Just wrapped up a visit to Hinterland 2021 in St. Charles, IA. Lineup looked like this:
Friday:
Avett Brothers
Old Crow Medicine Show
Caamp
Yola
Cut Worms
Hex Girls
Notes: Skipped Cut Worms and Hex Girls. Yola was fantastic - tons of star potential. Caamp delivered the goods - they have a great way of translating their sound for a big stage. I had never seen OCMS before and they were good, if not a bit overly animated. Avett Brothers fucking killed it - all thriller no filler in their set. Out of the 5 or 6 times I've seen them, this was the performance I enjoyed the most.
Saturday:
Tyler Childers
Black Pumas
Marcus King Band
Zach Bryan
Shooter Jennings
Paul Cauthen
The Dip
Kelsey Waldon
Lillie Mae
Special Late night after show by Orville Peck
Notes: Lillie Mae was ok, skipped Kelsey Waldon, liked the Dip a lot, skipped Paul Cauthen. Liked Shooter Jennings A LOT - he brought out Orville Peck to sing a Waylon song and it kicked ass. Skipped Zach Bryan. Marcus King is so much better live than in the studio - brought out a big Fire on the Mountain jam in what I can only assume was a nod to the anniversary of Jerry's passing. Black Pumas were fucking great - they were one of my favorites of the weekend. Tyler Childers was....I dunno. He was a bit flat from a personality stand point - almost seemed uncomfortable. His band sounded tight, though TC didn't play much guitar nor did he do any solo songs. His setlist was for the real fans (no feathered indians, no whitehouse road, no nose to the grindstone). I really enjoyed his performance in the moment, but not loving it as much on reflection. He's in recovery and this is one of his first shows back, so maybe that's what was going on.
Saturday late night - we left the main grounds and went to this little stage tucked back in the woods behind some tent camping and Orville Peck comes out for a covers set. He's quite the showman and after seeing him with Shooter, we were pretty pumped. He absolutely brought the goods. His late night show was one of the top 3 performances of the weekend for me. He brought out Paul Cauthen for the first live performance of "The Unrighteous Brothers" and they sang "Unchained Melody / You've Lost That Loving Feeling" and killed it. Glad we stayed up for this set. He played until about 12:30 and there was another band playing after him, but we couldn't hang so we called it a night.
Sunday:
Leon Bridges
Khruangbin
Mt Joy
Orville Peck
Hamilton Leithouser
Charley Crockett
Bendigo Fletcher
Vincent Neil Emerson
Notes: Skipped VNE, really liked Bendigo Fletcher and like Caamp they had a great live sound. Charley Crockett killed it - true showman. Skipped Hamilton. Orville Peck, round 2 was equally awesome to the late night set. Mt Joy live was fantastic. Khruangbin was in my top 3 - I'm thinking about going to see them headline Red Rocks later this month so I can get a full show. They invited Leon out for Texas Sun and that was great. Leon Bridges was so much better than the last time I saw him - love the new sound.
Overall - killer line up. We stayed in an RV so avoided a lot of issues with camping that people in tents seemed to be struggling with.
Top 5 shows for me: Orville Peck (late night), Khruangbin, Avetts, Leon Bridges, Black Pumas