Tag: red clay strays

Thursday 6th November 2025

O2 Academy, Birmingham, England

If rock and roll is anything, it’s in evidence tonight. The Red Clay Strays take to the stage and tear straight into ‘Ramblin”, clearly determined to give the three thousand fans who have sold out the O2 Academy in Birmingham their money’s worth. It’s the start of what proves to be an impeccably delivered set on a truly special night for everyone who’s lucky enough to be here.

It’s a special night for Robbie Prevete, the band’s bespectacled, curly-haired guitar tech who joins the Strays on stage for three songs of their encore. Frontman Brandon Coleman, an amused smile on his lips, is at pains to point out that “there’s nothing wrong with Robbie. He’s a completely normal person.” His presence on the stage, strumming Brandon’s guitar, is not part of any “Make-a-Wish” pledge, but because “he’s actually the most talented guitarist standing on stage right now.” Drew Nix and Zach Rishel, who have both played incredibly tonight, do not object. Goodwill flows from this band like a cup runneth over.

It’s a special night for the Strays’ fellow Alabaman Early James, who opens with a set that would be worth the entry fee alone – and perhaps even worth the two-and-a-half-hour journey I have made down from Manchester tonight, and will make back again in the early hours. Slapping his guitar like an old bluesman and singing with an enthralling Tom Waits-esque rasp, he provides a darkly glittering litany of songs including ‘Tumbleweed’, ‘Taste of Sin’, ‘Mama Can Be My Valentine’ and ‘I Could Just Die Right Now’. The song which put him on my radar – the ‘Real Low Down Lonesome’ duet with Sierra Ferrell – isn’t present in his setlist tonight, but he does invite his girlfriend Cammie Windley on stage to sing, June Carter-esque, on the John Prine duet ‘In Spite of Ourselves’. He even gets the Strays’ drummer John Hall to come out early to provide a beat for the best damn twisted cover of Hank Williams’ ‘Hey Good Lookin” I’ve ever heard.

It’s a special night for the Strays themselves, playing for the first time in Birmingham, England and a long way from their days as a bar band in Mobile, Alabama. At that time – remarkably, just a few years ago – even the state’s city of Birmingham (“we pronounce it Birming-HAM”, Early James says) must have seemed a distant goal, let alone playing Birmingham (pronounced Birmin-GUM) as part of a sellout tour on the other side of the Atlantic, with a rowdy English crowd signing your own songs back to you.

But most of all, it’s a special night for 24-year-old Ellen Ratcliffe. Two-thirds of the way through their set, the Red Clay Strays begin playing those distinctive chords of ‘Wondering Why’ and Brandon Coleman sings the viral opening lyrics. Thousands of phones light up as hands train them on the stage, but one man has other plans. Amongst the throng of the crowd, he gets down on one knee and asks Ellen to marry him.

The man has timing that John Hall would be proud of. Brandon smiles and points towards them. “Looks like she said yes,” he announces mid-verse, with genuine warmth in his voice. The crowd erupt into cheers that rival any tonight. After the song ends he passes his congratulations to the newly-engaged couple, along with some advice. “I tell ya, don’t listen to anybody that says ‘Do not get married’. Because getting married and being married is one of the coolest things ever. I heard somebody say one time: ‘I’ve never seen two selfless people get a divorce.’ So as long as you’re watching out for each other, put one another above yourselves, you’ll be together forever.”

This is the power of the Red Clay Strays. For a band that are heirs-apparent to the Rolling Stones, they are unashamedly Christian, moral and straightlaced. They are wise beyond their years and, as both their song lyrics and Brandon’s mike will show tonight, are willing to tackle subjects such as depression and mental health without ever once appearing insincere, cloying or virtue-signalling. They can do all this and yet remain effortlessly cool, whether that is the lean, suited retro Fifties look Brandon cultivates or the more laid-back raglan shirt and cowboy hat look of guitarist Drew Nix.

