After back-to-back Coachella weekends, there's barely any grass left on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club. But that hasn't stopped tens of thousands of country fans from venturing here to see Stagecoach, which began Friday afternoon and continues Sunday night with headliners Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and Morgan Wallen. The Times' Mikael Wood and Vanessa Franko are at the festival, notebooks in hand and tissues in place. Here's a summary of the highlights and lowlights from Day 2.
A new face with old songs.
Post Malone took a swig from a red plastic cup and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his plaid Western shirt. After indicating for months that he was leaning toward country music, the former (and no doubt future) hip-hop star had come to Stagecoach to make it official, and now here he was, standing on the Mane Stage, among the band of Nashville professionals behind. him and an audience of thousands of country fans in front of him.
“My name is Austin Richard Post,” he said, abandoning his government designation. “Cheers, mother of a bitch!”
Post Malone performs.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Because he collaborates a lot: this year he already appeared in Beyoncé's “Cowboy Carter.” and “The Department of Tortured Poets” by Taylor Swift: It may be tempting to think of this lanky charmer with face tattoos and yearning voice as a dilettante. What caught your attention, however, about Malone's Stagecoach set was his commitment to the subject matter, as he covered 11 cleverly chosen country tunes with just the right balance between ease and determination – not a guy trying to impress anyone with his rarefied taste. , but a fan eager to join a group. community with a rich cultural history. (Has Malone's warm reception been aided by his identity as a white man? Uh, you could say that.)
Their repertoire was appealingly middle-of-the-road: hits by George Strait, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and Alan Jackson that are sure to be familiar to anyone who's grown up around a radio over the past two decades. Her guests also pleased the audience: Brad Paisley, who accompanied him on Vince Gill's “I'm Gonna Miss Her” and “One More Last Chance”; Sara Evans, who made “Suds in the Bucket”; and Dwight Yoakam, who participated in “Little Ways.”
Malone's singing wasn't flashy but had the right feel, nowhere more so than in a beautiful rendition of Randy Travis' “Three Wooden Crosses.” After that, he brought back Paisley to close with Jackson's immortal “Chattahoochee,” another sign that he understood the task. —Mikael Madera
Guy Fieri toasts the crowd at his Guy Fieri's Stagecoach Smokehouse on the opening day of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Stagecoach's strangest bedfellows
There are always one or two wild cards on the Stagecoach calendar, but the one that seemed most like a fever dream was the teaming up of Clint Black, Diplo and Guy Fieri for a cooking demo Saturday afternoon at Guy's Stagecoach Smokehouse.
Would you believe me if I told you it got weirder? T-shirt cannons were fired into the crowd; Stephanie Izard of acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant Girl & the Goat appeared during the demonstration; MIA’s “Paper Planes,” which was co-written by Diplo, played over the PA until someone realized we were at Stagecoach and asked for it to be turned off; the replacement was “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy. Oh, and Black, who performs at Stagecoach on Sunday, played a harmonica to kitchen music. (I promise this was not a hallucination caused by excessive sun exposure.)
During all this, there was a cooking demonstration. While Diplo got to work on some macaroni and cheese, Black and Fieri worked on stuffing a turkey.
We learn that Diplo told Fieri that he's a “king of macaroni and cheese and ramen.” And Black loads his own trailer with his own food when he's on the road, but when he was young and had no money, he mixed macaroni and cheese with chili. When he started to run out, he added ketchup.
“Is that your elastic ingredient, ketchup? “People use Autotune and you use ketchup,” Fieri joked.
These days, Black said his specialty is Sicilian pasta sauce.
“I use a variety of meats: something mild, something a little stronger and then something very spicy,” Black told the crowd. “The secret to making a great Sicilian pasta sauce is green pepper. And then, the icing on the cake is cooking it for a very long time. I will cook a sauce for two days before I indulge.”
“I told you this guy was a chef,” Fieri told the crowd. —Vanessa Franko
A wasted opportunity
Lambert's headlining performance ended strong with a surprise appearance from Reba McEntire, who joined the singer on a raucous “Mama's Broken Heart”: “I was thinking it would be pretty badass if I had a feisty redhead come out and sing this song with me tonight.” . ” Lambert said, and then stayed to sing her own “Fancy” before helping Lambert close the show with “Gunpowder & Lead.”
