LIVE REVIEW: COUNTRY CALLING FESTIVAL - FLORENCE SOMMERVILLE - LIL NASHVILLE DIVE BAR

The Lil Nashville Dive Bar was definitely a different little area of the Country Calling campus. Strikingly visual with banks of old TV's playing out Country related material, with a bar at the back and a stage with a back wall of corrugated iron, filled with US licence plates giving it a certain vibe. The sound was a lot louder, a little rougher around the edges, and whether it was live acts or line dancing it always seemed to be packed.

July was pretty much Florence Sommerville month on w21music.com with her album and it's launch covered, and it seemed there would be little new left to write about. This was our second time seeing Florence with a band and forced into a squad reshuffle since when we last saw them, the results were amazing. With one less member, Nathan McDonough, the guitarist from the Sound Lounge show moved to bass guitar while Henry Webb-Jenkins the pedal steel player would now double up on electric guitar. Florence is never one to outwardly show any nerves and could clearly be seen having a little warm up boogie to "Rambling Man" prior to being announced.

Immediately from the bass intro of "Broken Pieces", this was a different sound to that of the Sound Lounge, the band although down a member seemed to adjust to their surroundings and were punchier, and louder for sure. The backing vocals were more pronounced and the song just simply shone.

Similarly "California" with pedal steel being switched for electric guitar became rootsier. Florence would beam throughout emboldened by then sound her band were producing.

"Boots In The Rain" was absolutely impeccable, more than matching the excellent recorded version with it's tale of country in the UK. A festival crowd can mean digging into the your back pocket for a cover and Florence's country take on Guns & Roses "Sweet Child Of Mine" worked a treat in it's surroundings, with the pedal steel given free rein. Even the sped up element sounded much better and got a very favourable crowd response.

Hailing from Essex, this was very much home turf and it was noticeable that during "Your Best Broken Heart", many people were dancing and mouthing the lyrics, as the pedal steel really punctuated the overall sound.

This was to be just a tantalising glimpse of what Florence has to offer, and she would leave us with the greatest of them all "Cut And Run" delivered in a storming version, faster and louder than we've ever heard it before - our notes have it marked as being ***** and it was indeed a 5 star version with Florence taking the ever rising chorus to new levels.

As charming and graceful off stage as she is talented on it, the future looks bright for Florence Sommerville and #TEAM21 look forward to seeing where her adventures take her.