And, beneath it all, there is of course the music. This is not “Christian rock”, but pure, fresh-cut rock and roll that just happens to be made by a group of young Christians not abashed to express their moral beliefs in a culture that has long since commodified rebellion, degeneracy and apathy and called it ‘cool’. Theirs is a generation that drinks less, indulges less; exercises more, talks more. Rock and roll wasn’t dead, but it had been hollowed out by excess and insincerity. The Red Clay Strays have seized the mantle of becoming this generation’s great rock and roll hope and given it new life and purpose, while still remaining plugged directly into the raw and raucous power that the music pulsed with in its prime.

Nowhere is that more apparent than with the song that immediately follows ‘Wondering Why’ and the proposal in the crowd. Brandon introduces it as an old song from when the band “first started leaving home and being on the road”. ‘Till Things Get Right’ remains unreleased, but it’s a truly fantastic song. No wonder this current tour is named the ‘Get Right’ tour, for the song takes pride of place. It would be the sweetest release of music even without the marriage proposal we’ve just witnessed, but hearing it tonight, knowing something so wonderful and memorable has just happened to two people in the crowd and feeling genuinely happy for them, makes the song’s message even more true, as though the lyrics have been laced with gold.

We only have to hang in till things get right, as they surely will, as they have for two young people tonight. The song starts with a simple, timeless riff, before Brandon’s soulful singing begins and the crowd sings along at the perfect moment (“and money’s always tight – tight-tight-tight-tight!”). It’s everything that rock and roll should be: a sense of hope, of boundless freedom, of recognising that good things can happen and the world is better for rock and roll being played. You don’t have to believe in divine righteousness to believe in righteousness, and wherever you stand in life this song just hits right. For all but two of us in the room it’s merely a blissful moment of pure rock and roll straight out of a Seventies road trip, but for the newly-engaged couple it’s the perfect song to begin their new journey on.

If ‘Wondering Why’ and ‘Till Things Get Right’ soundtrack the finest moment of the night, they are not alone in thrilling the crowd. The whole night has been finely sculpted by the band, a night of moments that together become a powerful, exhilarating experience of the sort that only a generational rock and roll band can provide. The Red Clay Strays might have caught a break when the Western AF version of ‘Wondering Why’ went viral, but behind that viral punch there was a great weight of follow-through.

This is proven as early as the band’s second song tonight. ‘Moment of Truth’ isn’t one of the Strays’ best-known songs, but it’s an early introduction to their on-stage force. “Why do I do all these things that I do?” Brandon sings, teasing out every iamb and stressing it with soul. It’s one of those songs that’s slept on, but you can easily see it becoming a deep-cut that people rediscover in years to come.

The band follow it with ‘Stone’s Throw’, another from that fateful Western AF session that draws an early frisson of recognition among the crowd as Andrew Bishop’s bass guitar begins the song’s riff. The bassist is clearly having fun; during the following number, ‘Disaster’, he takes a swig from Drew Nix’s drink after the guitarist stalks across the stage to trade licks with Zach Rishel. He grins impishly as the returning Nix gives him a playful kick.

The band then show their range with the mature, intelligent ‘Forgive’ and the chunky blues-rocker ‘Good Godly Woman’ on either side of the catchy, soulful ‘Do Me Wrong’, which garners a swaying singalong from the Birmingham crowd. The Strays follow with ‘People Hatin”, their recent message song about “calling out hatred, no matter what side you’re on”. I confess I struggled to like this song on first listen, considering it a bit too on-the-nose and disliking message songs in general, but ‘People Hatin” is delivered well tonight – a song I suspect will always find an extra dimension when played live.

From here, our cup truly does runneth over, as a band that have been impeccable so far tonight begin to show us just how good they can be. They are soulful and thoughtful in the timeless ‘Moments’, raw and cathartic on ‘Drowning’. ‘Devil in My Ear’ sounds dark and foreboding, ‘Ghosts’ funky and danceable. In between, Brandon takes a seat at the keys next to Sevans Henderson and sings the uplifting ‘Sunshine’, a “song about being hopeless but trusting in Jesus anyway”. No sunrise ever sounded so hard-won.

It’s after ‘Ghosts’ that Brandon returns to guitar and we’re treated to that special experience of ‘Wondering Why’ and ‘Till Things Get Right’. If that wasn’t enough, they chase it with ‘I’m Still Fine’, one of their most exquisite, world-weary slices of Southern soul, and end the set with the wild church-fire of ‘On My Knees’, Brandon dancing frantically in place to bring the crowd to fever pitch.

