Jess Clemmons, from Houston, Texas, now playing with her resident band ‘The Bandits’ took to the stage at The Little Rabbit Barn. The US artist was headlining what had already been a fantastic night with performances by Lisa Wright and Honey Ryder.
With a 6-piece band they squeeze onto the stage in the 100 capacity venue that was packed out with an attentive audience, all there to get a little dose of country music. Jess of course took centre stage as they kicked off with their first song. Keys, Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Cajon and a Pedal Steel (a rarity to see nowadays) were the instruments being played by Jess’ fantastic band, The Bandits. Despite the whole band being made up of UK based musicians and Jess hailing from the United States there was no real sense that there was any separation between the group. They integrated so well on stage it made it incredibly enjoyable to watch.
The whole band had a lot of energy which did not stop throughout the performance as they played a great mix of original and cover tracks. One of the originals they played was their song ‘Nitty Gritty’ which Clemmon’s talked about being very close to her heart. The song was used in the #StyleHasNoSize campaign for Evans. They also played their great upbeat track ‘My Name Is Trouble’ as well as a whole host of cover tracks ranging from Janis Joplin’s ‘Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart’ to ‘Wichita Lineman’ by Glen Campbell, a song which bought up Sir Terry Wogan for the second time in the evening as it was a song they had the honour of playing on his show back in February 2014.
They also did a great rendition of Lee Brice’s – I Don’t Dance, as Jess invited keyboardist and fellow Bandit, Steven Reid Williams, to join her in turning this solo track into a really nice duet. Steven’s vocals were fantastic and I actually would have loved to have heard him sing a little more throughout the set!
Overall it was a really fun, energy packed performance which was filled with great showmanship, great songs and fantastic accomplished musicians who’s experience shone through in the set.
