all you know, doing that on at the weekend. Yeah. And I think that's us for today, Joey. That's us. Yeah. should I say joy? Joy Joy Joy Joy Rymer Yeah. So yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for listening, or watching. you know, pleasure having us over yeah, looking forward to the weekend at Long Road and come chat with us, come say hello and just yeah, we'll be looking forward to seeing you. Yeah. Catch you all that guys.