TIN PAN SOUTH 

Griffen Palmer, Madison Kozak, Mark Trussell, & Abbey Cone

Wednesday March 29, 2023

@ Vinyl Lounge in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Just a drop South of the flashing neon lights of Lower Broadway sits one of Nashville’s most vibey venues, The Vinyl Lounge; tucked aptly into The Vinyl Lab which stakes claim as “Nashville’s newest record pressing facility.”

Inside The Vinyl Lounge on the second night of Tin Pan South, craft beer was flowing, vinyl records could be seen being pressed through the large viewing window, and Big Loud Publishing brought three of their top-tier songwriters to the stage for a spirited round of stories, songs, and a whole slew of recent hits that we know and love.

Mark Trussell, though he provided the final exclamation point on each pass through the round by performing last, continuously offered sing along moments to the crowd through the modern era splash of hit songs that he co-wrote.

As shoulders bounced in rhythm, and everyone in the venue mouthed the lyrics, Trussell delivered recent hits with Chris Lane’s “Fill Them Boots” and Conner Smith’s “Take It Slow.”

However, there were a couple of moments that really stood out brightly during Mark’s performances.

The first was how he giddily talked about being a father and how much he loves his boys, who he pointed out at the front table before playing Drew Green’s “Good Ol’ Man.” The second, before closing the entire round with Niko Moon’s “Good Time” when he embodied the spirit of what it takes to craft a song, truthfully highlighting the anxiety of then having to let whatever’s going to happen with your creation go entirely into someone else’s hands as you can only hope for the best.

Real-life couple Madison Kozak and Griffen Palmer fed off each other, adding harmony to one another’s songs and borrowing a capo back and forth, while also giving us a defining stamp that said country music’s future is in great hands.

Madison pulled from several true-life experiences to connect her songs directly with the hearts of the audience, whether it was when she slid into the emotionally driven, heartbreaking gut punch of “Rhinestoned,” or when she embraced the immense struggles that come with trying to move on, cleverly comparing the herculean task to that of climbing “Everest.”

And while she impressively showed off her traditional country inspiration on “If We Were a Country Song,” which she has played on the famous stage at the Grand Ole Opry, it was when she opened her diary and invited us into her own upbringing that she stole the spotlight and struck the perfect memory driven notes with the audience.

“I moved to Nashville 11 years ago to chase this dream, and I left behind 7 siblings and my super supportive parents,” she openly shared, speaking directly to the songwriters in the room who’ve made the same life-changing decision. “I never thought twice about what I was leaving behind until I was 3 months into living here and was like, shoot it’s quiet,” she said as she metaphorically pulled out an old family photo album with “Loud House,” taking us straight into our feels as she painted pictures of homesickness by invoking memories of cartoons being on the TV, the lawnmower nosily cutting grass in the yard, the Maytag washer always humming, etc.

During Kozak’s portion of the round, the crowd was also treated to a quick 2-song performance from Madison’s special guest Abbey Cone.

Cone, a good friend and frequent co-writer of Madison’s, added a hushed dynamic to the gratitude induced love song, “Who Am I Without You” as she pondered who she’d be if her special someone hadn’t come into her life and changed it, while then offering a glimpse into the near future with “If You Were A Song,” her forthcoming single that’s releasing on April 14, 2023. 

“This first song involves everyone on stage,” Palmer said with a smile, looking at both Mark and Madison. “Mark and I wrote it together, and it was inspired by Madison. We met in Key West at a songwriter festival,” he said, inviting us then into a piece of their personal life by telling of how she had a Polaroid camera with her and was taking photos. “When we started dating, she had all these photos on the wall from when we first met which was so cool to look back on,” he finished as the two shared a glance with each other during the opening notes of Keith Urban’s “Polaroid.”

During the performance of the Urban song, as with the The Band Camino/Chelsea Cutler cut “A Lot” and his new song “Crying Over You,” cell phones immediately littered the air around the entire crowd as they captured each of these incredible moments as Griffen offered a look at his past success stories while holding tightly to a future release which could very well be the next to notch him another radio smash.

While his most current single “25 to Life” had everyone in the crowd singing along as he and Madison continued to share glances with one another, “Second Guessing” provided the spotlight shining moment of his set as he upheld the spirit of what Tin Pan South is all about, speaking candidly about writing a song and similarly echoing the anxiety that Mark talked of, “The best and worst part about writing songs is that you don’t know what will happen. Is it going to be one that changes your whole life, or will it be one that gets lost.”

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