LIVE: Daley Unplugged @ Highline Ballroom

Highline Ballroom is always on the top list of venues that you can go to and be truly ENTERTAINED. I mean...singing the songs to all of your jams by your favorite artists, you might even hold your boo thang a little tighter when a love talk and slow song comes on. I mean serious, homegrown, let loose and let your mind be free kind of experience. When the music is stripped down, and it is just one instrument, on artist, and hundreds of people inside, what can seem like one of the larger venues in NYC quickly becomes an intimate space. It is a musically arousing experience, if you will. You can't help but to be drawn in by how amazing everything sounds, how in tune with the artist the audience is, and you forget that you are just one in a few hundred. That was the experience of Highline when Daley carried his 'Unplugged' tour to this great city. Acoustic and intimate kind of energies are just a few of the adjectives that could describe how dope the show was. But if you've ever been to a Daley show, you should not be surprised.

The show opened with two up and coming performers that really knew how to hold their own and the crowd. First up was Travis McClung, a Dallas native with a sultry voice and a charm to match.  Performing a few covers such as John Legend's "Best You've Ever Had", Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", and "Thinking About You" by Frank Ocean, Travis was able to grab music fans by the ears and keep them there. In addition to his covers, he also performed a few of his own songs like "Power Trip" and "Losing You". He's definitely an artist to look out for.

Next on the bill was Conner Youngblood. This young man was a full on one man show. Now, I couldn't tell you all of the names for his songs because I honestly was not familiar (at the time!), but I am definitely going to be looking into his music. Between his 5 different versions of a guitar (I mean..the man pulled out a BANJO!), to his loop pedal which assisted in creating a full sound, Conner was nothing short of magnificent. I'm not sure if everyone was ready for his voice because outwardly he appears young, awkward, and introverted. But when that young man opened his mouth and started strumming his guitar?? I...yea...that boy good. He did perform a few of his well known (the some of the audience members) hits like "Australia" and rocked a dope cover of "The Cuckoo bird". Very well done performance and introduction to this amazing artist.

Daley is in a class of his own. From the moment the UK artist stepped on stage, to the time he opened his mouth and hit the first note, the fans of the crooner became even more attentive and more energetic. If what Daley says on his social media is true, then performing in NYC for this part of the tour was definitely the best night of his life. I mean, he performed EVERYTHING-- from "Good News", "Love and Affection", "Pass It On", and "She Fades", to getting on the piano and swooning his way into hearts by singing Jill Scott's "He Loves Me". Daley grabbed his own heart and spread it like butter all over that Highline stage, honey. Then the nerve...the audacity...for this man to fix his lips and cover Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" and Maxwell's "Pretty Wings". Listen, if you happened to look over in the corner to see a pretty brown thang slain in the spirit of music, that would've been me. And then to end the show with an encore of his most recognizable hit with Marsha Ambrosius "We Belong Together", this show was what unplugged is supposed to sound like.

I don't have to convince you of why you should have been there. All I will say is shame on you. Make sure you guys support this artist and get your complete eargasm on. Oh..and those photos you see? Those were provided by none of other than the dopest of dope photographers, Joann Gomez from Music Looks Like This. Make sure you get on that too!

Boom.