REVISITING 2024: Midland’s return to Austin is the Best Homecoming a Fan Could Ask For
The country trio's first of two nights headlining ACL Live was a magical moment for everyone.
If we take a few steps back and look at 2022, when I was intrigued by the idea of shooting concerts, I got to shoot Midland and The Wilder Blue at Cook’s Garage as my first true concert for KTXT The Raider 88.1. (If you feel so inclined, you can read Andrew’s words and see our photos from the night here.)
I had a grasp on photography, but at that point, I thought photo editing was as simple as pressing Auto in Lightroom and throwing the Vintage 2 preset on it. Two years later, you can see the clear progression in how Andrew and I conduct ourselves and our photos. Seeing that Midland was coming to Austin, I thought it would be perfect to see them again for two reasons: The first being because Barely Blue was an extremely underrated and beautiful country record from last year, and the second being that since they were once again opening with The Wilder Blue as well as Texas Tech-originating artist Hudson Westbrook, I could get a chance to gage how much I have grown as an artist.
I had only been to ACL Live during my two years of SXSW, so to catch a regular show there was pretty exciting. Hudson Westbrook came out first with his full band. It has been cool to see his growth having seen him play an early set at CottonFest and Austin City Limits to opening for Midland where the crowd is going bananas for him. His exponential growth keeps going higher and higher.
After a quick changeover, The Wilder Blue came out with Zane Williams ready to throw down. I always thought it was cool that my first night of shooting a concert will forever be highlighted by The Wilder Blue, thanks to their song Bless My Bones ending with them discussing their performance at Cook’s Garage. It is also the song they opened their set with. Super Natural was a fantastic album from 2023, and finally hearing some of those cuts live was super cool.
It did not take long before Midland graced the stage all snazzy and confident. They opened with the titular track from Barely Blue which is so damn good that I honestly wish they played it twice followed by some additional cuts from the album. It is nice to see that even though they have such a large discography, Midland still finds time in their set to play covers of Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, and others.
The night closed out with Midland welcoming the legendary Gary P. Nunn to the stage to cover a Willie Nelson song and Jerry Jeff Walker’s London Homesick Blues. Midland is such a treat live and I am lucky that my camera and I have gotten to see them twice now.