Lady A played to a sold-out audience at the Freeman Arts Pavilion near Selbyville on Friday night, Aug. 26, with picture-perfect weather and pitch-perfect musical notes. The show was heralded by a soaring bald eagle that made a special appearance over the crowd as folks settled-in for a 90-minute performance.
Lady A was a tough ticket to get at Freeman, selling out within an hour when the concert tickets went on sale in the spring.
The “Request Line” tour is the first national tour for Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum) in more than a year The “Request Line” tour is punctuated with fan “requests,” as if being called-in to a country music radio station.
Lady A has had a 17-year-long run as a band, with their recently Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) diamond-level certified most popular hit “Need You Now” by sultry singer Hillary Scott — held back until an encore song at the show. (Diamond is the highest-level certification for a country song, and the band was surprised with the honor last week.) They have earned CMA Vocal Group of the Year trophies three years in a row and five Grammy Awards since breaking out in Nashville.
Lady A is presently nominated for the Academy of Country Music (ACM) for its comeback and this tour is being called: “a long overdue celebration between the band and its fans,” according to American Songwriter magazine.
A request from a local young lady named Eleanor came in remotely over the sound system at Freeman. She asked for a new hit called “Compass,” with lyrics including:
“Yeah, it’s been a bumpy road,
Rollercoasters high and low,
We’ll fill the tank and drive the car,
Pedal Fast; Pedal hard.”
The country-rock crossover trio of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood started playing together in 2006. One of their first musical breaks came as the warm-up act for Carrie Underwood.
“I remember when we opened for Carrie Underwood at the Delaware State Fair in Harrington,” recalled Kelley and Scott together of their early years, in July 2008. “We drove all the way from Nashville to Delaware, with Hillary doing her makeup in our camper van. Now, we have been a band together for over 17 years.”
“It was a huge milestone in our careers to open for Carrie Underwood, and it all started right there in Delaware at the Delaware State Fair,” said Scott in a CMA “Close-Up” article.
Both lead singers were effusive in their praising of Southern Delaware as a place to live and play. It may have been the perfect weather on a summer night, in the mid-70s with low humidity that drove their affections from the stage.
“You live in the best place in the country,” said Kelley. “Whatever ya’ll are doing here, you should just keep doing it,” he said early in the set.
“I want to move here,” said Scott with conviction about midway through the first 75-minute set. Scott said she has a 10-year-old daughter and loves places that have a focus on family. “Kids should know they can always come back home.”
Lady A co-founder Dave Haywood performs.
Kelley and lead guitarist and co-writer Haywood met as boyhood friends in Augusta, Ga., and eventually moved to Nashville to try their luck at country music. According to band folklore, it was Scott who sought out the boys to see if she could provide her soulful and bluesy harmonics to the then-Lady Antebellum. The combination worked, because Kelley and Scott have since raised their voices in song as if singing as a brother and sister family in harmony.
Scott is the daughter of country singer Linda Davis. Kelley is the brother of singer Josh Kelley.
“Over the past year,” during the band’s hiatus, Scott said, “planning this tour has kept me awake countless nights dreaming up how we could show the fans that we’ve been profoundly impacted by them. This tour is about our fans’ connection to these lyrics and melodies. It’s about how we all love and want to be loved.
“I believe live music communicates that better than most anything else. I hope every person who steps foot in one of our shows feels seen, feels part of this moment that we’ll never forget and knows they are welcome. Let’s sing, let’s laugh, let’s let the light in!”
“The stories we’ve heard and read through on the requests are the reason we do what we do,” added Haywood of the rationale for the “Request Line” tour. “We’ve been deeply touched,” he said when Lady A kicked-off the band’s 21-stop tour in April.
Kelley declares sobriety at show
Charles Kelley revealed to the Freeman audience that he has now been sober 13 months.
“I am just over one year sober, with one year and one month,” said Kelley to applause. “I drank for 25 years and seemed to have an intimate relationship with alcohol,” he confessed. He then revealed a new song meant to capture the feelings of early sobriety, which he co-wrote with Haywood.
The lyrics include: “You have taken me as far as you could; but now I am going to put you down for good,” lamenting the long goodbye some alcoholics may feel in recovery.
What fans and locals attending this concert agreed upon was that the support of the Lady A bandmates Scott and Haywood for their friend and bandmate, Kelley, in agreeing as a group to take a year off so Kelley could seek treatment for alcoholism, showed the kind of love they have developed over the many years of bonding as a team.
The recovery community has come-out in support of Kelley and many in 12-step recovery programs were present for this concert, as they had self-declared.
Scott then revealed that a new song called “Love You Back,” will be debuted on this tour and soon released on country radio stations around the country.
Freeman Foundation Executive Director Patti Grimes opened the evening by welcoming the packed house and stating, “Our mission is to make sure the arts are alive and well here in our area.”
She said that the Freeman Arts program will provide arts education for 30,000 students from Wicomico County and Salisbury, Md., who may not otherwise have this exposure.
“They will be exposed to free arts programming,” thanks to Freeman funding and volunteer donations.
Cowboy boots and short skirts or maxi dresses seemed to be the outfit of the evening at Freeman Stage. Jessie Lupiwok, 22, and Delaney Sites, 23, are two local friends who brought the leather boots and country fashion out for a night of music and fun.
Dave Barnes was the opening act, playing guitar with a rhythm guitar player and keyboardist borrowed from Lady A’s band. His songs included “Someday Sarah (You Will Be My Baby)” and “Nothing Fancy,” which he teased he “wrote for actress Meg Ryan,” as a fantasy woman, but now claims the song is dedicated to his wife. (Nice save, Dave!)