Canadian country music star Jake Vaadeland recreated the classic scenes of the Grand Ole Opry when he brought his UK tour to Southampton last week.
Taking to the stage at Papillon alongside his band The Sturgeon River Boys, Jake donned his blue fringed jacket and opened the ‘program’ with Father’s Son, the Johnny Cash-esque song from his 2024 album, Retro Man.
With songs averaging at roughly two and a half minutes, the show kept on moving quickly, with full band renditions of I Ain’t Going Back to Nashville and One More Dollar to Go, as well as stripped back arrangements including a moment when Jake Vaadeland and bassist Jake Smithies played a song, simply to show off the talents of the ‘Jake vs Jake’.
Bringing gospel to the show – in the apt venue of the old church that is Papillon – the band performed Jake’s latest single, Great Joy and Happiness.
The ‘program’ (as Jake called it) had everything from on-stage adverts and jingles promoting the ‘sponsors,’ to physical stunts. As the band gathered around the one vocal microphone, they were able to move freely around the stage due to the lack of wires and cables.
Most of the evening’s audience won’t have witnessed the Grand Ole Opry, yet there was a certain nostalgia in the air as the niches of 1950s country music were hit just right. Towards the end of the performance, support act Fern joined the band on stage for a rendition of Jackson by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
The almost spontaneous collaboration came after Fern’s half-hour warming up the crowd, where she played songs from a soon-to-be-recorded debut album.
Jake’s main show soon rounded off, though he was back for an encore featuring original song Retro Man and a cover of Blue Suede Shoes.
The show may have only just lasted an hour, but it felt like the performance never stopped, even stopping for breath – the band practically moving on to the next track before the previous one had finished. Already winning a prestigious Canadian Juno Award, Jake and the band will be going far – who else is there that’s perfectly recreating the old country music sound like this?
