The Castellows _ Thomas Rhett - She Had Me At Heads Carolina, NY State Fair, Aug. 21, 2025

EMPOWER FCU AMPHITHEATER AT LAKEVIEW
This was my 15th Castellows show :) I've seen them headlining where they do an hour and twenty minute set or so, playing a long set as part of a bigger line-up (usually playing an hour like at NOLA Jazz Festival), and a few times doing a short opening set. The headlining shows have 20+ songs and sometimes a solo (e.g., Ellie playing Heart's Crazy On You intro Silver Wheels, a Powell banjo solo, or bandmember solos in the second last song). The opening sets for Little Big Town and Thomas Rhett have 7 songs. With Thomas Rhett the ladies can also come out to sing along with Thomas Rhett to She Had Me At Heads Carolina.

At the Toronto show they did not come out for this sing - their Instagram showed they went for a run along the waterfront trail and I bumped into their tour bus right after the Rhett show - seems they were on a tight schedule to get to Boston the next day. So this was a bonus in Syracuse. I called this show the Syracuse Sunset Session because earlier in the night the sun was setting beyond stage-right. BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL !!!

The Great New York State Fair sure was a great venue for this ‪@thecastellows‬ ‪@thomasrhettmusic‬. And the The Empower Financial Credit Union Amphitheatre at Lakeside [what a mouthful!!!!] is a nice venue, similar to our Budweiser Stage in Toronto with a covered seated area and a lawn seating area beyond it. The weather was great for everyone - dry and not too hot. It was chilly by the evening and so my new Castellows merch - the grey hoodie !!! - came in handy.

The Castellows do collaboration / co-writing with other artists. One of my favourite songs on the debut EP is The Part Where You Break My Heart. That was co-written with Rhett Akins. And you may know that Thomas Rhett is the son of Rhett Akins. Google tells me "Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. was born to Rhett Akins and his first wife, Paige. While Thomas Rhett goes by his first and middle name, he is indeed related to Rhett Akins." Its interesting that The Castellows call The Part Where You Break My Heart as 'deep cut' from the EP because it is the 3rd track and so very catchy - great lyrics, great melody and emotion and energy in the performances I have seen. But I understand from Ellie's intros that break-up songs are not really their vibe. I think Lily once said they have not had many break-ups.

Anyhoo, this sure was a fun live collaboration. And I learned another classic country song (says this rock guy from Toronto).

Now what is better than seeing my fan videos here? Seeing The Castellows (Powell, Ellie and Lily Balkcom) and the talented gents The Castfellows (Justin, Blake, Brad and Mason) play it live? Check out the band’s official website for tour details so you can see and hear for yourself: www.thecastellowsmusic.com

We were stage-left for this show, i.e., the "Powell side". For The Castellows songs I zoomed in on my Pixel 8 Pro for close ups and my buddy recorded this in widescreen form the same place with an action camera, a DJI Osmo Action 5 camera, similar to a Go Pro camera. I'll edit these two together some time in the future.

We thought that the lighting was going to be 'bad' for their songs before this because the sun was setting in the background making it hard to see the stage. But the sun did set enough and it made for some purdy silhouettes when Lily and the band went out on t he catwalk :) For the headliner its all dark and the venue lighting is great as you can see here.

Enjoy !!!

#thecastellows #castellows #castfellows #thecastfellows