“We’re fully aware that not everybody believes in God,” Brandon says after ‘I’m Still Fine’, “and everyone has their own opinions on God. That doesn’t matter to us: if you like our music, we’re happy to have ya. We’re not trying to be anybody’s preachers or shove it down anybody’s throat or be anybody’s spiritual leaders. We are not perfect people, I promise you.”

He looks to John Hall. “John, he drinks a lot of beer,” Brandon says with mock sincerity, drawing laughs. The drummer had been central to my last review of the Red Clay Strays live, when they came to Manchester a year ago. Tonight he’s been largely obscured from my view, though he’s certainly made himself heard.

“None of us have any business being behind a pulpit. We just make music about our life and God’s a big part of our life, so He’s in our music. It’s as simple as that.

“And we make music that we’re proud of, something we’ll be proud to be behind when we’re gone. Because music is medicine and helps people. And I think one thing I’d want somebody to take away from us is: Have some hope. It’s not over. You’re still alive and you’re still breathing and it’s gonna be OK. Just have some hope.”

These are men who were drowning, who were going nowhere, who now stand on a stage together in front of a cheering crowd as the next great rock and roll band. And they did it by staying true to themselves and their convictions.

“All you have to do is persevere, and then one day you’ll be looking back on whatever it is you thought was going to kill you and take you out. You’ll be that much stronger of a person and your faith will be that much stronger. And you’ll be rejoicing and be thankful.”

Regardless of where you stand on the particulars of the Christian faith, it’s hard not to rejoice tonight. To see people doing the right thing in the right way, sticking to their creed while still pushing themselves out into new terrain, is a wonderful thing to witness. It’s not only that the Red Clay Strays play fantastic rock and roll, and have seized this opportunity to bring their art into the world. It’s that alongside art, we sometimes sense that there is also an art to life; a way of living that is the best way of treating others, of experiencing moments, and of making this vale of tears our home.

The Strays would no doubt call this living right under God, but it doesn’t have to be seen that way if that’s too unpalatable for some. The Strays might not be anybody’s preacher, but a good night of music is anybody’s preacher; it is powerful, communal and deeper than rationality or sense. There is an art to life and not only the Strays but anyone who goes out to experience nights like this is practicing it. We’re all made by these moments.

And that art of living can only be practiced with appropriate care when we realise that it’s finite. In its most serious terms, it’s finite in that the people hatin’ the Strays have spoken against leads to death and violence, as it did with the Charlie Kirk assassination which prompted the song’s premature release (I wrote more about Kirk here.)

But in happier terms, it’s finite in the sense that you never know again when you’ll experience such a moment as the one you’re in right now. The Red Clay Strays are destined for larger stages – indeed, the day after this Birmingham gig they announce they’ll be headlining Madison Square Garden next year. And who knows when they’ll return to the UK, and when they do, if I’ll be able to stand as close to the stage as I do tonight at the O2 Academy. Maybe one day the grown-up children of Ellen Ratcliffe and her fiancé will groan at the competition for tickets at a Red Clay Strays stadium concert the same way we baulk at those of the Rolling Stones. But because their parents had been practicing the art of life they will be able to smile and say that they saw the band when they were on the way up, in front of just a few thousand people.

But even though we realise it’s all finite, that doesn’t mean it has to end just yet. After long shouts for an encore – long enough, in fact, that I almost begin to doubt the band are coming back out – the Strays return to the stage. With Robbie Prevete playing his guitar, Brandon delivers a powerful, devotional rendition of ‘Will the Lord Remember Me?’, before taking his acoustic guitar for the restful ‘God Does’.

Zach Rishel bends the notes that introduce ‘Wanna Be Loved’, prompting cheers of recognition from the crowd. The band are having fun, Brandon walking to the lip of the stage as Robbie plays his guitar. He then rushes towards Andrew Bishop to chase him away from his spot, the bassist grinning boyishly. Brandon then sits on the edge of the stage, singing to the crowd. The band are in their element, riding a wave of their own creation.

