Old Dominion started singing their version of "Save It For A Rainy Day" Thursday night when all of a sudden it started raining.
"Matthew Ramsey, you're a rainmaker!" a woman in the front row screamed to the Old Dominion frontman as the Virginia-born band finished its version of the song they wrote for Kenny Chesney.
Talk about your precision timing.
Old Dominion, fresh off its Academy of Country Music Awards win for best new group or duo, was making its encore to the festival. The band debuted last year in a bright-light of day slot. They returned for a next-in-line-to-headline spot Thursday, opening for headliner Kip Moore on a day that also introduced the festival audience of 27,000 o newcomers Chase Bryant and Brooke Eden.
Old Dominion is an unapologetic pop country band. Their music dips into pop and rock with flashes of hip-hop influence. They sing about grabbing a six of Natty Light and letting the cans roll around the truck bed and going nowhere fast. "Crazy Beautiful Sexy" girls turn heads in their "Snapbacks" as their true love pleads for them to "Break Up With Him." OD's songs are catchy and snappy, even when they slow the tempo to ballad mode in "Song For Another Time" and "Nowhere Fast."
Old Dominion has been on the national scene for a couple years, but long before they were cutting their own songs, the band members were busy penning some impressive tunes for other artists. And on Thursday night they sang their version of several of those songs including "Ex to See," recorded by Sam Hunt; "Sangria," covered by Blake Shelton; and "A Guy Walks Into the Bar," recorded by Tyler Farr.
By the time the band finshed up around 9:30, the light spittle of rain became a drizzle and the pleasant breeze started blowing a little harder and little colder, pushing the 10 p.m. start time back a bit for Moore. That definitely was not part of the song.
