By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Hundreds of attendees to the Bratwurst Festival were able to see James Otto Friday night at the FC Bank Stage. Those that missed out “should have seen it in color.”
Otto, who co-wrote the song “In Color” with Jamey Johnson, was a late edition to the lineup after a scheduling mix-up with original headliner Clare Dunn left FC Bank without a lead act. Otto explained how he stepped in on short notice.
“I just got a call from my agent, he said we got a gig up in Bucyrus, Ohio and they would love to have you at Brat Fest, I was like let’s do it, I got the day off.”
Otto who came directly to Bucyrus from Nashville, Tenn., where he is working on his follow up to the single “Somewhere Tonight,” played a few new tunes, a few covers, as well as a few crowd favorites.
Taking the stage at 9:30 Otto opened his show with “Shake What God Gave You.” During the breakdown of the song Otto and his band went into covers of Nelly’s “Hot in Here” followed by The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” before returning into the song. After a performance of “Groovy Little Summer Song,” Otto went into a new tune, “Beautifully Crazy.”
After a performance of “Since You Brought it Up,” Otto asked the crowd if there were any Bob Seger fans in the crowd, before going into his version of the Seger classic “Night Moves.” After paying homage to Seger, Otto’s band left the stage and Otto played solo for the song that he co-wrote with Chris Janson, “Holding Her.”
The crowed was treated to another new song, before Otto went into a song that he had co-written with Zac Brown titled “No Hurry.” As the band finished the song they were in no hurry to leave the stage as they closed out the main set with Tom Petty’s, “Free Fallin’.”
After a quick break Otto thanked the crowd for coming out to the show before going into the encore of his number one hit “Just Got Started Lovin’ You,” and finishing out the show with ”Somewhere Tonight.”
Andy Dale, President of FC Bank, felt that Otto would be a great replacement.
“I think he is going to be a great replacement, we had a contract confusion with the original act and got through that, and James Otto is going to be here, and we are excited, and I think he is going to bring a lot of great energy,” Dale said.
While the Bratwurst Festival’s 50th anniversary is a year away Dale explained they are in the beginning stages for planning next year’s show.
“I am sure the committee is thinking about it, we start thinking about all of our budgeting plans, so right now we are thinking about it, but we are in the very early stages,” Dale responded.
Attending the show were husband and wife Bill and Angie Mason.
“We love country music, The Eric Sowers Band was pretty good, but there were a few songs from James Otto that we really liked, our favorite is “Just got Started Lovin’ You,” and we hope to get his autograph,” Bill said.
Attending the show were friends Tasha Osborne and Tina Rotermund. Osborne explained that they had come to the concert to have fun, and enjoy live music.
“We came out to have some fun at the Bratwurst Festival,” Osborne said. “The fact that live music is in Bucyrus is wonderful.”
Local act The Eric Sowers Band, fresh off of a recording stint in Nashville, opened the show. Drummer Neil Anderson spoke a little bit about the album.
“We got a new CD out, My Kind of Country, we just released that in March, we went down to Nashville and recorded that with Gary Carter, and he has worked with Randy Travis and Faith Hill. He works at the Opry House down there, does bookings for them, he was the producer for it, and worked with some great people on that,” Anderson said.
“There is eight tracks on the album, six of the eight were co-written by us. It is a little bit of something for everyone,” Eric Sowers added.
Sowers explained some of his influence as a country act.
“The main influence that I have is traditional with a little bit of modern vibe to it, Justin Moore is someone I look up to, and then falling back later George Strait and Garth Brooks, people like that.”
The Eric Sowers Band took the stage at 8:30 p.m. offering up their brand of country, mixing in covers with originals.
Tonight the FC Bank will feature Eagles tribute band 7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles experience at 9 p.m., with The Jessica Hannan Band opening the show at 7:30 p.m.