Country singer Ryan Griffin, who headlined a night of country music at the Compass Centre on Saturday night, debuted his new song before an appreciative Cayman audience.
Griffin and his band played an elongated set, that included his new song ‘For Old Time’s Sake’, which he said he was playing live for the first time. He also played ‘Dibs’, the number one hit he wrote with Kelsey Ballerini, as well as his viral hit ‘Salt, Lime and Tequila’ that had the crowd shouting for more.
He told a cheering audience that this was his first time in Cayman, though hopefully not his last, as he’d quickly developed a taste for the island, and for the local Caybrew beer – which resulted in many cans of lager being held up in the air by the crowd in the field.
Griffin’s act followed the second annual Mike Flowers Chili Cook-Off, held at the Compass Green outside the Compass Centre in George Town.
Local singer Bob Moseley and his band opened for the Florida-born, Tennessee-based Griffin.
Debut song
Griffin told the Compass the new song, ‘For Old Time’s Sake’, is one he had just written, “and the whole label is really excited about it, so we figured we’d play it here tonight”.
“It’s got more of a soulful, R&B, country vibe to it which I love,” he added.
He says he thinks it’s a song that everybody can relate to, about past relationships. “When you know it’s not going to be, like, the love of your life, but you do kinda love that person, you have that relationship with them, it’s like, let’s just hang out, one more time, for old’s time sake.”
Close call
The gig could have been minus one guitarist, as Griffin’s bass player, Cornelius Perry, lost his passport on his way to Cayman.
Perry explained to the Compass following Saturday’s concert that when he boarded his flight to Charlotte, through which he was connecting to his Cayman flight, he realised the pocket of his carry-on bag, in which he’d had his passport, was open and empty.
So, while he could get as far as Charlotte, he wouldn’t have been able to board the international flight to Cayman.
Knowing that drummer Michael Sturd was on a flight to Charlotte about three hours later, Perry called him and asked him if he could check out the gate area at the airport before he boarded his plane.
“Sure enough, he ran over there, a few minutes before he had to get on his flight, and it was just laying in the middle of the little walkway, right at the gate. The carpet’s blue, so it just blended in with the colour,” Perry said.
Despite this hiccup, the band made it to Grand Cayman on Friday afternoon.
They headed to their hotel, had dinner, and on Saturday went straight into sound checks and rehearsals, followed by a “little nap ‘cos we’d been up for 40 hours straight”, Griffin said.
“We’re going to stay for a couple of days and just enjoy the island,” he said, adding that Seven Mile Beach and Stingray City were on the agenda.
Griffin says it was an easy decision to come play in Cayman.
“I got a call asking if I wanted to play here, and I said, ‘I do, I definitely do.'”
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