The ease in which they ride this wave, a wave of genuine power, is evident in the final song of the encore, the glorious, triumphant rocker ‘No One Else Like Me’. For all that you can draw analogues for the band – their sound pulls the best from Sixties and Seventies rock, along with classic soul and country – the Strays are their own force, heirs to the throne rather than retro pretenders. Brandon says he wrote the song as a “funny little response to everybody that likes to compare me to Elvis. And Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and anybody else like that” and while you can draw such comparisons from both his look and his sound tonight – that soulful voice as true a successor to Ray Charles and Otis Redding as you could wish – he is very much his own man as he takes a bow and leaves the stage.

The band continue to play, bringing ‘No One Else Like Me’ to its frenetic conclusion. Robbie and Zach play together. Drew walks to the lip of the stage, his eyes focused on his frets. Behind him, Andrew jumps off the stage and walks along the front row, still playing. He stands up on the rail in front of me before jumping back up on stage and heading to John’s thrashing drums. As the song ends, John throws his sticks up into the air. Zach throws his pick into the crowd.

The Red Clay Strays may be fired by a holier Spirit, but there’s no doubting what has made the night so special for the few thousand in the Academy hall in Birmingham tonight. This is the spirit of rock and roll brought to full flame.

Setlist:

(all songs from the album Made By These Moments, unless noted)

1. Ramblin’ (The Red Clay Strays/Dave Cobb)
2. Moment of Truth (Matthew Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
3. Stone’s Throw (Drew Nix/Eric Erdman) (from Moment of Truth)
4. Disaster (M. Coleman)
5. Forgive (M. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
6. Do Me Wrong (Nix) (from Moment of Truth)
7. Good Godly Woman (Brandon Coleman/Nix/Brandon Rickman) (single)
8. People Hatin’ (B. Coleman/M. Coleman/Cobb/Andrew Bishop/Zach Rishel/John Hall) (single)
9. Moments (B. Coleman/M. Coleman/Nix/Anderson East)
10. Drowning (Nix)
11. Devil in My Ear (Nix)
12. Sunshine (M. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
13. Ghosts (Nix) (from Moment of Truth)
14. Wondering Why (B. Coleman/Nix/Dan Couch) (from Moment of Truth)
15. Till Things Get Right (Nix) (unreleased)
16. I’m Still Fine (M. Coleman)
17. On My Knees (The Red Clay Strays/Cobb)
18. Encore: Will the Lord Remember Me? (E. M. Bartlett) (single)
19. Encore: God Does (Nix)
20. Encore: Wanna Be Loved (M. Coleman/Dakota Coleman)
21. Encore: No One Else Like Me (B. Coleman/M. Coleman)

My other concert reviews can be found here.

My fiction writing can be found here.

Wednesday 21st August 2024

O2 Ritz, Manchester, England

The first singalong of the night belongs not to the Red Clay Strays, nor even to Nolan Taylor, who opens for them tonight, but to the Gallagher brothers. By the time ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis plays over the sound system, the dance floor of the Manchester Ritz has filled. The choicest spots have already been taken along the wooden rails of the upper-level balconies that ring the venue, so I find a place by the metal rail at the front of the floor, just to the left of the stage. The bustling crowd, which had overlooked earlier gems like Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?’ by Waylon Jennings, combines to sing along to the nasal strains of Liam Gallagher, the song perhaps the only thing more Mancunian than the rain that has begun to fall outside.

It’s followed by the instantly-recognisable earworm ‘Spirit in the Sky’, and the Red Clay Strays choose this as their entrance music. As the song continues to play, the band take the stage. The Strays are an interesting picture, a mix of styles. Lead singer Brandon Coleman, seemingly a foot taller than anyone else and instantly recognisable with his slicked-back Elvis-style hair, is reliably dapper in a grey suit jacket and formal shoes. He looks like he’s stepped out of the Sun Records office in 1955 and sings like he’s stepped into Muscle Shoals.

Drummer John Hall and guitarist Zach Rishel are more contemporary. Hall, his energy barely contained behind his Ludwig drum set, is casual in a white t-shirt and reversed baseball cap, while Zach, in cap and jeans and carrying a sky-blue Fender guitar, will find time tonight between songs to hit a vape. Bassist Andrew Bishop and guitarist Drew Nix, meanwhile, embrace Americana with Western shirts and belts – Drew goes all-in by adding a big brown cowboy hat, worn as easily as if he’d been born in it. Meanwhile, the bearded, long-haired Sevans Henderson, the most recent addition to the band, looks like he’s been poached from the tour bus of a Seventies band to play keys for the Strays.

