Maren Morris at The Borderline London
By Claire Weston
Maren Morris played a headline show at The Borderline in London on Monday night after enjoying a string of performances at C2C Festival last weekend.
After opening her set with ‘Sugar’, she talked how much she had loved her time performing at the festival. She might be a relatively new name to the music scene for most but she has certainly made a lot of people sit up and pay attention. An already established Nashville songwriter and just 25 years old, she looked relaxed and at home on the stage, and is certainly one to watch in the next few months.
Her self titled EP was released in November 2015, and all 5 of those songs were included in the set, with the second song of the night being ‘Drunk Girls Don’t Cry’. Not only a talented songwriter and singer, she also plays guitar on each of the songs.
I loved that she talked passionately about each song before she played it, and it was interesting learning about each of them. She described ‘I wish I was’ as the song most personal to her, explaining it was about a break up.
Maren signed a publishing deal with Big Yellow Dog Music in 2013, and has had songs cut by both Kelly Clarkson (‘Second Wind’) and Tim McGraw (‘Last Turn Home’). We were treated to Maren’s own versions of these songs at The Borderline and they were stunning. ‘Second Wind’ was a particularly special song this weekend, as it was co-written with Shane McAnally, who she shared the stage with for the first time since writing it, at one of the Bluebird Cafe sessions at C2C Festival.
There was also the inclusion of ‘Loose Change’ as an acoustic number in her set after receiving a request to play it. It is a song she had written several years ago, and was amazed that people knew of it, but also that it gave her the opportunity to refresh it. It really showcased how impressive and powerful her vocals are, as there were points where her band masked that in other songs. The penultimate song of the night was ’80’s Mercedes’, with Maren introducing it as ‘the car she wished she had’.
She called up support act The Shadowboxers to the stage to perform final song ‘My Church’ with her. This was the perfect song to end on, and a definite crowd favourite, which had everyone singing and clapping along with her. It was a short set for a headliner but it definitely showcased how talented she is, and I wouldn’t hesitate to see her again.
Her debut album ‘Hero’ is released on June 3 and she will open for Keith Urban on his Ripcord tour this summer in the US.
