Meghan Patrick left nothing unsaid as live music returned to Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe

It’s been just over two years since the pandemic silenced live music in Ottawa venues and slowly this week fans trickled back as the curtain lifted on the first country tour to pass through the nation’s capital with Meghan Patrick’s Wild as Me Tour featuring Kris Barclay

2018 Boots and Hearts Emerging Artist winner, Toronto’s Kris Barclay, kicked off the show with 30 minutes of his own hits including “360”, “Loved You Like That” as well as his most recent single, which happened to be written by his tour mate Meghan Patrick, “More Than Whiskey”. He even switched gears and threw the crowd a curveball as he cranked out a countrified rendition of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You”. I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Kris over the last few years and now that stuff is opening up again I’d expect to see a lot more of Kris…watch for him this Thursday as he joins our friend Dave Woods at the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville for another edition of Country Nights in the City. Kris will join two other artists we’ve worked with Jessica Sevier and Courtney Bowles as well as Broadtree, John Kris Ford and Karli June. Get your reservations here: http://www.themoonshinecafe.com/

There’s an age old expression “Mama’s don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys” well mamas listen up. Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys but if their daughters want to be cowgirls then let them grow up to be as badass as Meghan Patrick. Even after two years living in the virtual world she’s back and has proven, once again, why she’s Canada’s reigning country QUEEN.

Our relationship with Megan goes back to 2015 when our own Trish Cassling saw something special in this rising artist from Bowmanville, Ontario and decided to give her a feature and declare her one of our first ever artists to watch. Since then she’s become one of the most dominant Canadian female country artists to come out of Canada. She’s won 15 Country Music Association of Ontario awards, 3 Canadian Country Music Association Awards and a JUNO Award and she’s already got 6 more CMAO nominations for this year’s awards which will be presented in June in London, Ontario.

If you ever had a doubt as to why she’s had this much success in such a short time just do yourself a favour and go and see her live. Meghan brings an unapologetically authentic and honest show to her stage. She’s not one to tiptoe around the clear gender divide in country music telling the crowd that the boys can sing about girls and sex but when one of the girls does it everyone is shocked and clutches their pearls. Girls if you want to look up to someone look up to Meghan Patrick, she’ll steer you right. This tour brought out a new, softer side of Meghan. Normally a Meghan Patrick show has about as many love songs as a Metallica show but that’s changed now that Meghan has found love. She and her beau, Mitchell Tenpenny, recently got engaged and he inspired the song, and title track of the tour, “Wild As Me”.

Only I don’t know if he is anywhere near as wild as Meghan…Meghan is a wild stallion that can’t be…or shouldn’t be tamed. But if that relationship has given us a song like “Wild As Me” it must be good but let’s keep the ballads to one per album ok guys? A future tour with both Meghan and Mitchell would be pretty awesome too, anyone disagree?

I went into the night thinking the show, that started at 8, would be done by 10pm…I guess I forgot what a Meghan Patrick show is like. The encores seemed to be almost as long as the show itself and not one person, in the nearly sold out Meridian Theatre, budged an inch until the last note rang out.

The crowd was on their feet for her killer rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” which, I have no doubt, would’ve made Dolly stand up and cheer, people started to sit down and Meghan turned to the crowd and said “you’ve been sitting on your couch for two years, it won’t hurt you to stand up and party for one song will it?” Crowd didn’t need convincing as everyone rose out of their seats once again.

Meghan had barely left the stage when the crowd started cheering and chanting Encore, Encore…Meg peaked out from side stage and the crowd went nuts. She came out with another incredible, soulful, cover of Alannah Myles’ “Black Velvet”.

From start to finish Meghan brought Ottawa fans a 90 minute hit parade of songs from all three of her albums including her latest “Heart on My Glass” which dropped last spring. Meghan gets a short break now before getting back on the road starting in Brandon, MB for a run of western dates. If you missed her “Wild As Me” Tour in Ontario you can catch her at Boots and Hearts Country Music Festival on August 8. Other notable festivals for Meghan this summer include Country Thunder Saskatchewan and Together YEG in Edmonton.

For a full list of dates visit her online www.meghanpatrickmusic.com

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