It has to be said that the lure of the Big Entrance stage was less enticing when the temperature dipped into single figures however Callie Twisselman managed to lure us out into the open air. #TEAMw21 probably only caught about half of the set, but it was significant enough to merit a mention in our recollection of the weekends events. With her blonde hair, a bright smile and upbeat demeanour she simply exuded a good time feeling.
Joining the set at the unreleased "I Pray". Callie would open to a slow acoustic guitar and then reeled us in with the opening few lines
"I've done some things I wish I could take back
Some things I'm not too proud of, just sayin'
But when the soul starts weighing heavily - I Pray"
Amazingly as she hit the words "I Pray" the sun did miraculously appear and help defrost the onlooking crowd.
There was some additional backing track percussion which just helped to fill out the overall sound on this highly promising track.
Callie's excellent new single "The King and Queen Of Recklessness" about "Those in a relationship not so steady" was written with air of someone who had experienced such things. There was again some percussion and maybe a little banjo packing out the sound and Callie was undenably passionate as she fired out the final line of the chorus
"Just when we're off, we're on again
You call me up and I pretend
This ain't a game that I know I won't win
Right now I just want to feel something"
A countrified cover followed, that gradually revealed itself to be Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" which worked surprisingly well.
Raised on her family’s seventh-generation ranch in California, she again knew of what she was speaking on the stirring anthem "God Made A Farmer". Built around a prominent guitar riff she was able to spell out the hard working lfe of running a farm.
The chorus would see Callie power out her vocales
"God made a farmer - a suit of armour
Tough enough to stay in the heat but pray for the rain"
A mixture of faith and a testament to hard work would make this song a powerful statement.
Apparently being a little too chatty earlier in the set caused time pressures that meant that we never got to hear her Dolly Parton, Maddie & Tae and Jesse James Decker tune "Gonna Be You" but Callie Twisselman made plenty of impact in the time that we did get to spend with her.