COLD CREEK COUNTY
PETERBOROUGH MUSICFEST
DEL CRARY PARK SAT JULY 16 2016
By Keith Sharp
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for Brighton’s Cold Creek County as they’ve criss-crossed the dominion, performing at major Country Music festivals. From Dauphin Manitoba, CCC played at the Cavendish Music Fest in Prince Edward Island, Kitchener’s CMT Music Fest, and the Calgary Stampede before heading back to perform Saturday night before more than 10,000 adoring fans at Peterborough’s Del Crary Park.
To all intents and purposes, this was a home date for Cold Creek County. Drummer and group leader Doug Oliver is a local native, lead vocalist Brandon Scott is from nearby Brighton while guitarist/vocalist Josh Lester and bass playing brother Justin were raised in nearby Frankford. The only city slickers being lead guitarist Trevor McLeod from Stratford and new banjo-player Jordan Honsinger is from Burlington.
And like returning home-town heroes, CCC instantly forged a strong connection with their fans, patiently autographing tee-shirts and posing for endless selfie photo requests by their merchandise tent an hour before launching their set.
Prior to taking the stage for their 75-minute set, drummer and co-producer of the band’s debut “Till The Wheels Come Off” record release, Doug Oliver remarked on the band’s emerging success and their current frantic touring exploits. “It’s been a constant blur of travelling across the country, playing a major festival, getting back on the bus, travelling 22 hours none stop to get from PEI to Kitchener, getting back on the bus to play Calgary and then getting back on the bus to travel back to Peterborough, but this is the show we have been looking forward to. To play in front of 10,000 local fans, people who have been supporting us even when we were playing local bars is tremendous.
To say Cold Creek County is a success would be an understatement. Signed directly to Sony Music Canada and managed by the high profile Chief Management company (The Road Hammers, Florida Georgia Line), CCC have already won three CMAO (Country Music Association of Ontario Awards) and have been nominate for three prestigeous Country Music Awards (Rising Star Award, Top Group/Duo and Top Video Award for “Our Town”).
“It’s great to get recognized for anything and it’s a tremendous honour for us to be nominated for three CCMA awards,” beamed Oliver. “We feel so fortunate and so lucky with the way things have been going so far.”
Prior to launching into their set with the raucious “Trucker Hat”, the band accepted their 2016 Music Express “Top Emerging Band ” award from ME’s Keith Sharp on stage in front of their fans, thanking them for voting them winners of the award.
Cold Creek County may have only recorded one record so far but they padded out their set with a number of covers by current trendy artists which showed they could relate to a younger audience while adding their own distinctive country-rock touch to the arrangements.
Their cover of Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls” electrified their audience, covers of Justin Timberlake’s “Drink You Away”, Jake Owen’s “Dayz Of Gold”, Florida-Georgia Line’s “Itz What We Do” and “Flo Rida’s “My House” showed CCC can stretch their demographic and for “Cake By The Ocean”, lead vocalist Brandon Scott hearded a group of fans on stage to sing along to DMCE’s current hit.
Yet it’s the band’s own material that carried the show and tracks like “Til The Wheels Come Off”, the anthemic “Our Town” and an elongated four-song encore that included Imagine Dragon’s “I’m So Sorry” plus their own “Beer Weather”, “Ain’t Had Enough Of That Yet” and the set closing “Good Thing We’re In The Country” concluded a brilliant live performance. Perfect weather, responsive fans and a performance from a band destined for superstar status.
Next stop, back on the bus and heading south on Monday for Nashville!
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