But regardless of the eclectic look of its members, when the music starts, these Strays come together into a pack. They tear straight into the frantic rock energy of ‘Ramblin”, moving the needle to 11 the moment they’ve switched on. The song, a studio jam from their recent breakout album Made By These Moments, is followed by the groovy bass notes that announce ‘Stone’s Throw’, from their previous album Moment of Truth. Both albums will find equal representation in the setlist tonight.

It’s a busy stage tonight, and from my position at the front rail I can see that it’s very much a family affair. Brandon Coleman’s wife Macie is among those recording the event, and she seems as big a fan of the Red Clay Strays as anyone. Glamorous in a long, fur-lined leather coat, she is later obliged to remove it due to the heat of the venue, and continues to seek ideal vantage points from which to film.

Also filming is Brandon’s brother Matthew, wielding a professional camera and moving around, often in between the six members of the band on stage during the songs. If this were anyone else it might feel intrusive, but Matthew is a key part of the band and its success – as much a Seventh Stray as there was a Fifth Beatle. Later tonight, Brandon will stand before the mic and attribute much of the band’s viral popularity to his brother’s efforts.

Matthew is also an artist in his own right, writing a number of the band’s finest songs. That’s proven now on stage, as the band follow ‘Stone’s Throw’ with two songs penned by Matthew, the vulnerable, confessional ‘Forgive’ and the tough, strutting ‘Disaster’. “If you’re looking for a prophet, I tell you I ain’t,” Brandon sings in the latter, “but I know when it’s gonna rain.” That might be no great prophecy in the northern city of Manchester, where it rains even on this August summer evening, but it sounds great. ‘Disaster’, telling obliquely the story of biblical kings, is tonight’s first marker for one of the Alabaman band’s most remarkable features: their bold fealty to a Christian mythos and spirituality that never feels preachy or uncool.

This fealty is so measured and relaxed that, for an embarrassing minute, I don’t even register that Brandon is singing “good God Almighty” in the next song, a lusty ‘Good Godly Woman’. My brain registers it as “good dynamite”, although, as the Strays’ songwriting may suggest, it’s not clear which of the two can be the more potent explosive.

For the next song, Brandon invites Nolan Taylor back to the stage. The bearded singer-songwriter from Ohio had opened the night with a fine ten-song acoustic set, delivered in a penetratingly clear voice. Highlights included the lyrical ‘Wicked Ways’, ‘500’ and ‘Driving You Home’ – the latter his contribution to the recent Twisters film soundtrack. (The Red Clay Strays decide not to include their own contribution, the country-rocker ‘Caddo County’, in their setlist tonight.) However, the self-proclaimed hillbilly’s finest song had been ‘Darkness’, written when he was suicidal and “not feeling happy or sad about it”. Its plaintive emotional honesty, punctuated by a haunting whistle, is in keeping with the Strays’ own ethos.

Now his finest moment comes as, following Brandon’s lead, Nolan takes the second verse of ‘Moment of Truth’. Backed by the amplified sound of the Strays, Nolan’s voice soars even further than during his own set, and when he leaves the stage at the song’s end it’s to deserved cheers from the crowd.

As the Strays prepares for their next song, Brandon shakes his shoulders and looks up to the ceiling. He exhales deeply, as though preparing, before taking on the soulful vocals of ‘Heavy Heart’. The song, penned by his brother, is followed by two written by guitarist Drew Nix, ‘Drowning’ and ‘Devil in My Ear’. Both are singles from the recent album, and address directly what has become an integral mission statement from the band.

Brandon introduces the latter by speaking to the audience about the problems of mental health, of feeling depressed and alone and, well, drowning. It’s an important subject and one not often adequately addressed, particularly among men. It’s something I’ve attempted to tackle myself in my own writing, with my novel Void Station One following a man who decides to commit suicide by black hole, and the Strays are articulating it as well as anyone. ‘Drowning’ gets some suitably raw, torn vocals from Brandon, while the moody, bluesy ‘Devil in My Ear’ wraps itself in Sevans’ swarming organ sound and is punctuated by some fine slide guitar from its author, Drew Nix.

