In March, the BGS and Good Country teams were honored to return once again to SXSW, this time partnering with our friends at Big Feat PR for A Night of Good Country at Sagebrush in Austin, Texas. The evening featured lovely half-hour sets from artists on Big Feat’s stellar roster of clients – and quite a few Good Country favorites – including Shakey Graves, Tyler Halverson, Aubrie Sellers, Travis Bolt, and Tenille Townes.

Our pals at I Know We Should were on hand at Sagebrush to capture these Good Country performances, and over the upcoming weeks and months we’ll be sharing clips and full sets right here on the site. To begin the series, we’re paying tribute to our April Artist of the Month, Tenille Townes, unveiling three song performances from SXSW as a special epilogue to our AOTM content. For her brand new album, The Acrobat, the Canadian singer-songwriter leans into her newfound independence, trusting herself not only to write and co-write each of the songs, but to produce them and perform them in their entirety, too. To bring the new project to the world, Townes has been performing her Living Room Tour, special stripped down shows featuring herself, solo, sharing songs, stories, and insights from her latest creative journey from major label to indie country powerhouse.

At Sagebrush during SXSW, we got a taste of these “living room” style shows, as Townes captivated the audience during the first set of the evening with just her voice and her art-piece of a guitar. From the new album, we’re sharing two numbers, “enabling” and “we could use a little more.” Townes shows great skill in writing songs that consider and confront the many challenges of life while still finding hope, redemption, and a way forward. There’s endless passion and dynamics in Townes’ performances; you can tell she’s comfortable even in this solo setting, working the crowd and bringing them into her artistic universe.

Of course, Townes’ catalog of material – new and old – is chocked full of fan favorites and hits, so we were very pleased to hear her SXSW performance of “Jersey On the Wall,” arguably her most popular track. It’s easy to tell why the song has had such staying power, built around the bones of a modern country story song, but with subversive and nuanced messages throughout. This is certainly Good Country.

We were so pleased to get to highlight Tenille Townes as our Artist of the Month in April and on the Sagebrush stage at SXSW with our friends at Big Feat PR. Stay tuned as we will launch more Sagebrush SXSW Sessions in the coming weeks – including performances from our current Artist of the Month, Austin’s own Shakey Graves. It’s all coming soon right here on Good Country.

Video Credits: I Know We Should, Brad Wagner, Juan Soria, and Charlie Peterson.

These sessions brought to you in partnership with Big Feat PR.