As I made the drive towards the festival this year, with droplets of heavy precipitation bouncing off the windshield and a jumper and coat at the ready on the back seat, I had an awful realisation. Long Road 2022 had been my first attendance at the event, the weather was as glorious as one could ever wish for and I had been swept up by the magic and scale of the whole thing. I’d walked around the whole day in complete wonder taking in every last detail of the site, the sounds and the people.

Would it still be as exciting when it wasn’t all new?

What if Long Road 2022 had been so perfect that 2023 could never match up?

After all I’d spent a year romantically reminiscing and building something up in my head that, it now occurred to me, maybe nothing could ever match. After all the excitement for my return to Long Road I began to feel a sense of dread that maybe I’d spoiled it for myself before it even began, the weather didn’t help either.

Thankfully, and I’m pleased to report, this feeling was subdued on my entry to the festival site. I love that the festival’s tagline is ‘welcome home old friend’, and this feels so fitting when you’re there. Especially when you’re returning. Whilst I was excited to see some new additions to the festival this year, including a ferris wheel no less, what really felt special was the warm familiarity that grips you as you wander round. I was pleased to see the return of some of the food vendors and stalls that had made the previous year feel so special, as well as some of the people. It did really feel like I’d come home. This is what makes the Long Road so special.

Some of my highlights this year include Alana Springsteen and Megan Moroney. I caught both as they performed on the main Rhinetsone stage on Sunday afternoon and haver to say both were as brilliant as they are professional. In fact, they both managed to attract crowds that last year only made their way to the mainstage in time for Locash’s penultimate set. It was of course easy to see why. Megan’s presence at the Long Road this year was particularly impressive as she performed three different sets that day, and whilst I only managed to catch the Rhinestone set and part of the Interstate set I’m told that barring her most famous or requested numbers she played a different set list with each performance. Her hit ‘Tennessee Orange’ was one I was particularly pleased to hear as I’ve been listening to it frequently as of late, as I imagine many have, and it was fantastic to hear an amped up crowd bellowing the lyrics back to her. This was particularly impressive so early in the day before people have had a chance to really get swept up in the atmosphere (and have some whiskey).

I stuck around the mainstage after these two as I was particularly curious to hear the ‘Colour Me Country All Stars’ – a fabulous collection of talented country artists. I had previously been unfamiliar with what this was all about when I saw it on the poster and had to indulge my curiosity, I was very pleased I did. A fantastic initiative offering grants to up and coming country artists of colour it really drove home the message that country music is for everyone. It helped that they had a fantastic line up too. Gabe Lee kicked us off in typical style, being just about the coolest man anywhere in the world at that time. A pleasant surprise was Michael B. Whit with whom I had been previously unfamiliar. When he was introduced as ‘a cross between George Strait and Usher’ I was immediately intrigued but also doubtful but I have to say this was a fair assessment. His beautiful voice, charming style and R&B inspired melisma combined beautifully with the stylistic story telling that we all love in country music and he is definitely one to keep an eye on in the near future. The set was closed out by Chapel Hart, and wow what a group. Sadly, I’d missed the legendary Interstate set the night before, but hearing that fans were so disappointed when Chapel Hart left the stage that the DJs who replaced them were met with boos I was obviously keen to catch a glimpse. Even though they only (initially) performed one song it wasn’t hard to see why, their energy was unmatched and they had everyone dancing, hollering and having a good time. So much so, that when they tried to leave the stage the crowd made such an uproar that they had to come back and sing another!

As I walked away from the bright lights of the Long Road festival in August 2022 and back towards my car I had two thoughts swirling around in my mind. I don’t want to leave, and I definitely don’t want to wait a whole year until I get to come back.
Being a relative newbie to country music, a passion spurred by a joint effort of my girlfriend and best friend who are both fanatics (I guess I’m drawn to them for some reason) I had a distinct feeling of being an outsider as I prepared to go to the festival in 2022. Being unfamiliar with a shamefully high amount of the line up I felt as though I almost didn’t deserve to be a part of the celebration of a genre that inspires so much passion and fandom in so many people. However, those thoughts were quickly washed away as we arrived.

