Maybe it was the matching suits, the tight vocal harmonies, or the ecstatic stage presence; but John and Jacob seemed to be channelling The Beatles from the early Beatlemania period for much of their Nashville Sunday Night performance at 3rd and Lindsley. Shuttling back home from a Milwaukee date on their current tour opening for Kacey Musgraves, the band –fronted by two friends from Pinson, Alabama — were greeted by a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
John and Jacob moved to Nashville as songwriters and co-wrote The Band Perry’s number one song, “Done” (which the band played as the first song of their encore). They also had their song “Be My Girl” featured on the ABC series Nashville. With such credits, the Beatles comparison may seem unusual, but it is not unprecedented. At times, their pop sound brought to mind 1980s country duo Foster and Lloyd, who also brought a Beatlesque sound to the country charts.
When the band followed the hard-rocking “Melissa” with the soft ballad “I’d Go Back”, Jacob Bryant said, “There is a time for rocking, and a time for listening,” but rather than listen, the audience sang along from the entire song. The band seemed genuinely touched by this.
The one cover song of the set was the Everly Brothers hit, “Wake Up, Little Susie,” which the fit the band perfectly.
The Holbrook sisters who perform as SHEL preceded John and Jacob. The band’s set included a mandolin, a fiddle, a human beat box, a Led Zeppelin cover, and some sweet, sweet harmonies. John and Jacob divide time between their hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado, and their adopted home in Nashville. Highlights of their set included their song, “Hold On,” which was featured in the motion picture, The Best of Me,” and a new song called “Roof Top,” which closed out the set.
Nashville husband and wife Smooth Hound Smith opened the night with their bluesy American roots music.
