After Sinead Burgess's outstanding support slot on last years Kezia GIll tour, as well as her excellent London headline debut at The Slaughtered Lamb, a quick return to the UK for C2C Country to Country was a good call all round. Chances are if you saw any of the outer stages across the weekend then there is a fair chance you'd have seen a bit of Sinead as she pooped up in more than just her own assigned slots!!
Taking to the stage in her long black coat, a few quick strums and a "Howzit going London?" followed by a brief resume of where she was from, set the scene before she would dive into "Ain't Thinking About You". A mixture of outright confident strident guitar playing supplemented by her own stomp pedal and soaring vocals on the line
"You watch me fade from view! got things off to a great start. On completing the final confirming "That's the Truth" she would take a step back, smile and soak up the well earned applause.
Donning a harmonica, as the sound of the pouring rain from outside became definitely noticeable, her next song "Reno" opened to a beautiful harmonica intro, enhanced wonderfully by the stomp pedal which gave it that something extra. Sinead also able to add a little extra humour by announcing the song as the one that was nominated for an award but did not win, it's qualities though still showed through. One of the few artists across the weekend to have access to a keyboard, Sinead would move there for "Never Be Over You", with it's gentle piano intro, this combination of lyrics full of imagery and honesty with beautiful playing, perfectly performed, finding ever more delicate high vocal notes - it was simply exquisite. To finish Sinead would just gently lean back on her stool to signal completion and then soaked up a huge round the huge appreciation of her efforts.
Sinead's new single "Always Gonna Break My Heart" saw her return to her guitar, where she once again delivered a bravura performance oozing class. There was a return to the award losing story, as she brought out the person who had written the winning song - Blake O'Connor, who is now also the significant other in Sinead's life. They would do a cover of Morgan Walllen's "Cover Me Up". With Sinead taking the first verse, they would duet on the chorus, with Blake taking lead on the second verse with sensual tender vocal . The would spend the next chorus catching each other's eye and would then gradually raising the drama by raising the volume of their vocals before ending on all but a whisper - a truly special moment.
This most impressive of sets would close with "Mama Raised A Rambling Man", Sinead was a perfect host at ease with the crowd and able to mix up her styles and tempos. This closer was deliciously rootsy, even more so as the stomp pedal kicked in for the second verse. Naturally including a stand out extended note this set ended in style - expect big things from Sinead in 2024.