Don’t get me wrong, the 2022 line up presented some amazing moments. Personal highlights include my discovery of The Ghost of Paul Revere (on what unfortunately turned out to be their farewell tour), Locash’s spellbinding set and The Cadillac Three’s headline worthy performance. I also got to see some beautiful acoustic sets at the wonderfully set Front Porch stage and have a boogie in the dancehall.

Despite all of this though my main takeaway from The Long Road was not the amazing artists and country music that I had been lucky enough to take in, it was the atmosphere.

For a genre like country, which in the UK can still be seen as somewhat niche, we don’t get many opportunities to unashamedly don our cowboy hats, trucker caps, boots and dungarees without feeling like somewhat of an outsider. What The Long Road presents is a community for the weekend, in which it feels like you’ve belonged your whole life. Free of judging, worries of work and the stresses of the real world in general there was just an air of contentment that seemed to consume the whole festival. Set within the beautiful grounds of Stanford Hall, a fitting venue, it was amazing to see so many complete strangers brought together by a common love of this genre of music.

So, like time always does, it has moved quickly and once again we look forward to an amazing weekend at the Long Road ahead. I can’t wait. The real beauty of the Long Road is that whilst I did have a gander at the line up it almost doesn’t matter to me. Sure, I’m looking forward to hearing some great artists again but actually I think what excites me the most is being back in that atmosphere, surrounded by like minded people in a place free from negativity.

If they could bottle up that Long Road feeling, it would sell millions!

See you all there!


David Dawson

David Dawson

In the past it has been seen as a cardinal sin of showbiz to cancel a gig. ‘The show must go on’ is the famous saying, and more often than not the show always has gone on. Recently, however, artists have begun to focus more on self care and mental health, and this has become an increasingly common reason for shows to be pulled. While on the surface we might praise the artists for their strength, there's probably more than a few of us bearing a quick thought to the £300 we spent on tickets, travel and hotels for an upcoming chance to see our favourite artist.

I've written in the past about how we often make the mistake of looking at rich and famous pop stars and assuming their lives are perfect. There are plenty of artists who have written in songs and autobiographies or spoken in interviews about how this is far from the truth. The reality is that fame is like a goldfish bowl of pressure, there are eyes constantly dissecting and analysing your every move. Combine that with one of the most notoriously ruthless industries around and you have yourself quite a cocktail. The matter of the fact is that, for record labels, artists are their products. They invest in the development of the product, and then sell it to the world through new music and tours. Some of the more prolific artists spend year after year simply alternating between two states; writing and recording, then touring. The industry runs by artists dedicating their lives in this way.

So is it promising to see artists cancelling shows for mental health?

Well yes, of course it is. We've all witnessed artists clearly suffering from exhaustion, and having read quite a few autobiographies, one of the biggest reasons for addiction for artists is because they have to find a way to keep their energy up for their shows. You can't expect artists to go on stage and give it their all every single night, however artists feel they have a duty to their fans and want every single one to have seen the best they can offer when they attend a gig. This whole 'the show must go on’ thing should take its rightful place next to this 'stiff upper lip' nonsense - it is old fashioned, and when you're dealing with humans, it simply isn't applicable. Amy Winehouse is a tragic example, there are plenty of clips of her stumbling around the stage, clearly in no state to be there. It is obvious she needs help and support, but not wanting to refund tickets or anger thousands of fans, she's clearly been ushered onto the stage to share her suffering publicly. What the industry doesn't realise is that this robs the fans even more, they'd rather reschedule or get a refund and see Amy get well, than see half a show with an artist who can barely talk only to hear tragedy in the news in the following months.

That being said, are we bad people for worrying? Let's face it, we are in a cost of living crisis and concert tickets ain't cheap. I'd be lying if I said that when I started to see this trend occurring, I didn't for a moment think about my concert tickets for next year that I have spent most of my wages on. It is natural, and it doesn't make us bad people - but what can we do? I don't think anyone would have any reservations over an artist cancelling a gig for mental health, however, we'd all feel a sense of disappointment if the thing we'd spent the best part of our savings on and a year looking forward to suddenly got pulled. But is this part of the problem? We can't help it, but sort of, yes. Artists don't want to disappoint their fans, and unfortunately in the past that's what has caused much of the determination to keep the show going regardless.

