Joe Nichols, Yeah!
Joe Nichols performed at the Old Florida Outdoor Festival in Apopka, FL on February 15, 2015. Great outdoor amphitheatre that sat about 1,500 (way fewer people there, though). Perfect Florida winter weather with a high of 72 degrees, no humidity, a light breeze off the lake, and not a cloud in the clear blue sky. Oh, and beer and BBQ!
As soon as he started singing I mentioned to my brother that he had a DEEP voice like George Strait. Sure enough, after his third song he started to tell the crowd about his music influences…Merle Haggard, George Jones and George Strait. He said he couldn’t quite bring himself to do the raps that country music artists do these days, and that he prefers the traditional country tunes. Because rap is so popular and he wasn’t willing to bring it into his songs he thought he’d bring country into a rap song. So, he did about 1/3 of “I Like Big Butts” by Sir Mix-A-Lot. It. Was. Hilarious.
Another cool thing he did was a mashup of sorts. He started with “I’m the Man” by Aloe Blacc. The entire crowd was singing along, and then right before the official first verse he melded straight into one of his songs. It was pretty cool. Seamless transition for sure.
About half-way through the show he covered Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream”. I’m not sure if he’s done that before, but Tom Petty is from Gainesville, FL (about 1.5 hours away from this show’s venue) so it was a HUGE hit with the crowd. Seems people of all ages love Petty.
Joe is a true crowd pleaser. Anytime anyone came from their seat to the stage he’d pose for a picture or fist bump. He even took one girl’s phone and took pictures of the crowd from his view. She’ll save that phone forever!
For the encore he and his band came back on stage, started up a tune, and he immediately went roaming the crowd. Oh, how the ladies love Joe. He stopped for pictures all along the way, never turning anyone down. Below are 2 videos of that. As soon as he got close to me and took the hand of the woman in the pink he got a “yyeeesh!!” look on his face. I’m not sure if there were some type of offensive words on her shirt, or if her shirt wasn’t much of a shirt. Either way, you could tell he really wasn’t too keen on being that close to her. And on his behalf, the crowd is pretty hillbilly in Apopka.
I think you’ll enjoy his show on February 26th. He’s a great performer and super easy on the eyes. Yeah!!
K. Dana Morris 