Canadian country singer-songwriter Josh Ross capped off Day #1 at Petrolia’s Hard Oil Music Festival with a high energy headlining set on Thursday, August 15, 2024.
“Hey, sorry I didn’t wear my country outfit tonight,” Ross told the crowd.
“We were debating on outfits before the show, and I was like the temperature here is so nice, I just want to feel the breeze tonight.
Ross added: “So, we’re going to roll with that. Thank-you so much for being here. If you just stumbled in tonight and you don’t know why you’re here, or you do know why you’re here, and you’re here for me, thank-you very much. If you’re not here for me, here’s a bunch of songs we’re going to know together that we can sing together.”
Early in his performance, Ross had a conversation with some fans who travelled from Spain to see the Petrolia concert.
“Why the heck would you come here all the way from Spain?” Ross asked.
“You got family here? You just wanted to come to a show? Badass, let’s go. Give it up for Spain right now.”
SWOMP was in the pit to capture Ross’ performance:
UMG Nashville/Universal Music Canada artist Josh Ross is one of Nashville’s most promising singer-songwriter-performers.
On an unconventional path of his own design, Ross pairs a dark, mellow blast of modern country rock with a warm vocal rasp, heart-on-his-sleeve writing and addictive hooks that respect no borders – genre or otherwise.
Pulling influence everywhere from Guns N’ Roses and Metallica to country-rock outlaw Steve Earle, the former collegiate football player has leveraged his knack for emotional song craft into a series of Platinum-certified Top 5 Canadian country radio hits.
His dusky power ballad “Trouble” rose to #1 in Canada, leading Ross to a CCMA Breakthrough Artist of the Year win.
Now breaking through in the US, the rising star has tallied more than 300 million career streams and been hailed as an Artist to Watch by Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, MusicRow, the Grand Ole Opry and more.
Touring alongside hard-rocking superstars like Nickelback, Luke Bryan, Brantley Gilbert and Bailey Zimmerman, he has already headlined his own sold-out run and will embark on his first US headline tour later this summer.
Ross released his new EP Complicated on March 29, co-writing seven of the project’s eight tracks. With thundering drums meeting steel guitars and the melodies of heartland pop, tracks like his current chart-climber “Single Again” show off Ross’ rich, edgy vocal set to a barroom anthem.
Complicated arrives just five years after Ross arrived in Nashville, proving there’s much more to come from this next-generation talent who’s anything but standard.
Follow Josh at https://www.joshrossmusic.com/.