It seems like a bit of a Catch 22. So what can be done?

​For me, it's a simple answer, but probably one that won't happen. The reality of tours is that they are a cash cow, there's a huge demand for tickets and they usually fetch a premium. It is also still probably the most effective way an artist can promote themselves and their music. Despite all this, the simple answer to me is clearly to slim down tours. In this day and age, we still see artists release tour schedules that cover nearly every single night for the best part of a year. Would it really be a tragedy if artists decided to do one gig every three days, or even one gig a week? Not only would it protect their mental health, it would protect their physical health. All of the health problems Phil Collins is facing now comes from years of steroid injections giving him brittle bones. Having read his autobiography, it became completely common for him to need the injections to fix his vocal chords, having not had enough time to naturally recover from the previous night. It seems crazy to me that the industry is still allowed to push artists in this way, and I think it is time that artists take a stand. Trim down tours, allow more recovery time and in turn reduce last minute cancellations. It's time the industry took responsibility for their artists' wellbeing.  

David Dawson

As someone who is still relatively new to the tight knit community (especially in the UK) that is country music fandom, I’m ashamed to admit that I really wasn’t that familiar with LOCASH heading into the Leicestershire based Long Road country music festival - but I’m definitely familiar with them now.

In fact, heading to the festival, nothing seemed familiar. Winding through country roads, up and down hills and through woodlands I was pretty sure the navigation was letting me down, until a small yellow sign emerged marked ‘Long Road Festival’. Again, naively, I hadn’t done my homework and being new to the genre had little knowledge of the festival. Expecting to turn up to a field with a gazebo and hot dog stand, you can imagine my delight when I rounded a corner and saw a horizon of tents and campervans, backdropped beautifully by the proudly standing Stanford Hall.

The festival was a joy to behold and was one of the sleekest and most well organised that I’ve had the pleasure to experience. The beautiful setting was utilised to the fullest with multiple stages, all capturing their own unique atmosphere. Rhinestone greeted us upon arrival, a large festival style stage primed for atmospheric anthems to get the crowd bouncing. A walk past this stage took you to the Front Porch Stage. This beautiful stage was styled as a small shack with, you guessed it, a front porch where artists would perform acoustic style sets. The porch was opposed by straw bail seating and fire pits to create a real country feel. Further into the grounds was Interstate, an open sided tent styled as a dancehall and giving a much more enclosed feel. Further performance areas included Buddy’s Good Time Bar and the Showground, each offering something different as the day went on.

Having had the chance to speak briefly with LOCASH in the afternoon I was blown away by their energy. I often feel guilty in this role when we speak to artists, as sometimes you can really tell that interviews aren’t their thing, but the duo were more than happy to take the time to speak with us and did so with as much charisma as we could possibly ask for. After this I was keen to make it for their early evening set to see what all the fuss was about.

And boy, did I.

Now The Cadillac Three are a sensational group and were worthy of headlining this event, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating to suggest that LOCASH stole the show. From the moment they stepped on stage to the moment they left it their energy was at the maximum, and the crowd absolutely fed off of it. In a way it almost didn’t matter what song they were playing because everyone was just having the best time dancing, bouncing and partying.

I think the biggest thing is that I enjoyed it despite not being that familiar with the band. We’ve all been there at gigs of bands, even the ones we know and love, but when they start bringing out the new numbers and we all start to get a bit bored; tapping our fingers and waiting for one of our favourites. With LOCASH I didn’t really know any of their songs, but I felt like I did. The set flew by and I was genuinely gutted when they left the stage, as far as I was concerned they could have stayed there for hours.

Interspersing their own songs with a few cheeky covers of old favourites, some hilarious anecdotes as well as giving their appreciation for the crowd, they engaged everyone throughout. It’s another common one isn’t it when we see people live - ‘(insert random city name here) we love you guys!’ But with LOCASH it felt like they meant it, and I hope they did. They seemed to be genuinely taken aback by the energy of the UK crowd and the response they were getting. Roars of approval went up in the air as they began planning their next trip across the pond live on stage, pointing to Stanford Hall in the background with a grin and shouting, ‘We’ll stay there!’ In our interview with LOCASH before the set, they had stated how much they were looking forward to playing, and that their gigs are really for their fans so they aim to bring as much energy as possible - I don’t think anyone can argue that they did just that. Having walked past the main stage plenty of times during the day we saw loads of artists performing to a crowd, the majority of which were enjoying from the comfort of deck chairs or at a distance, but with LOCASH everyone was jumping around. The crowd seemed to grow and grow and everyone who was walking past realised just how damn entertaining these guys are!

