Country 2 Country Festival (C2C)

Country 2 Country- C2C Festival 2023: Pillbox Patti – Live Review

Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt

Pillbox Patti, otherwise known as Nicolette Hayford is a very well established songwriter in the US and even if you aren’t familiar with her name, you definitely will be with her work.

Credits on songs such as A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega, One Night Standards with Ashley McBryde, she has also had hits cut by Lainey Wilson, Steve Moakler, William Michael Morgan, Chrissy Metz, Meghan Patrick, Robert Counts, and more! She is also part of Ashley McBryde’s Lindeville.

Nicolette has recently released her debut album Florida as her alter ego Pillbox Patti! An album based on where she grew up which she refers to as “Trashy and the rough area”.

Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt

Pillbox Patti is one heck of an entertainer on stage. Full of sass and attitude, she is also sweet and incredibly likeable. Representing strong women, this translates well on stage as well as on record.

Sporting a Tupac T-shirt with shoulder pads that even the 80’s couldn’t pull off, She also wore a stylish hat and green, faux snaked skin boots. When I interviewed her earlier that day, she explained the boots were from Amazon and only $40 dollars. Not much of a fashionista myself I said, “You could have said Gucci and I would have believed you”. That’s how awesome they looked and thus Gucci Amazon was born haha! Well in my world anyway!

The Indigo O2 was packed for Patti’s set. This wasn’t her first show of the weekend so there were many in the audience whom had seen her earlier in the weekend who were back for more!

Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt

Performing songs from her debut Album Florida such as Good People, Candy Cigarettes, Suwannee (about her home town), Young and Stupid, Eat Pray Drugs, Hookin Up, Patti and the band were energetic, loud and a whole lot of fun! One song I would have loved to have heard was 25 MPH Town. The piano ballad is absolutely breathtaking and wonderfully emotive. The rawness and realness in this song would have been sensational live. This of course means that Pillbox Patti will just have to come back to the UK.

Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt

I strongly feel that she should have been a part of either the CMA Songwriters Series or one of the Bluebird Sessions. This song as well as her co-writes would have gone down an absolute storm with us songwriter lovers!

That being said though, the lack of 25 MPH didn’t take anything away from the performance and I enjoyed the constant high energy of her set.

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