Brett Young @ KEMBA! Live

Fresh off a flight, I landed in Columbus, OH & rushed straight to Brett Young’s first night of his “5 Tour 3 2 1” tour. The energy at the venue was magnetic. Getting to shoot one of my hometown venues was just a dream come true (there’s something nostalgic about having grown up seeing shows there).

Ashley Cooke

First up we have the fiery and amazing vocalist, Ashley Cooke. I absolutely loooove seeing females in country represented. What a joy it was to get to experience her set & hearing her music for the first time in a live setting. She had her mom and sister there as support, which warmed my heart.

Morgan Evans

Moving along to the next opener, we have Morgan Evans. Which, he has been in a lot of controversy lately following his split from Kelsea Ballerini. Which I know is a completely separate thing from his music, but unfortunately it clouds some things. Although I love Kelsea, I can’t deny that Morgan puts out some bangers & listening to his adorable Australian accent just gets me. He played his entire set by himself, as he said his band was unable to join this show. So, what do you do in that scenario? Acoustic set with a loop pedal & I was all for it. Sometimes a stripped down version is a nice change of pace.

Brett Young

Last but not least, obvi we ended the night with the main man himself, Brett Young. I was so excited to see him live as he was supposed to play in Denver back in December but wasn’t able to make it. Let me first start off by saying his set was slower than I anticipated, although if I really knew all his songs, I should’ve known that. He’s a sucker for a slow ballad love song!

During his set, he had a moment where it was set up like “Hotel Cafe” in LA. It kinda of reminded me a musicians round moment like you’d see at The Listening Room Cafe in Nashville (IYKYK). Additionally, there was a moment he took a break from the stage and gave his band mates a chance to showcase their incredible vocals. I loved this because you don’t see it very often where the headliner takes away from themselves to showcase other musicians. I was touched to say the least.

I’d also like to shoutout to his production crew (Luke Elrod Designs) because the lighting, LED screen and EVERYTHING was top tier. It made it so much fun to shoot!

Moral of the story, if you’re a sucker for country (but a little slower), go see Brett live!