I have to also give credit to the touring band that accompanied the two brothers. They brought with them just as much energy and charisma. Even in the soundcheck the lead guitarist had the fans engaged, turning their mimicking of his signals to the sound engineer into a little game and encouraging big cheers from the crowd whenever he had a chance. It’s a little touch but it just helped to generate that extra energy before the music even started.

​I think LOCASH were the perfect encapsulation of the festival as a whole. The atmosphere around the whole place was electric, and for people who love a genre that is perhaps a little niche in this country, it was their chance to don the boots and the cowboy hats and to fit right in. Whilst LOCASH seemed surprised and delighted by the love they were receiving from the UK crowd, I think it meant just as much to the crowd that LOCASH were loving us. It wasn’t just a charismatic performance that got the crowd pumping and it wasn’t just an exceptionally good live rendition of their music; it was all those things and more. I’ll definitely be watching out for when the boys make it back to the UK and booking my tickets, and I encourage you to do the same. Even if you aren’t familiar with the band or don’t even like country music, I can promise you that you will have a good time.  

David Dawson

We live in a divided society. The term ‘You’ll never please everyone’ feels more relevant than ever as around the globe people are polarised by their opinions. Left vs right, new vs old, and, of course, Jacob vs Edward; it feels like there’s always a disagreement to be had somewhere - and thanks to social media, you don’t have to look too far to find it.

One of the more prominent debates - or 'feuds' would maybe be more appropriate - is the endless passive aggressive (and sometimes just aggressive) ramblings of millennials and baby boomers as they go at each other hammer and fist about who ruined everything, who’s had a harder time and who is just worse in general. So, who better than myself, a millennial, to see if there’s actually any substance to either side of the argument; or whether it’s just keyboard warriors with too much time on their hands.

Working Hard

According to many boomers this is a concept that millennials will not be familiar with. It’s the argument that’s bandied about the most; millennials love to sit and complain about the world and how hard life is, but really if they just got off their backsides and put in some graft, for once, maybe they’d achieve something with their lives. This is usually responded to with some quip about how boomers had a much easier time of things back in the good old days. So, is there substance to either side?

Well, as a millennial, it’s hard not to feel a little insulted when the generation before us writes us all off as lazy. It’s no secret that times are tough. The world is literally being destroyed, the economy sucks, politicians suck and the employment market sucks. House prices have gone crazy in this past year or so, and even before that were steadily increasing at a rate that is hugely disproportionate to that of the average salary. I won’t bore/depress you all with the figures, but the fact of the matter is that it’s just a lot more difficult to buy property these days, unless you’re in a very well paid job. Well guess what, that’s harder too. The employment market now is very different to what it has been in the past. How many stories have you heard from as little as 30 years ago of companies taking a chance on someone only for them to work their way up the ladder; or your grandad telling you he walked into some company or other, told them he wanted a job and got his first pay cheque the next week. Nowadays, even to come in at the very bottom of the pile, university degrees and experience just simply aren’t enough. Half the time you fill out two hours’ worth of application forms and skills tests for a job only to hear nothing back. So what if you went and got an education, so did the other 80 people who applied. Let’s not forget that we are looking into our long futures at a planet scarred by climate change and an ever-growing overpopulation problem. Whilst we aren’t angels, we certainly haven’t been around long enough to do that sort of damage. It’s like getting your inheritance through and finding you’ve been left a burning building – sure, you’d always wanted the house, but there’s not much you can do with it now.

Hardly Working

So it seems that life was just easier back in the day, right? People could walk into half decent jobs, earn good money and buy a house – and guess what – thanks to the housing market, you’d be able to sell that profit on for a ludicrous amount of profit 10 years down the line. Millennials aren’t just whinge bags, we have it tough!

