A beautiful night of weather in the middle of summer in Canandaigua. Nothing beats it except when you have triple bill of music to add to that. Dierks Bentley, Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives and Mae Estes all played CMAC this past Saturday night. Bentley is currently on a new leg in support of his 10th studio effort titled ‘Gravel & Gold,’ which came out earlier last year. He brought out an up an comer in Mae Estes and the legendary Marty Stuart & the Fabulous Superlatives to open the show.
Mae Estes opened the show. She is still very early in her career as she only released a bunch of singles and an EP called ‘Before the Record.” Songs like “I Like my Guitar With a Twang” and her new single “High and Lonesome” were highlights. She was super happy to see a sign that someone made saying that she loves her music. What surprised me in her set is that she only stuck to originals and didn’t try to win the audience over with a cover. It was mightily brave of her to do and thought she succeeded in doing so.
Next up was Marty Stuart and the Superlatives. We just reviewed them just a few months ago and you can check that out right here: Marty Stuart review. I will just add that they were solid and packed everything they could muster in the short 1 hour time frame they were given.
Headlining the show was one of the biggest names in country music in Dierks Bentley. This is the first time I took in a Bentley show and what a show it was. It seemed to have a little bit of everything. He went back and forth between playing acoustic guitar and singing acapella throughout the set. He added quite a few medleys of covers throughout starting with Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup” with brining 2 concert attendees to challenge him to shot gunning a beer contest. By the way, the woman beat the guy. He talked about how great the area is in the summer with the lake and winter where you can play pond hockey. He also stated that he enjoyed visiting the lake earlier in the day. He sang “Why Do I Feel” with opener Mae Estes. He had everyone hold up their lit cell phones for “Say You Do.” For “Black” and “Up on the Ridge”, a video screen dropped and these cool effects went on the screen while Bentley stayed behind the screen singing. It was really thing to see. Bentley joked around with guitarist Charlie Worsham during “Callin’ on Baton Rouge.” He was playing around his microphone stand and standing in front of him until Worsham took center stage in front of him while the audience cheered. Much to Bentley’s dismay. They hugged it out after and it was a playful interaction between the two. Bentley closed with a barrage of hits including his biggest one in “Drunk on a Plane.” He did two encores and incorporated some of the biggest country songs ever into one medley to close out the show.
CMAC delivered anther summer gem as the fans left happy hearing a great night of country and Americana music!
Setlist:
Gold
Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do
I Hold On
Am I the Only One/Red Solo Cup (Toby Keith cover)
Living
Burning Man
American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)
Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)/Mountain Man (Alabama cover)
Why Do I Feel (With Mae Estes)
Say You Do
Black/ Up on the Ridge/Callin’ Baton Rouge
5-1-5-0
Somewhere on the Beach/Beers on Me
What Was I Thinkin’
Encore 1:
Drunk on a Plane
Encore 2:
Hot County Knights (Hot County Knights cover)
I Like It, I Love It (Tim McGraw cover)/Meet Me in the Middle (Rio cover)/Little Rock (Reba McEntire cover)/Heads Carolina, Tails California (Jo Dee Messina cover)/Achy Breaky Heart (Billy Ray Cyrus cover)/Man! I Feel Like a Woman! (Shania Twain cover)/Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks cover) – medley
We would like to thank Jordynn Gould from CMAC for the credentials to review the show.
