MUSIC

Ludacris plays all the hits, Megan Moroney skewers exes and more notes from Two Step Inn

Kelsey Bradshaw
Austin American-Statesman

A sea of cowboy hats bounced toward the ground as rapper Ludacris asked, "How low can you go" at Two Step Inn music festival in Georgetown Sunday night.

"It feels really good to be the only rapper at an all country music festival," Ludacris told the crowd during his wonderful performance, which was equal parts fever dream and a trip to the early 2000s.

In its second year, Two Step Inn music festival brought thousands to San Gabriel Park in Georgetown April 20-21. The festival is all country music and this year's lineup featured Cody Johnson, Martina McBride, Turnpike Troubadors, Megan Moroney, Hank Williams Jr., Charley Crockett and more. We spent Sunday at the event and came away ready to put Two Step Inn down as one of our favorite festivals.

Temperatures on Sunday were in the upper 60s and low 70s with sunshine and cool winds during the day, and a bit of a chill at night.

Two Step Inn is what we imagine Austin City Limits Music Festival once was — it felt small despite thousands roaming the park and attendees set up around stages in rows of camping chairs they brought. (To note: C3 Presents puts on both ACL Fest and Two Step Inn.) The park is not huge, but not tiny, and you could hear artists on the big stages, Big River and Pony Up, from wherever you were. So, if you wanted to hang back at the Pony Up stage between Megan Moroney and Ludacris, you were still able to hear Hank Williams Jr. killing it on the Big River stage. You didn't have to rush. It was so nice.

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Charley Crockett brought the Lone Star vibes

Charley Crockett performs on the Big River stage at the Two Step Inn country music festival at San Gabriel Park on Sunday, April 21, 2024 in Georgetown, Texas.

Charley Crockett's set made us feel lucky to live in Texas. Crockett kicked off his show with "$10 Cowboy" and as his deep, smooth voice floated over the crowd, we watched couples two step on mini dance floors set up in front of the stage. Wind swished the grass as dancers twirled and shuffled their boots on the floors. Where else but Texas?

Megan Moroney is the 'World's best ex-girlfriend'

Megan Moroney performs on the Pony Up stage at the Two Step Inn country music festival at San Gabriel Park on Sunday, April 21, 2024 in Georgetown, Texas.

After a hot dog pit stop at Zee's Weiner System (yum by the way), we moseyed over to Megan Moroney's evening set. The Pony Up stage, which is the smaller of the two main stages, was filled to the brim for Moroney, who came on stage after playing Taylor Swift's "... Ready for it?" She arrived in a bubblegum pink baseball tee that read: "World's best ex-girlfriend."

"Hi my name's Megan and I write songs and I have horrible taste in men," Moroney told the crowd at one point.

Upbeat, fun and funny songs about relationships are Moroney's specialty. "I'm Not Pretty" is a new favorite with lyrics like: "Somewhere out there my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend's/ Scrolling through my Instagram/ Tearing me down, passing the phone around" and "Girl, let me guess, you don't like how I dress/ And you're hating on the way I talk (bless your heart)." Any song that includes "bless your heart" works for us.

"Man on the Moon," an unreleased Moroney song, made us want to dance and "Lucky" cemented us as Moroney heads. Moroney maniacs? We'll work on it. Whatever we're called, we loved Moroney. She makes breakup songs feel fresh and we had a dang good time listening to her. The girl's got something and we can't wait to see her headline Two Step Inn at future festivals.

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Ludacris at Two Step was mind-bending madness (that worked!)

Ludacris and Lil' Fate perform on the Pony up stage at the Two Step Inn country music festival at San Gabriel Park on Sunday, April 21, 2024 in Georgetown, Texas.

Shall we get back to Ludacris? How does one describe such a perfect, mind-bending experience?

Imagine your feet are tired from clomping around in cowboy boots all day, because you had to dress the part, of course. You just listened to Hank Williams Jr. sing after asking the crowd, "Are you ready for some country?" A drunk couple is dancing all over each other in front of you, and also Ludacris is there.

And Ludacris is rapping about licking a person and then all of a sudden Justin Bieber's "Baby" is playing so Ludacris can rap his featured verses. Mid-performance, we realize Ludacris has had a part of every thing ever made in the world ever — he's on Usher's "Yeah." Je just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has a verse on Fergie's "Glamorous." He knows Justin Bieber. He's in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise. He's part of every song that every millennial sang at school dances, and on and on.

"You could have picked any rapper in the world, but you picked Ludacris and that means the world to me," Ludacris told the crowd.

It meant the world to us, too, Ludacris.

Bijan Robinson, running back for the Atlanta Falcons and former Texas Longhorn, holds up the sign of the horns for the crowd ahead of a performance by Ludacris on the Pony Up stage at the Two Step Inn country music festival at San Gabriel Park on Sunday, April 21, 2024 in Georgetown, Texas.