LIVE REVIEW: COUNTRY CALLING 2026: THE DIVE BAR STAGE - UK-CMA TAKEOVER - KERRYL

Performing as part of the UK-CMA Takeover, it was to be our first sighting of Kerryl, self proclaimed as " Making music that makes you want to drink whiskey and drive a truck". He was as cheery between songs as his material was dark once being performed, which made for a sharp contrast. A bear of a man with an impressive beard, he put in a compelling performance, even if he looked a little overdressed for such a hot day.

His opener "A Love That He Lost" set the tone for the afternoon, a man in a bar, drinking away, on the bad side of a break up

"He wants a voice in the dark

To say someone still cares"

It was as intense an opener as you could wish for. The follow up "Middle Of Nowhere" seemed to be about a man in a similar predicament

"So I'm drinking from the bottle

Waiting on the sun to rise and come and save me

Number 7 you can't take me

With my hands upon the throttle

Riding up and down the goddamn highway

Gotta walk the red dirt road my way

To the middle of nowhere"

He's left resorting to hoping that his ex's new relationship doesn't work out.

Now all of this may sound a little gloomy but really it wasn't, these songs felt bigger than the tent we were listening to them in - they were stadium ready, just waiting for the bigger canvas of a band, to turn them into huge swathing anthems - even in this stripped back format, they seemed custom built for that sort of treatment, mainly due to the power of Kerryl's delivery.

Kerryl would finish his song with a cheerful "Thank you", after leaving us emotional wrecks. He would lighten the mood by saying that his next song "Tattoo" was in the Top 10 for 14 minutes.

It needed a little levity as this was to be another emotional roller coaster, attached to a different side of regret rarely expressed - not liking yourself when in a relationship.

"Yeah, I'm glad that we didn't get tattooed

Cause I hated me, when I was around you

Now she's got them blue eyes

The kind that make you fall in love, when she walks by

Yeah boy, she'll break your heart

With a fake smile and all her lies!"

There seemed to be a lot that Kerryl needed to get of his chest, and "Sober" which should really have (Thank God I'm) in preceding brackets, was another emotional turmoil of a song, with Kerryl caught between physical attraction and the fear of being burned again.

"Still wear that necklace that I bought you

And the dress that matches your blue eyes

I can't deny girl, that I still want you

But I don't want to get hurt this time"

There were some nice lyrical touches, throughout and Kerryl never delivered with anything less than 100% passion.

It was only on "Let Me Drive" that the mood truly

lifted a little, as if the spark of something happier might be coming.

"You went from hell in heels to hell on wheels

and put a dent in my heart of steel"

After all of the emotion of the sad songs when Keryll sung

"Let me drive"

extending out the word "drive" to many syllables, it was done in the softest croon and was certainly showed another side to Kerryl at his most melodic and touching.

The final song of the set "Good At Goodbyes" returned us to a level of intense entertainment, immediately throwing us into a drama with broken bottles.

"Now I'm drinking more every day

Since we went our separate ways"

As introductions go it was very impressive, and would have us post festival checking out his released work so far.