Yet for most of this disappointing show, Lambert, typically one of Nashville's most astute and precise storytellers, struggled to connect emotionally, plodding with little commitment through up-tempo themes about drink and revenge and quieter ballads. about family and repentance. (“Wranglers,” his new single, failed to move the needle.)
Perhaps Lambert was distracted by the strong desert winds that threatened to blow off her cowboy hat; perhaps she's spent too much time in Las Vegas, where the undemanding enthusiasm of a resident audience can soften a performer's game. Either way, this was a reminder, after Church's polarizing gospel experiment on Friday night, that sticking to the hits isn't always what you want. — megawatts
Trampled by Turtles performs on the Palomino stage on day two of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
bluegrass throwback
Trampled by Turtles' afternoon set at the Palomino Stage was a callback to the early years of Stagecoach. When the festival started in 2007, there was another stage called Mustang that was dedicated to bluegrass and is where Trampled by Turtles made their Stagecoach debut in 2010. Back then it was a fun party as was Saturday. With a setlist that leaned heavily on the Minnesota band's early albums, it was a welcome nostalgia trip. And 14 years after its release, closer “Wait So Long” is still absolutely trashed. — V.F.
A man drinks a beer from a woman's boot while watching Willie Nelson & Family perform at Stagecoach.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Legend Status: Safe
Consider this: At 90 years old, Willie Nelson is still finding new ways to express his singing and guitar playing on “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.” Flanked by his sons Lukas and Micah, here he complemented the expected older songs – “Whiskey River,” “You Were Always on My Mind,” “Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” – with a cover version. by Pearl Jam. “Just Breathe” and he welcomed Ernest, Jelly Roll and Charley Crockett to the stage for a laid-back version of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” — megawatts
People dance to Diplo's Honkytonk at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Boot Boogie
At Coachella, the space occupied by Diplo's Honkytonk is the Yuma Tent, a place of pulsating rhythms presided over by a giant shark-shaped disco ball. On Stagecoach, Disco Shark is replaced by Disco Horse, and there are still throbbing rhythms but also some violins. (The shiny equine had some corners of the Internet convinced it was a nod to Beyoncé's “Renaissance” album cover and was further proof that she would be appearing at the festival.)
Early in the day there are traditional line dance demonstrations, a hallmark of Honkytonk since it began at the festival, but since Diplo took over the ballroom brand, the space is attracting more big-name EDM acts to end of the day. late afternoon and early evening. And if you wanted to see Dillon Francis on Friday or the Chainsmokers on Saturday (both artists who have played Coachella), you had to be there well in advance to even get into the tent. — V.F.
Asleep At The Wheel performs on the Palomino stage.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Best cover of a George Strait classic: “All My Ex's Live in Texas” by Asleep at the Wheel
With apologies to Post Malone (who did well with “Marque Yes or No”), this former Western swing outfit was the picture of finesse on the Palomino stage. — megawatts
The surprise guest that wasn't
Rumors swirled that Beyoncé was going to stop by Stagecoach ever since her big truck and a plane with a “Cowboy Carter” banner flew around Coachella. And Saturday seemed the most likely day for an appearance as not only did Willie Nelson, Post Malone and Tanner Adell perform on her new album, but that plane was spotted flying again.
Plus, there was the whole Backwoods Barbie conspiracy theory that had some members of the Beyhive convinced that the DJs playing Saturday night at Diplo's Honkytonk were actually Beyoncé. They were not. — V.F.
Praise to the queen
Hanging out after her slick Mane Stage performance, and having happily sampled desserts in the Stagecoach catering tent, Adell described her admiration for Beyoncé, who tapped her to sing “Cowboy Carter’s” version of “Blackbird.” ” by the Beatles.
“It's a level of artistry that's only possible after a 30-year career,” Adell said. “There is obviously a God-given beauty, grace and talent. But it's the fact that he works very hard. “He's someone I admire a lot, but I never use anything sound as inspiration.” Instead, he added, he draws inspiration from Beyoncé's behind-the-scenes documentaries that reveal the process behind productions like the Renaissance tour and the singer's Coachella performance in 2018. “Those shows don't happen by chance,” Adell said. “She's showing us how hard she works to get to where she needs to be.” — megawatts
