For country artist and actress Mackenzie Porter, there’s really nothing like performing a diverse set of of tracks — ranging from a cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs” to her own standouts including “Pickup” and “These Days,” to playing new songs off of her forthcoming sophomore album — to a crowd of Southern California fans.
Porter put on an early set during the first day of the two-day Coastal Country Jam, which made its return after a four-year hiatus to a new location at Marina Green Park in Long Beach on Saturday, Sept. 16.
“If I was going to play any pop or R&B classics to a crowd, it sure as hell was going to be here in the West Coast,” Porter said with a laugh backstage just after her 40-minute turn. “It’s one of the best crowds to kind of tweak your set, just have fun and go for it. I feel like I’m able to just play what I want and that’s what I wanted to do today.”
Though she hails from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, she found a sense of belonging and comfort in California, giving her lots of excitement to work with while playing to the crowd on Saturday. She said that this Coastal Country Jam set marked one of the first opportunities to showcase tracks from the upcoming album. Judging by the new songs she played, the fans seemed to embrace it as they cheered and screamed along to Porter’s infectious country-pop tunes.
“This new record has so many levels to it, with pop-country as being the influence,” she said. “But it’s deeper than that. It also has the singer-songwriter part of me which I haven’t done in a while. I think this time I was able to write more freely and from the heart. It’s seriously the best collection of songs I’ve done. This record is holding a collection of 20 songs that I wrote throughout last year and it just feels like the right timing to put this out now.”
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