At this point, following the early example of his wife, who continues to roam around in her floral-print dress, Brandon removes his suit jacket. He also unslings the sunburst electric guitar he’s been playing for most of tonight’s songs, and takes a seat by Sevans Henderson at the keys. Continuing the themes by which the Strays draw much of their strength, Brandon introduces the next song as being “about feeling hopeless but trusting in Jesus anyway”. Penned by his brother Matthew, ‘Sunshine’ is a heartfelt, classic soul song, its nexus of mental health and spirituality illustrating the importance of the Seventh Stray to the band’s art and message.

‘Sunshine’ is followed by ‘Ghosts’, Brandon getting up from the keys to take centre-stage once again. Just when it feels like it’s over, the song is given a second wind, the band turning it up a notch and drummer John Hall banging away like Keith Moon incarnate. Hall’s been a busy man tonight, frequently wiping sweat from his face, bashing maniacally on his drums, leading the audience in singalongs – standing to do so, as in ‘Sunshine’ – and just all around giving the impression that he’s a man in perfect time, enjoying life in the moment.

He has even more reason to be enjoying tonight; Brandon announces to the crowd that today is John W. Hall’s 31st birthday. The drummer graciously accepts the candle-lit cake that is brought on stage, and the band enlist the crowd to sing along to ‘Happy Birthday’.

We’re halfway through a fantastic, high-energy show; with 21 songs over nearly two hours (not counting the ‘Happy Birthday’ song), the Red Clay Strays certainly provide good value for a night of live music. To the delight of the crowd, the band now step it up a notch, Drew’s slide guitar announcing ‘Wanna Be Loved’, the lead single from their new album. As Brandon strums gently on his sunburst electric guitar, the crowd sings along with him. The song is already a fan favourite.

The vibe of the next song, ‘No One Else Like Me’, is like that of Seventies road-trip music, and it is interesting to see the band shift into the lazy, good-time ease of this different gear. They soon change up, however, giving the song a mad, rocking end. While the crowd roars, Brandon takes the opportunity to swap his electric guitar for his acoustic.

Introduced as a gospel song, ‘On My Knees’ is a kinetic highlight of the night, full of praisin’ and testifyin’ as the crowd claps the rhythm. Brandon lets go, dancing energetically on the spot, his hips moving as vigorously as his legs. In such moments, you remember that American rock ‘n’ roll was once a blend of many styles, of R&B and soul and gospel and country, that Elvis was more than just a haircut and old-time America had a sense of fun and energy to its music, and that the Red Clay Strays are bringing it back. The song’s a throwback that hits home.

It’s at this point, slinging his sunburst electric guitar back on and plugging it in, that Brandon praises his brother Matthew for growing their online audience. Introducing the last Matthew-penned song of the night, the Coleman brothers have left the best for last. ‘I’m Still Fine’ is one of those songs that, in the best possible sense, sounds like you’ve heard it before. Its melody compels instant affection from the listener, and Brandon does his brother’s soulful lyrics proud, sounding like Otis Redding if Otis sang rock ‘n’ roll.

The band as a whole have been a triumph, and as they power through the rocker ‘Doin’ Time’, Brandon replaces many of the lyrics with tributes to each member of the band. The song feels like a closer, and at its end the band leave the stage, though the crowd stamps and roars for an encore. We’re still far from the end, however. For while strong songs like ‘Moments’ won’t get an airing tonight, we still haven’t heard the band’s most viral, vital song, and it’s inconceivable they’d leave the Manchester Ritz without singing it.

Brandon Coleman comes back out on stage alone, and delivers a fine acoustic rendition of ‘Will the Lord Remember Me?’ After it ends, the rest of the band come back out to join him, and Brandon relates the band’s struggles before and during the Covid times. Testifying again to their sense of purpose, the band breaks into ‘God Does’, an overt, unashamed ode to spiritual conviction. Penned by Drew Nix, it offers the guitarist another moment to shine as he breaks out the harmonica, drawing roars from the crowd.

