Tucked away in the heart of Almondsbury, Bristol is the ever growing country music festival which is part of the Small Town, Big Music 3 Day event created by Almondsbury Creative. Saturday the 7th September saw the events second year of running an all country music event. With Canadian artist Tenille Arts to headline, the event also held an incredible line up which included many phenomenal UK acts who were scattered across both stages during the day which included Kezia Gill, Matt Hodges, Wood Burnt Red, Amy Moore, Taynee Lord and more!

With gates opening at 12pm and the weather being on and off showers of rain, Amy Moore and her guitarist Johnny had quite the challenge ahead of them opening up the Local Legends Stage bang on 12pm. A stage for local artists, Amy Moore is based in Gloucestershire which we are finding is the home to many rising UK stars which includes Savannah Gardner.

Being faced with people just arriving and not having the chance to be at the stage ahead of her set, this did not deter Moore as ever the professional, she played her set as if she was playing to thousands. Kicking things off with the immediately addictive track Addiction, Moore’s music made festival goers stop in their tracks as they arrived!

Moore has a gorgeous tone to her vocals and she played a beautiful set of original material which was filled with authentic country sounding songs that were written about various experiences across her life. One of the stand out moments came from the previously released single The Devil I See. A stunning ballad, the song has strong folk-country elements to it with a cinematic edge. A song that I can imagine being played on hit country radio stations, I hope this song stays on live set-lists as I look forward to hearing it again. In the meantime, the studio version will be on my playlist for a while!

Free Spirit was another stand out moment and it translated beautifully live with a two piece band. However, it is also well worth listening to the studio version to get the more country feel to it as it has some gorgeous instrumentation. With a great introduction explaining the back story of the next song, My Fall Out Boy became another highlight. A song with an easter egg or two, I wonder how many in the audience picked up on them? (One answer lies within the title.)

“Every Country singer needs a sassy song” explained Moore before her next song. A currently unreleased track, Moore further said of the songs story “I could say all these things but probably won’t as am very British and very polite” to which she went into performing Took It Too Far.

Closing with the upbeat and what she described as a “one of two closing Jolly numbers” song Consequences, Amy Moore had successfully delivered a fantastic and generous ten track set list which impressed her audience thoroughly. The perfect opener to a fun-filled day of country music, Amy Moore is a genuine soul on and off stage and is about as authentic an artist as you will find. No gimmicks, no cheesy moments, she is an absolute breath of fresh air to watch and has a natural ability to make you get completely lost in her music.

With UK country music rapidly growing, Amy Moore has certainly made herself part of the family now and is more than welcome to be a part of it for years to come. With recent support slots with the likes of Americana band East of Reno, we are so excited to follow Amy’s journey of which we know is going to be filled with wonderful opportunities and hopefully great success.