Colby Acuff supported with a stellar 45-minute set
49 Winchester rocked a sold-out crowd at Washington, DC’s iconic 9:30 Club on Friday (Mar 29th). The soulful honky-tonkers played a set heavy with numbers from their breakout record Fortune Favors the Bold.
Lead singer Isaac Gibson’s supple Virginian vocals have incredible range. Part Billy Gibbons, part William Lee Golden, and all original, he can switch effortlessly between a bouncy bar tune, a southern rocker, or a bluesy ballad.
“Damn Darlin’” is one such ballad that brought down the house. The packed crowd shouted the titular two words with such passion, it was clear every single one of them related to the heartbreak. That’s the best kind of country music.
The rest of the group includes bassist Chase Chafin, keyboardist Tim Hall, drummer Justin Louthian, lead guitarist Brandon “Bus” Shelton, and pedal-steel player Noah Patrick. Together, their bluesy southern sound began making waves in 2022. Now, one full album later, their fans are legion and 49 Winchester are breaking attendance records across the country.
As much as pensive and heartfelt songs like the homesick tune “Russell County Line” resonated with fans, so too did the fast-paced, whiskey-soaked earworms. The infectious tune “All I Need,” with its fun analogies about being crammed in a van “like sardines inside a can,” let 49 Winchester show their playful side.
They can also playfully poke fun at the realities of life. “Hillbilly Dream” points out the obvious: how can someone live on a low-waste job when a bottle of soda is a third of an hour’s wages? “Fortune Favors the Bold” is another with a groove so addictive, that even the greediest capitalist might find himself singing along.
For the latter song, as well as a new number that this reporter couldn’t hear the name of, Gibson donned an acoustic guitar. A rarity for him, as he said he hadn’t done so, “In damn near ten years.” He told the crowd that the group was working on a new record, before playing a second unreleased song, called “Tulsa.”
49 Winchester put the full range of their abilities on display at 9:30 Club. Their soulful country sound strikes a perfect balance between sawdust dance floor and guitar-whimpering blues. Live, they are record-perfect in every sense, which is a hard balance to strike.
Colby Acuff opened the show with a ten-song, 45-minute set. Though a relative newcomer, Acuff released his first album as a signed artist in record time, one month after the ink dried with Sony. The fanbase of 49 Winchester has a lot of overlap with Acuff’s, as the crowd sang along to nearly all his songs. Acuff played a new song, focusing on mental health, that had the crowd rapt. It’s called “Staring at the Dark” and will drop on May 3rd.
Both Colby Acuff and 49 Winchester have found fans who are loving the resurgence of the steel-driven, two-steppin’ honky-Tony beat. It would do well, dear reader, for you to remember that stuffy DC is just miles—yet a world away—from rural Virginia, an area where country music tends to have its most ardent fans. That they braved the trek into DC for two artists with catalogs still in their infancy is a testament to the staying power of country music that tells real, relatable stories.
