By Kyle Brown
When Danielle Bradbery hit The Voice stage at the tender age of 16, the Texas native has noted she was terrified. Bradbery sang a Taylor Swift song, got a chair turn and eventually went on to win the season 4 NBC hit reality competition series under the wings of Blake Shelton. That was in 2013. Fast forward ten years and on the heels of a newly released single, Bradbery is headlining her own tour for the first time. The tour is under the same name as the single.
The ‘A Special Place’ tour kicked off on February 23rd and will run ten shows through March 1st. On February 25th, the tour made a stop at Elevation in Grand Rapids, MI. At 8pm, Tiera Kennedy took the stage. I went in purposely not looking Kennedy up to get a feel for her music. I wanted to get a real reaction to hearing her live first. I must say, she impressed me. Throughout the half hour set, Kennedy showed a lot of class and great stage presence. With a big smile and fun dancing on stage, she put a spell on the crowd that seemed positively engaged in her performance. Her voice effortlessly cut through the venue with clean high and low notes. The crowd loved it when she brought out some covers of other artists as well. The one thing, besides Kennedy’s voice, that I loved was the fact she took the time to explain the story and meaning to each of her songs. As someone who is new to her music, I appreciated the fact she took the time to explain her next song. Tiera Kennedy definitely deserves a slot in country music radio, and country music in general.
Bradbery and her band hit the Elevation stage at 9pm with a loud and enthusiastic crowd right from the start. Bradbery was sure to constantly show her appreciation, praising the crowd for being one of the best stops yet. Danielle sang songs mainly from her second album, but did take the time to go back to her very first studio album and some new songs. Some of those being not released and some being her latest singles. When Bradbery ended “Never Have I Ever,” there was one portion that caught everyone’s attention. The ending portion of that song was many high notes that were executed to perfection. Bradbery belted them out and ended with one of the loudest cheers of the night from the crowd. A cover of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby” got the venue jumping. Bradbery absolutely did Twain justice and I feel Bradbery’s version of “Baby” was executed better than Bieber. Ending her set was a song she posted to instagram about anxiety, “Messy,” and an encore performance of “Worth It”.
Bradbery has come into her own style over the years, with a witty and sassy way of storytelling through her songs that I feel really began to show with her sophomore album, I Don’t Believe We’ve Met. Though this is the first headlining tour, the pop country artist isn’t any stranger to being on tour. Hunter Hayes, Brad Paisley, Scotty McCreery, Miranda Lambert, Brett Eldridge, Thomas Rhett, and Kane Brown have all called her name during tours. Artists Zac Brown Band, Diplo, Nick Jonas, and Thomas Rhett have collabed with Bradbery as well.
A show that moved venues due to popular ticket demand, it definitely proved to be as entertaining as the audience in attendance had hoped and then some. Tune into country radio stations to catch a listen to ‘A Special Place” or stream her music wherever you may listen. For tickets and more on Danielle, visit her website here.
Pittsburgh Music Magazine 