Equiblues is a 5 days summer festival dedicated to rodeo and country music, that takes place in the little town of Saint-Agrève, Ardèche, Southeastern France, in August. It’s one of the two main summer country festivals in France, along with “Festival Country Craponne“. This year, it celebrated its 24th edition, after a 5 year suspension, due to Covid and also because of the construction of a big saloon, the Red Fox saloon, inaugurated for this occasion.
When you see the beauty of this new saloon, overlooking the site of the festival, you now that it was worth the wait… and the trip to get to the festival (a 6 hours drive in my case).
On Saturday night, the Red Fox saloon hosted Jesse Daniel, for no less than two consecutive gigs, as the first one had been quickly sold out.
Briana Adams was the opening act She’s a singer and songwriter from Texas, who opened for artists like Randy Rogers Band, Charlie Robison (RIP), the Bellamy Brothers and Jason Boland & The Stragglers. I recommend you to listen to her excellent EP “Dive Bars & Old Guitars” and her last one, “One More Highway“. Her performance was particularly brilliant, and her french audience could appreciate her big voice and her amazing style on scene, with amazing honky tonk songs and quality music.
Then came Jesse Daniel on the scene with his whole band : Jodi Lyford (backing vocals), Caleb Melo (pedal steel), Eddie B. Salomon (bass), Joey Kukura (lead guitar) and Kristopher Schoen (drums).
They brilliantly played a lot of songs that are part of Jesse Daniel’s last studio albums, “Beyond These Walls” and “Rollin’ On“. Among them, there were the amazing “Clayton Was a Cowboy“, the great “If You Ain’t Happy Now“, “Chickadee“, and of course the fantastic “Rollin’ On“. Jesse Daniel and Jodi Lyford also performed a splendid version of Waylon Jenning’s “You Asked Me To“, and the french audience also enjoyed a fantastic version of “Streets of Bakersfield“, the famous song popularized in the 70’s by Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam.
When you listen to Jesse Daniel’s songs at home, you immediately know that he his band are the real deal. But Seeing them live on scene, with such energy and quality, is definitely a unique experience.
It was undoubtedly a perfect night for traditional country and honky tonk lovers. Beyond these walls, there were beautiful sceneries of the rural part of France, and excellent rodeo, but inside the Red Fox Saloon, it was a unique moment for a lot of French people in love with country music. Chapeau, Equiblues festival, cheers to you !
Nicolas Davelu
Country Music France 