Well, true…ish. Sure, things are tough right now, but when it comes to these social arguments millennials are just as bad as the boomers. It often seems that us millennials are so wrapped up in our own hardships that we forget that other people had their own. Of course there were some things that were better back in the day, but there are some things that are better now. The term boomer literally comes from the baby boom, a phenomenon during and after the second world war in which soldiers would return home, and after time away would want to start families. We are literally talking about a generation born into a world trying to pick up the pieces after one of the most brutal conflicts the world has ever seen. Even moving later into the generation, the 60s through to the 80s was a time of huge divide and was far from a picnic politically. Sure, we can look back and say that jobs were easier to come by and money was easier to make, but it’s not like it was all hunky dory. Also, is it fair to blame boomers for climate change? Everything these days is disposable; everything gets thrown away and everything is wrapped in copious amounts of plastic. It’s not always been like that, and as a generation we have to take some responsibility for how we act for the environment. After all, in the good old days, if something was broken it got fixed, not chucked.

So, maybe the boomers didn’t have it easy, but does that make it right to label us all as whingers? Well, sort of. I mean, we are a little, aren’t we? Let’s face it, as a generation we were born with the world at our fingertips. Thanks to vast developments in technology, we now have the attention spans of goldfish and expect everything instantaneously. Travel is easier than ever before and we interact with technology 24/7. Have we got used to the easy life it has given us? Recently, I was driving home from the Long Road festival when the sat nav on my phone that links to the screen on my car inexplicably decided not to play ball. The signal was blotchy and even when I managed to get some it wouldn’t link through properly – just all-around frustrating times. I remember an urge to launch my phone out of the window bubbling up inside me – but looking back now, it makes me realise that maybe we don’t realise how good we have it. I’m not saying our life is easy by any stretch, I know first hand it isn’t, but actually looking back at that I realised how privileged we are. I was annoyed because the device that at the touch of a button literally guides me the whole way home, tells me what lane to drive in and where the speed cameras are momentarily didn’t work, but what about times before us when people were juggling paper road maps and trying to figure out where they actually were; relying on road signs to guide them and just praying that they ended up somewhere familiar. A common jibe I see from boomers is that us millennials don’t understand how to save money, and that if we did, maybe things wouldn’t be so tough. This sometimes feels like a stupid argument, as if scraping together our pennies will be the difference between us being nowhere near and able to afford a house worth 15 times our salaries; but there is some truth to it. I know plenty of people who complain all the time that they’re broke, but don’t bat an eyelid at spending six quid on a posh coffee. Even when I was a kid, it seemed that luxuries were few and far between as our parents seemed to have to work much harder to make their money last, even though in reality they were probably somewhat better off. Sure, dropping your coffee order isn’t going to get you that house in the next 30 years, but that doesn’t mean we should just give up on saving money, does it?

I’m not going to say that any generation has it easier or harder, because the truth is I don’t think they do. Both present different challenges. Sure, it winds me up when a boomer calls my generation lazy, as much as it probably winds them up when we suggest that they didn’t have any real issues to deal with, or when we blame them for climate change.

​The real takeaway is that both generations need to look inwards. Boomers really need to begin to appreciate that actually, just because they managed to buy a house when they were 19 from a lower-than-average salary ,that doesn’t mean millennials should be able to do the same. The fact is, times are different now and it wouldn’t hurt to have a little understanding. Similarly, millennials need to realise that, actually, we are pretty lucky to have a lot of the luxuries we have, and that technology has certainly made some aspects of our lives easier. We also need to understand that we aren’t the first people in the world to have hard times, and that just because things suck for us doesn’t mean they don’t for anyone else. Beyond that, I guess the real takeaway would be to stop arguing with people on Facebook; it just isn’t worth anyone’s time and only serves to leave two people who have never met filled with anger and contempt. 

