Skies clear for headliners as Country Thunder rolls into weekend of music

Headliner Dallas Smith performs Friday night at Country Thunder Alberta. (Photo: X@CountyThunder)

The Reklaws got the rain to stop, and Dallas Smith helped turn a fixer-upper of a Friday into a full-blown party on the opening night of Country Thunder.

Early Friday evening, the skies weren’t doing Country Thunder any favours as a steady rain fell, but a bit of hard honky-tonking by the Reklaws did the trick, getting the rain to stop and helping transform opening night into a summer harvest celebration in the middle of the city.

Warm rain fell on thousands of country music lovers late Friday afternoon, but truth be told, it was downright balmy compared to a few recent Fridays at the popular festival--as anyone who was there to see Tanya Tucker at Country Thunder 2019, passing around a solo cup full of tequila on a day when the temperature was five degrees, can testify -- or 2023 for that matter, when Jon Pardy led the party on a chilly night at the downtown site.

By the time the Reklaws took the stage, the skies had started to dry out and the crowd, fuelled by what appeared to be a bottomless well of Ole – what’s Ole? – was ready to respond, on songs like Where I’m From, Old Country Soul and Wish You Were Beer, and the duo were happy to lead the cheering crowd in a singalong on the opening verses of the John Denver classic Country Road.

Hats are a huge deal at Country Thunder, and Dallas Smith sported a high-end Expos ballcap that immediately got him on the good side of a lot of old-school MLB fans in the crowd.

Smith is a little more introspective and a little less party animal than a lot of your garden variety Country Thunder Friday night headliners, but he’s also got an ear for a great country lyric, like on Fixer Upper, (which was actually written by Matthew Dragstrem, Brett Mikkelson and Morgan Wallen).

I got some dust, got some rust
That you need a little touchin' up to make 'em shine
And I just wanna let you know right now
Before we go all in on this
Might take some time for me to get it right
Baby if I’m being honest

Yeah I’m just a fixer upper
Baby layin' here in your arms
I might need a little loving
But still got a lot of that southern charm

Whoever wrote it, it fit Smith like a glove and the cheerfully lubricated -- but not out of control -- crowd at Country Thunder ate up every word and sang  a lot of them back at him

At one point, Smith announced he was shooting a music video on a new tune called Use Me so he encouraged the crowd to let it rip – not that they needed much encouraging – and then he launched into it, complete with drone footage being projected onto the three big screens that dwarf the musicians on the Country Thunder mainstage.

At least I think it was drone footage – I could be wrong – but it was twilight and we were afforded some unique camera angles that offered side angles of Smith against a big baby blue Alberta sky at dusk and various East Village architecture bracketing the festival site.

It was a weird confluence – see how I did that? -- of things you don’t always associate with country music, like high rise condo buildings and e-bikes and off-leash dog parks, but that’s part of the urban charms of Country Thunder Alberta, which is taking place at The Confluence in Calgary's East Vllage.

Festival organizers posted on social media that for country music lovers riding cabs to and from the site, there’s a Taxi Zone on 4^th Street between 7^th Ave and 8^th Avenue S.E., and a rideshare zone on 10^th Ave. between 3^rd Street and 4^th Street S.E.

Country Thunder Alberta continues Saturday with Hardy headlining a lineup that includes JJ Shiplett, Lonestar, Ernest and Elle King. The Country 105 Stage featuring Alberta talent will feature Karli June, Tommy Charles, Morgan Klaiber (who also played the mainstage at 1 p.m.) and Dusty Golden Saturday.

For more on Country Thunder Alberta, go here.