Show Reviews

 

ERIN GIBNEY AND KAITLYN KILIAN

Tuesday November 8, 2022

@ Star Rover Sound in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Just off the main dining area of The Optimist, a restaurant heralded by Ford Fry, he and his team officially opened the doors of their newest addition to Nashville’s Germantown area “The Griff” about a month and a half ago - Star Rover Sound!

Though its interior design borrows from the classic recording studio look of spaces like RCA Studio B and Sun Studios in Memphis - with its wall décor being made from speaker fabric - it’s also like stepping back in time to the kitschy 1960’s when members only clubs were prevalent.

You immediately feel the aura surrounding you as you feel like one of the elite members. Candle flames flicker on the tables, the accent of low lighting provides an ultra-cool atmosphere, and the top shelf liquor bar is only upended by an extremely friendly staff and outstanding food selections – which if you’re visiting on a Taco Tuesday, then you must order some of the amazing LA styled tacos.

With the overall vibe of the venue attracting tremendous media buzz in Music City, Star Rover Sound has already navigated the exhausting amounts of venues across the cityscape to become a hotspot staple of the Nashville music scene, welcoming elite music every Tuesday through Saturday night.

With a simple strum of acoustic guitar from Ashlie Tabor, emerging artist Erin Gibney immediately pulled in the crowd as she opened her set with “Easy Like That,” the pop country single that initially put her on country music’s radar, dropping her voice to its lower register so that she impressed when striking the higher notes in the tips of the chorus.

“If anyone’s been through a break-up recently…me too!” Gibney understandingly shared as she slowly nodded her head. “I wrote this song with Kris Allen. I remember that I went into that session that day a hot mess over a break-up, and he helped me piece this all together. It’s about that feeling you get when you’re in a relationship, but you know it’s ending even while you’re still in it,” she explained, earning knowing nods from the audience as she played “Exit Signs,” which continued allowing her to put on a vocal clinic as she pushed her voice into the necessary emotional tilt needed to deliver the impact of the falling apart lyrics.

She added a unique flavor to the Chris Stapleton version of “Tennessee Whiskey” by placing her softer, female vocal on a song that is commonly heard now days through the gritty, raspy tone of Stapleton, before pausing to share about herself and family with the crowd of gathering friends and supporters.

“I grew up in Connecticut and have a twin sister and an older sister, who I love both very much,” she told before praising each of them. “My twin sister is a nurse at Boston Children’s, and my older sister is a teacher. I looked at my parents when my sisters were choosing their career paths and said, I want to be a country singer!” she enthusiastically told with a smile as she delivered a stunning cover of The Wreckers “Leave the Pieces,” which is a song she said before playing that she used to sing in her bedroom when she was a little girl pretending to be out on her own world tour.

After humbly talking about amazing experiences during her recent show dates opening for Sister Hazel, Gibney connected a new original tune, “Talk Me Out of Him,” directly with several in the audience when she asked, “Does anyone have a friend who always goes for the wrong person, and you just want to scream at them?”

“I don’t always do this song, but I’m gonna play it tonight because some of my best friends are here and the first time that I sang it for them they told me they loved the way I sing,” Gibney said as she waved to her friends with a smile on her face as the opening notes of Dolly’s “Jolene” began to play. Though the song is certainly familiar to any country music lover, Tabor’s haunting notes on guitar helped bring a different moodiness to the melody while Gibney’s vocals placed a fresh, unique feel to the overall vibe.

Sliding into the throwback touch of the original version of Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” Gibney also made the song her own when she spliced in Motown infused vibes, which felt perfectly in place inside the walls of Star Rover Sound.

“I wrote this next song with Jillian Dawn. We sat down that day and were looking for something to write about, but neither of us had a break-up or a love story so we went digging for drama. We were on Spotify, and I looked at what my ex-boyfriend – from like when I was 16 – was listening to, and he had recently listened to our prom theme of all things,” she told with a shrug. “So, me and Jillian got to talking about how that must mean he’s not over me then and we came up with this one,” she said, delivering her third brand-new song on the night with “Over Me Over You.”

Paying homage to one of her biggest influences, Gibney covered Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” rolled into her version of The Script’s “Break Even,” and perfectly placed her vocal atop Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” during which all three the entire crowd was singing along with her.

“When I first signed with my team back in 2020, they asked me to send them a list of artists who I wanted to be like and Kelsea Ballerini was on the top of that list,” Gibney said. “They sent me a catalog of songs to listen to when we were figuring out what I wanted to record… and I couldn’t let this song called “Naïve” go; Turns out that Kelsea Ballerini was a songwriter on it so it’s a full circle moment for me to get to do this song,” she gushed as she closed her 50-minute set with the very powerful, “Naïve.”

Wide-spread styes in her cover selection blended into her own original music to give the crowd a full spectrum view of where Erin Gibney comes from while acknowledging her biggest influences that helped her find her own original path in music today.

