Concert review: Morgan Wade at The Grey Eagle

The beer bottles and plastic cups were held high in salute at The Grey Eagle when Morgan Wade returned to Asheville on April 6 for the first of two sold out shows set 10 days apart. Those in the know about the country-pop-rock crossover (too few, in my opinion) — and who mashed that “purchase tickets” button quickly enough — were not let down as Wade and her bandmates blazed through an outright blast of a rock and roll show.

Though best known on the country charts, Wade has said she doesn’t care to confine herself to country music writing, and her catalog is testament to that, stirring in pop, rock, and whatever else she has on her mind. But country charts aside — the crowd that night certainly appeared to be the country music set — Wade and her crew, to borrow a phrase, “blew the doors off it.”

When the now 28-year-old songwriter last performed at The Grey Eagle 18 months ago, she and her band were the opening act, supporting Memphis alt-country rockers Lucero. But from the shouted song requests, the energy of the crowd — and, frankly, the number of people heading out after her set — it was apparent that not only was the word out about Wade, but that the next time she played Asheville, it would be as the headliner.

Cut to last September, when The Grey Eagle announced Wade would swing back through town on her “No Signs of Slowing Down” tour. Tickets sold out in mere minutes — so quickly that a second show was added — which proceeded to sell out just as fast, nearly seven months before Wade was scheduled to play.

It has been wild to watch Wade’s rise. Back in 2021, six months before that first Grey Eagle appearance, the Floyd, Va., native had taken a huge musical leap in releasing her first major label debut album Reckless. That record, produced by Sadler Vaden (guitarist for Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit and a respected songwriter in his own right), offered up a whole new sound for Wade, full of pop hooks and shiny studio gloss.

Having built a fan base on streaming services with her first record, the scrappy, rag-tag Puppets with My Heart, and some frankly profound and heart-wrenching solo acoustic performances via the OurVinyl Sessions on YouTube, it was up in the air whether the new sound would soar or drop. Or maybe that was just me, because Reckless quickly landed on the country music charts, led by the rousing and instantly singable “Wilder Days,” and landed Wade on tours with the likes of Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs, not to mention Isbell and the 400 Unit.

Whether the more polished sound has grown on fans or Wade has grown into it is immaterial at this point, because from the moment she and her band opened up the show with “Don’t Cry,” they owned The Grey Eagle stage and crowd. From swelling ballads to outright rockers to epic multi-section show-stoppers, the group put on god-dang show. 

It is kind of great to watch a band that isn’t too cool or hip to embrace rock god trappings. Standing high atop monitors, throwing devil horns, holding guitars and basses over their heads, the band seemed to have as much fun as the crowd. Wade, sporting a Megadeth T-shirt, rocked out as well, and whether she was on acoustic guitar or pacing the stage with mic in hand, belted out songs in her fiery voice.

The audience was all in, shouting lyrics back during Wade’s “Reckless,” swaying back and forth during the sweeping “Mend,” and going bonkers at the opening notes of “The Night,” a song with acoustic roots from the OurVinyl Sessions but reworked with a stomping freight train rhythm and released on an extended version of Reckless. And it seemed most everyone was waiting for their chance to sing along to that song’s line: “I won’t shut my mouth/Is it a rule down in the South/That you can’t talk about your mental health.”

And Wade can sing, with all the vigor and ferocity of a true rock frontwoman. She’s already proven she can yank heartstrings using only vocals and a guitar, but she can rock the room as well. Wade has an unabashedly southern twang and a voice that falls into a realm often described inadequately as “husky.” The adjective doesn’t do it justice for the kind of emotion it conveys — think Stevie Nicks or even Bonnie Tyler, two other women with instantly identifiable “husky” voices. 

But Nicks, despite her own legendary heartaches, never sang with quite the same kind of honest and open wounds that Wade seems to convey. Tyler, on the other hand, may be a more appropriate compatriot, and I bet Wade could tear “Total Eclipse of the Heart” a new one. And overplayed ’80s covers are not outside of Wade’s realm, affirmed when she ripped into a mashup of the Outfield’s “Your Love” and “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield.

The themes in Wade’s songs tend toward broken things — hearts, innocence, relationships, or peace of mind. And her voice matched that tone, whether softly struggling in the 4 a.m. loneliness of “Northern Air,” tipping over into a brazen wildcat growl on “The Night,” or even firing up the crowd with a cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Bad Karma.”

Her impact is only amplified by the band she has surrounded herself with — players that let her voice hold the spotlight while fueling its fire, especially with the swelling Hammond organ sounds from keyboardist Don Eanes and the lead guitar work of Clint Wells, who got in a few scorching, wall-of-sound solos of his own.

Staying true to the title of her tour, Wade is showing no signs of slowing down. Teasing a forthcoming new album, with Vaden returning to produce, she strutted through the pseudo-reggae beat of “Fall in Love with Me,” and a tribute to Alanis Morissette, with whom she recently shared the stage at the CMT Music Awards. Titled simply “Alanis,” the song could have easily been at home among the women rockers of 1990s MTV, and with the line “Alanis, however did you keep your sanity?” it fits right into Wade’s worldview.

Seventeen songs in, and with the crowd showing no signs of slowing down either, Wade closed with “Wilder Days,” the opening guitar chords bringing the audience into another tizzy. And when the singer/songwriter-turned-country rock frontwoman turned the mic on the audience to take a chorus, they crushed it.

If it was written in the stars that her show back in September 2021 would be Wade’s last as the opening act, the question now is whether she will have outgrown The Grey Eagle by the time her next tour comes around. So if you managed to snag tickets for her reappearance on April 15, lucky you — because it’s going to be a good one.

(Photos from the 4/15/23 show by Bryce Lafoon)