Two years on from her last visit to Glasgow, Maren Morris returned at the O2 Academy in support of new album Girl.
This time she brought fellow country starlet Raelynn along for the ride. As support act for the night, Raelynn got the audience all hyped up with huge success, before Maren herself took to stage.
All it took was the striking of the opening chords to Girl and the crowd erupted into a roaring welcome for Maren: the audience now ready for what was set to be an amazing and very loud night.
Maren began to show her vulnerable side singing a song that is clearly penned with husband Ryan Hurd in mind. To Hell & Back sings about how you can be loved for who you are; no matter your past and what you view as your flaws. The audience were calm throughout with full attention on Maren’s performance.
For the following song, All My Favourite People, Raelynn was invited back on stage to sing the vocals usually sang by TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne. The performance was a very welcome, light-hearted number that contrasted the emotional vulnerability of the previous song.
With a last minute addition to the setlist after the tour had commenced, Maren brought back Second Wind for another tour. Her vocal prowess is evident on this number as she reaches the midway point and builds into an impressive cover of Beyonce’s Halo, before smoothly sliding back into the final chorus of Second Wind.
Maren’s vocals soared on old favourite Once as she sang her way through the lyrics, addressing a failing relationship and making the audience feel the emotional weight of the song.
A highlight of the night was the performance of Maren classic Rich, to which the audience responded with something I didn’t think was possible: they got even louder. According to Maren, there is just something about the Scottish accent singing Rich. Maybe it’s just how good it sounds when we say the S word?
The heat was turned at this point as new track RSVP began to play. The blue and red lighting was fitting to the sensuality of the song and Maren’s huskier vocals melted into the music to deliver a performance that left the crowd a little hot under the collar.
The set was rounded off with another fan favourite, My Church, from the first album Hero which received a deafening round of applause as Maren thanked her fans and left the stage.
The volume of cheering and reverberation of foot stomping clearly couldn’t be ignored and Maren returned to the stage for the encore beginning with closing track from the new album, Shade, before breaking into her chart-topping collaboration with Zedd, The Middle.
A night full of emotional ups and downs – the ‘good downs,’ of course – with the audience transfixed on Maren the entire time, she most certainly put us in touch with our feelings and enlightened us to the beauty of emotional versatility in music.
Author
TAGS
FOLLOW US