It’s time for that viral song, and every phone is out and raised high as Brandon sings the familiar opening lines to ‘Wondering Why’. This is the song that, for one reason or another, has caught fire more than any other, though the band’s collective songwriting is so strong it could easily have been a number of the others we’ve heard tonight. Drew Nix is the one officially providing harmony vocals, along with some keen notes on his slide guitar, but everyone in the building is singing along. Behind the drums, birthday boy John Hall is singing too, and his tasteful playing shows he’s more than just a wild animal behind the kit.

It’s time for the band’s natural closer. ‘Don’t Care’ is the Red Clay Strays in their groove. The self-penned lyrics are the perfect fit for Brandon’s vocal style, and the song allows Drew and Zach Rishel to build some epic guitar sounds. The song allows John Hall to cut loose, the drummer feeling free enough to throw his sticks in the air at the most cathartic moment. This is a band in their element, when all the years of work coalesce and the end of a long, hard road must feel easy and effortless in the final moments of a song.

But we’re not done yet. “That’s usually our last song,” Brandon says, telling us “we’re in new territory now.” He heads over to join Sevans Henderson on the keys again. “We’ve been told the Beatles played here,” he says, “so we’d like to sing you a Beatles song.”

As an avid Beatles fan, it’s a special moment for me, just as it was when Billy Strings sang ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ in Manchester last year. “We don’t do this a lot,” Brandon says. “We might mess it up, we might not – don’t judge us.” I find myself thinking what song it could be, and I realise that, such is the versatility of the band and the various influences they incorporate, they could do justice to any number of them.

“Hey Jude,” Brandon sings, piecing together the famous notes on the piano. The crowd picks up on it immediately, and sings along. It’s a rough-and-ready version of ‘Hey Jude’, and as everyone joins in on the famous extended ‘na-na-na-nah’ outro, Brandon’s voice proving well-suited for Paul McCartney’s scat-singing, the Red Clay Strays put their own fingerprint on the song. The tempo increases, with Zach providing a wailing guitar solo and John thrashing his Ludwig drums as Ringo never did. While the other Strays continue to stoke the fire, Brandon gets up from the keys and bows separately to each side of the stage, taking in the applause of the crowd and waving as he does so.

The band play on, the crowd continue to sing, but all good nights of music must end, and at some point it stops. The band bow and wave as the crowd cheers and applauds, and they leave the stage. John Hall, the birthday boy, turns gift-giver, leaning forward from the front of the stage and handing one of his drumsticks to someone a few feet away from me. He raises his beer in salute to the crowd which is now filtering out into the night, and jumps on the back of a roadie. The obliging roadie gives him a running piggyback off the stage, to the cheers of those of us who remain.

But these guys don’t need to be carried. The Red Clay Strays are flying.

Setlist:

(all songs from the album Made By These Moments, unless noted)

1. Ramblin’ (The Red Clay Strays/Dave Cobb)
2. Stone’s Throw (Drew Nix/Eric Erdman) (from Moment of Truth)
3. Forgive (Matthew Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
4. Disaster (M. Coleman)
5. Good Godly Woman (Brandon Coleman/Nix/Brandon Rickman) (single)
6. Moment of Truth (M. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
7. Heavy Heart (M. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
8. Drowning (Nix)
9. Devil in My Ear (Nix)
10. Sunshine (M. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
11. Ghosts (Nix) (from Moment of Truth)
12. Happy Birthday (Patty Hill/Mildred J. Hill) (unreleased)
13. Wanna Be Loved (M. Coleman/Dakota Coleman)
14. No One Else Like Me (B. Coleman/M. Coleman)
15. On My Knees (The Red Clay Strays/Cobb)
16. I’m Still Fine (M. Coleman)
17. Doin’ Time (Nix) (from Moment of Truth)
18. Will the Lord Remember Me? (E. M. Bartlett) (single)
19. God Does (Nix)
20. Wondering Why (B. Coleman/Nix/Dan Couch) (from Moment of Truth)
21. Don’t Care (B. Coleman) (from Moment of Truth)
22. Hey Jude (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) (unreleased)

The novel mentioned in this review, Void Station One, can be found here.