eric church leads way as country stars shine at lasso montréal

the third annual lasso montréal festival was held friday and saturday with country fans packing parc jean-drapeau for non-stop music from 2 until 11 p.m. both days.

the headliners were eric church on friday and sam hunt on saturday — two of country’s biggest stars. there were eight other performers both days on each of the two massive side-by-side main stages, along with five other performers each day on a third smaller stage.

the two-day pass cost $240, which in today’s concert market is a bargain considering the amount of entertainment that included other big country stars like dustin lynch, tyler hubbard, megan moroney, brett young, kip moore and chayce beckham, who was the winner of the popular american idol tv singing competition in 2021.

there were also up-and-coming stars like mackenzie porter, who grew up in a musical family on a ranch in medicine hat, alta. porter started taking music lessons at age 4, learning to play the guitar, violin and piano, and fell in love with country music while listening to it in her father’s truck. she was inspired by the chicks and fellow canadian shania twain.

porter is now touring to promote her new 19-track album titled nobody’s born with a broken heart, including the hit song pickup, which earned her a 2023 cmt music awards nomination for breakthrough female video of the year. porter will be co-hosting this year’s ccma awards on sept. 14 at rogers place in edmonton alongside american country star thomas rhett.

church played for the first time in montreal after cancelling a show at the bell centre in march of 2017 because of “logistical issues.”

other lasso highlights included hunt and lynch, who played hit after hit with fans singing along, which is really impressive since there isn’t a major country-music radio station in montreal. hunt’s set included take your time , which helped put him on the road to stardom 10 years ago with his debut album, montevallo, after he had been writing songs in nashville for other country stars, including kenny chesney and keith urban. lynch paid tribute to his grandparents, who celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary this year, by playing his hit song cowboys and angels, which he wrote about their love story.

brett young, a hit-maker when it comes to country love songs and breakup songs, had couples up slow-dancing in a light rain saturday evening when he sang the beautiful ballad in case you didn’t know . josh ross, who is from burlington, ont., and is best known for hits like first taste of gone and on a different night, played an awesome country version of the goo goo dolls song iris. ross worked in construction before moving to nashville in 2019 to chase his country dream.