This is admittedly a bit of a rogue choice, and not a song I immediately warmed to, but it’s nonetheless a track that provides a hugely memorable storyline. Our protagonist takes his girlfriend to a concert, only for her to end up going home with the lead singer following the after-show Meet-and-Greet. As he wallows in his frustration, Burgess decides to start his own band in retaliation. At first, he only has the proverbial ‘man and his dog’ to perform to. However, in a satisfyingly cyclical conclusion, Burgess ends the song by - truthfully - recounting playing in front of a hundred thousand fans in support of country megastar, Morgan Wallen. And, perhaps less truthfully, the girl that spurned him all those years ago turns up for the Meet-and-Greet. Does she go home with him? In a wonderfully petty move, Burgess details what happens, “When she ran around back when the show was over/I took the picture, acted like I didn't know her”. Despite being a musically intense song, it has a light-hearted, fun feel - and the hook is irresistibly catchy. MM​

David Dawson

Megan Thee Stallion has always been divisive for me – having heard her freestyle raps and excellent lyrical skills, I’m always a bit underwhelmed when she releases music. Of course every successful artist who wants to sell music is a little at the mercy of whatever is working at the time, and maybe this is what influences Megan, but her music just never, for me anyway, seems to show her at her talented best. That being said, I have always admired Megan for treading her own path and not being afraid of criticism. Releasing a song called ‘WAP’ (we all know what it is by now I’m not going to spell it out) was always going to split opinions and cause reaction, but whilst some people saw a crude and explicit song with an equally crude and explicit video, some also saw a powerful play about women’s body autonomy, feminism and equality. After all, how many songs do we hear on the radio, and not bat an eyelid at, from men who discuss women in the same way – why shouldn’t the women be able to take charge of it?

Anyway, this wasn’t intended to be an article on feminism, and the point that I am making is that you can say what you want about Megan, but sometimes you just have to admire her. And I count myself in this, although her music isn’t really to my taste ,I do appreciate and understand what she’s doing, and I respect that she is an important player in the music industry game right now.

However, what I respect even more than that is her attitude towards mental health.

Rap has always had a tough exterior and this has often included the artists. Before Drake came along and changed the game, talking about any sort of emotion was often seen as a weakness and only those at the top (Biggie being a prime example) could do it and keep their respect. It would be easy for Megan, therefore, to lean into her ‘Bad Bitch’ persona and act like she hasn’t got problems, difficulties or challenges. Although times are changing, there’s an argument that it may have even helped her music and career to do so.

Despite all of this, Megan has recently announced a new website initiative for her fans called ‘Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too’, a lyric borrowed from her song ‘Anxiety’. Firstly, I love the title and I think it sets the tone so well. It’s so simple yet sends such a strong message to all of her fans. Not only does it reassure her fans that mental health issues don't make you any less of a ‘Bad Bitch’, it also suggests to the fans that idolise her that she too goes through what they go through, and actually that they’re all in it together. I think it’s so intelligent of her to lean into her ‘Bad Bitch’ persona in this way, owning the phrase and driving the message that tough times don’t define you, you can still be what you are, who you want or how you want to be.

The website is extremely simple and crisp but is laid out very effectively. The idea is to be a hub for mental health for her fan group, and I think that is exactly what she has achieved. Scrolling down through the site shows you various links to therapy platforms, articles, research, contacts and helplines. She also gives a specific focus to the LGBTQIA+ and black communities with numbers and links to hot-lines that are run specifically for people in these demographics. The site also contains a few quotes and a triumphant picture of Megan at the bottom looking as if to be somewhere between a scream and a roar – again, another really simple touch, but it just backs this message that you can be powerful and still have a hard time.

​So, although musically Megan isn’t my favourite artist, she has always had my respect, and she’s earned it even more so now. This isn’t the first time Megan has spoken about mental health by a long stretch, and she has always been somewhat of an ambassador, but I love to see her really take a lead as an artist and pioneering something so simple yet so effective for her fans is really incredible. Whilst helping through all the resources provided on the actual site, the message it sends shouldn’t be underestimated and really encourages her fans to open up. I also think that being a role model for so many women, and particularly young women, Megan taking a stance on this offers real hope and empowerment. Not only is this a strong woman opening up about her mental health, she’s also telling all those that look up to her that it is okay. Often, when we see people in the limelight, we end up with such a refined and rehearsed image that when we try to emulate our role models it’s impossible for us. Megan’s message handles this perfectly, admitting her struggles but simultaneously stating that this doesn’t make her any less of the ‘Bad Bitch’ anyone thought she was. Think what you like about Megan, but no one can deny the importance of what she is doing.