Since we first saw her play at The Listening Room back in July, Erin has shown a tremendous growth spurt as she confidently placed her vocals in the spotlight over these 12 songs, demonstrating an amazing amount of control and know-how within her own voice as she moved it’s tone to match the emotion of each lyric, gripping the crowd as they became more and more invested into each song.

FULL SET LIST

1) Easy Like That

2) Exit Signs

3) Tennessee Whiskey (Chris Stapleton version)

4) Leave the Pieces (The Wreckers cover)

5) Talk Me Out of Him

6) Jolene (Dolly Parton cover)

7) Girl Crush (Little Big Town cover)

8) Over Me Over You

9) All Too Well (Taylor Swift cover)

10) Break Even (The Script cover)

11) Landslide (Fleetwood Mac cover)

12) Naïve

Leaning into her built-in drawl, Oklahoma born singer-songwriter Kaitlyn Kilian immediately hit her country stride as she quickly pulled the crowd into her 50-minute set, allowing her music to do most of the early talking for her as she hit right out of the gate with “Shoulda Woulda Coulda,” “How Crazy Would That Be,” and her most current, official song release, “Breakdown.”

The power of her vocals over that first 10-minute blast, allowed her to effectively wear her heart on her sleeve as she struck a deeper chord with the audience while radiating the room with a swagger and grit.

“This next one is an Ashley McBryde song that I always like to play,” mused Kilian, pausing if only for that moment to speak to the crowd as she had everyone singing along with “A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega,” before rattling out another stellar original, “Heart Can’t Take It.”

“I wrote this one when I was contemplating moving here,” Kilian quickly shared as she tuned her guitar and drove into “’Till I Land,” the song that would ironically become the first that would stamp her place on Nashville’s music community when she began to initially navigate its mucky terrain.

“Yee Haw!” exclaimed Kaitlyn as the crowd responded back to her with one of their own. “This is a cowgirl song,” she told as the guitar dipped into a boot tapping, hip moving groove that allowed Kilian to wrap her vocals into the 90’s country blasted melody of “This Country Girl Wants a Cowboy” as she danced along in perfect rhythm while embedding sly tones of sexy to her vocal at the right moments to enhance the teasing pieces of the lyric.

“Since living in Nashville, I’ve gotten some really great advice but one of my favorites is to drink the good wine and live to the best of my ability,” she encouraged as she softened the pace for the first time in her otherwise upbeat, energetic set with “Drink The Wine,” and then followed suit by keeping on the softer spectrum with “Daydreamer,” effortlessly sliding in and out of lighter tones while awesomely moving her range to strike the songs higher registered notes.

Kilian cranked back up the energy by delving back into her 90’s country influences with a spot-on cover of Jo Dee Messina’s “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” before delivering the freeze frame moment of her set with the super catchy, “Classy Is as Classy Does,” a redneck proud anthem that saw her chuckling – along with the crowd – as she pounded out the ultra-memorable hook, “You can kiss my country class!”

Leaning against a slick guitar riff to pull into the swampy rhythm, “The Goodbye Song” saw Kaitlyn placing her vocals around the kiss-off lyric, while skillfully allowing the proper amount of room for the guitar licks to fly in the spotlight and put the crowd in a trance.

“I’m gonna need y’all’s help with this next one,” explained Kilian as she led a rousing back and forth with the crowd, “let me hear you say yeah”… “yeah”… “yeah”… “yeah”…” as she then bopped into Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine,” tapping toe to heel, heel to toe in timing with the rhythm as the crowd clapped and sang along with the mega-hit.

The storyteller styled lyric of “Backroad Daisy” opened up Kilian’s diary as she painted vivid pictures of her small-town, simple life upbringing, before she closed out the evening with “Homebody,” a song which infused its bouncy melody against very well-crafted lyrics that speak directly to how your outlook changes once you meet the right someone, as you go from being the go out all-nighter to the type of person who would rather stay in as you fall deeper into one another.

Kaitlyn Kilian is an animated performer with facial expressions that not only showcase her excitement of playing live, but also fully enhance the lyrics so that they pop that much stronger, attractively gripping the crowd note by note and line by line. Combine that uber talented, can’t be taught aspect with minimal amounts of talking between each song, and she really allowed her vocals and songwriting prowess to be the shining star of her show as she blended all her country bred influences into a modern branded style that walks uniquely along her line but is also perfectly suited for what’s happening at country radio today.

FULL SET LIST

1) Shoulda Woulda Coulda

2) How Crazy Would That Be

3) Breakdown

4) A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega (Ashley McBryde cover)

5) Heart Can’t Take it

6) ‘Till I Land

7) This Country Girl Wants a Cowboy

8) Drink Good Wine

9) Daydreamer

10) Heads Carolina, Tails California (Jo Dee Messina cover)

11) Classy Is as Classy Does

12) The Goodbye Song

13) Any Man of Mine (Shania Twain cover)

14) Backroad Daisy

15) Homebody

 

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