Luke Combs mends hearts at Leon’s Centre in Kingston

Eastern Ontario country music fans spent much of the latter part of last week on the edge of their seat as Mother Nature was threatening to make travel difficult for the weekend just as Luke Combs was set to bring his first ever Canadian tour, the Beer Never Broke My Heart tour, to Oshawa and Kingston. Thankfully as the weekend arrive Mother Nature, again, proved that she was a country fan and the forecast turned to just rain until well after the Saturday night show allowing fans from all across Eastern Ontario to pack into the Leon’s Centre in Kingston for one hell of a show.

The night started out with one of Columbia Nashville’s newest artists, recently signed singer/songwriter Jameson Rodgers. Rodgers, who is best known for writing Florida Georgia Line’s “Wish You Were on It”, quickly engaged the crowd and set the tone for the night ahead. By the time he got to his monster hit “Some Girls” the crowd was fired up and few seats were left to be filled at Kingston’s Leon’s Centre. Midway through his set you could see Luke Combs standing side stage with members of his band taking in the performance, looks like Jameson may have a big fan in Combs already.

LANCO, short for Lancaster and Company, rocketed to stardom a few years ago with their smash debut “Greatest Love Story”. The song hit #1 in the US and peaked at number 2 in Canada where it also reached Platinum status. The band’s debut album, Hallelujah Nights, was released just over a year ago and featured two more singles: (on top of “Greatest Love Story”) “Long Live Tonight” and “Born To Love You”. Clearly there’s a lot of LANCO fans in Eastern Ontario because from start to finish the crowd at Leon’s Centre last night joined Brandon Lancaster in singing every note which gave the quintet even more energy. At one point Lancaster actually grabbed a drum, yes you read that correctly, and made his way around the arena, stopping periodically to greet fans and drum out a few beats. As their set was drawing to a close Lancaster started talking about a single they released a few years ago. A love story about a couple that split up only to discover that they needed each other after all, in essence it’s the “Greatest Love Story”. The roar of the crowd was so loud you could hear them all the way on Wolfe Island. Without question “Greatest Love Story” is one of the best country ballads of the last 10, or so years.

The headliner for the night is a man who just 3, or 4, years ago was still unknown. It wasn’t until late in 2016 he was named one of Sounds Like Nashville’s ‘Artists To Watch’. This came just over a year after Combs released his third independent EP This One’s For You. In early 2017 Combs signed with Sony Music Nashville and what would happen next would send shockwaves through the country music industry as his first (“Hurricane”), second (“When It Rains It Pours”), third (“One Number Away”), fourth (“She Got the Best of Me”) and fifth (“Beautiful Crazy”) singles hit #1 on the charts…making Combs the first artist to have five number ones on the chart with his first five single releases.

If you’ve never seen Luke Combs he resembles more of an auto mechanic than a massively successful country artist. The minute Luke starts to sing any doubts as to why he’s been so successful, in just a few short years, melts away. What impresses me most about Luke is that he’s credited as a co-writer on each of the songs on This One’s For You making him an equally talented songwriter. I don’t think there’s anything I can write that can adequately do justice to Luke’s voice. If I had to find a way to describe it it would be to compare it to a sip of smooth Tennessee Whiskey at the end of a long day perhaps with the added sweetness of a spoonful of honey.

Although I didn’t get a chance to chat with Luke, this time, you can tell that the last few years have been extremely humbling for him as a person. Telling the crowd that he didn’t have much growing up as he came from a poor family but his success has now allowed him to give his parents some of the experiences they couldn’t have when he was growing up. “I could only dream of traveling anywhere growing up and in the last couple of years I’ve traveled around the world 5 times. Last week we performed in Australia, then we flew home and performed in Florida and now we’re in Canada.

Luke wrapped up the main part of his set with his newest single, and the title track for the tour, “Beer Never Broke My Heart”. As he left the stage the crowd inside the Leon’s Centre got so loud chanting “ONE MORE SONG, ONE MORE SONG” I thought the stands were going to collapse. He returned to the stage with a throwback to Brooks and Dunn’s “Brand New Man”, worth mentioning Luke will appear on their forthcoming album Reboot which features 12 Duets with Thomas Rhett, Kane Brown, Kacey Musgraves, Midland & More. The sing along continued and Luke encouraged the crowd to join in. The night wrapped up with his fourth #1 hit “She’s Got the Best of Me”.

In this business some artists are hyped up so much that you have high hopes walking into a live show and often walk out a bit disappointed. I can tell you one thing after finally seeing Luke Combs perform live he 100% lives up to the hype. Luke is every bit, if not more, amazing live than the hype builds him up to be. For a 29 year old he’s still young in this industry and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him, something tells me more records are going to be broken.

If you haven’t joined the Bootleggers, Luke’s fan club, now is a great time to join because he’s just getting started!

Special thanks to Gold & Gold / Sakamoto Entertainment Production for allowing us to attend the show last night and for bringing yet another incredible show to Eastern Ontario.

Great news if you live in Western Canada Luke’s coming back this fall with more dates just announced. Special guests include Morgan Wallen and Jameson Rodgers.

October 8—Winnipeg, MB—Bell MTS Place
October 10—Saskatoon, SK—SaskTel Center
October 11—Edmonton, AB—Rogers Place
October 12—Calgary, AB—The Scotiabank Saddledome
October 19—Vancouver, BC—Rogers Arena

Ticket pre-sale 4/2, ticket on-sale 4/5

For more on Luke including future concert dates visit www.lukecombs.com