Last night, country duo Smithfield bought their first ever headlining tour to Joe’s Pub at The Public in lower Manhattan with special guest, Carolyn Miller. Luckily for us New Yorkers we got to experience an intimate night of good food and great music to kick off their ‘We Make Our Own Tour’ right here in New York City.
Justin Aharoni Photography / @jaharoni / Whole Trout Media
Kicking off the night, New York native Carolyn Miller took the stage going straight into her 20-minute acoustic set performing her song “Something Right About A Wrong Turn.” Getting the crowd ready for what was to come, she showcased her incredible vocals and stage presence performing a set of her original songs, “Save It, and “Strangers In This Bar.” While also covering a song that is dear to the singer-songwriter’s heart telling the crowd, “One of the first country songs I could ever remember hearing was this one…I was about 6 or 7 years old when I got this cd and I heard this song and fell in love with it and the storytelling. This is one of my favorite songs of all time, this is “When You Say Nothing At All” by Alison Krauss.” Performing the song effortlessly, she gave the audience a beautiful rendition to remember.
That wasn’t all for the singer-songwriter, Miller gave everyone who attended an exclusive premiere of her brand new song coming out on April 26th called “What You Can’t Have.” Before ending the night with her last song, “Remember Love,” she thanked the crowd for coming out mentioning how excited she was to see Smithfield coming up next.
Justin Aharoni Photography / @jaharoni / Whole Trout Media
Next up was the headliner themselves, Smithfield, kicking off their set with their uptempo title track “We Make Our Own” from their recently released EP Smithfield: We Make Our Own. Right off the bat, they were full of energy, getting the crowd ready for a great show ahead. As the night was just getting started the duo, Jennifer Fielder and Trey Smith took the time to welcome and thank everyone for coming out saying, “Y’all this is our first time headlining in the city so we are so excited to be here with you guys tonight, thanks for coming out to Joe’s Pub!… We know New York City is like the biggest market for Sirius XM, so they gave us our first shot to hear our first song on the radio and it’s a little song about skinny dipping,” going into their song “Nothing but the Night” followed by their new song “Counterfeit.”
Before going any further, Fielder gave the audience a little background on the duo mentioning to everyone that they grew up on different musical backgrounds as kids with Fielder being a country girl while Smith is a rock n’ roll guy. The duo got creative telling the audience, “We did a little mashup of our greatest heroes in music and we want to showcase that tonight, the songs that we love, why we do what we do up here on this stage.” They performed an epic 5-minute mashup of 90’s hits from both genres featuring songs “That Don’t Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain, “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, and “This Kiss” by Faith Hill, showcasing their undeniable talent no matter what song it is.
Justin Aharoni Photography / @jaharoni / Whole Trout Media
Keeping up the energy they kept the night going performing songs of their own “Slippin,” and “Me No You,” along with covers “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake and “Come Back To Me” by Keith Urban. Before slowing it down Fielder asked the audience, “Are y’all cool if we just play this next one broken down just me and Trey and an acoustic guitar? Cause that’s where this whole thing started. The first time we came to New York was on the Highway Tour and we just played me, him, and a guitar.” The next song up was a very personal and special song to Fielder “If It Ain’t You,” the duo showcased their harmonies and incredible vocals syncing together effortlessly.
Before ending the night, Smithfield couldn’t leave without singing the song that started it all. Smith began talking with the audience saying,” Y’all this song we always called our little song that could cause it’s gotten us so many things in our career so far and the outpour we saw from you guys on this song, just the reaction I don’t say this lightly it meant the world to us really that you listened to it that you commented on it, thank you for being here tonight it really means the world to us guys. This is our first headlining tour, thank you for coming to the ‘We Make Our Own Tour!’ It’s a great way to kick it off!” Going into their emotionally driven ballad “Hey Whiskey,” before bringing the beat back up with their last song of the night singing their current single on country radio “Our World.”
For those willing to travel you can catch Carolyn Miller on Chase Rice’s ‘Eyes On You tour’ at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey on April 25th!
To keep up with Smithfield follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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