On Friday September 18th, 2026, Whitey Morgan and the 78's rolled into Off the Rails in Worcester Massachusetts with the direct support of Rob Leines for what would be an incredible night of music.
If you have followed this podcast at all over the last year at least, you would know that we have soft spots for a lot of things happening here on this night. We have our friend and former podcast guest Rob Leines in the building and that building has held something near and dear to us for the last 5 years.
Off the Rails is a venue where if you drive down Commercial Street in Worcester too fast, and yes, I have done this, you will miss it. It's a small intimate venue that has seen some incredible acts come through from Sawyer Brown, to LANCO, to The Cadillac Three, Shane Smith and the Saints, Drake White, and man does the list go on and on. This is a venue that if you're local, you definitely don't want to sleep on. The drinks are great, the food is, what it is, and the shows are superb.
Now, I know I am going to get shit for my food review, but we aren't a food blog, so take it for what it is. It's not Hell's Kitchen and it's not Applebee's ... the foods fine, stop looking into it more than needed. All I give a fuck about is this ... can they make an old fashioned properly ... they can .... moving on.
What I look for in a venue is simple. Are they easy to work with? Yes. Is the staff friendly and also easy to work with? Yes. Are the tunes good? Yes. It's all a win for me.
Now for the show.
Rob Leines and I go back to last December when we opened for Whiskey Meyers here in Boston. We met up after the show, shared some laughs and we had him booked for the podcast. You can find his episode anywhere you get podcasts. I will even make it easy for the lazy folks in the audience.
You're welcome ... seriously check this episode out, it's really great.
But anyway, I digress. We got to meet up with Rob after that show, did the podcast. Now, here we are.
I had never seen him full band and holy shit, I hate to say this, but....he may have stolen the show. I have never seen a crowd who was relatively unfamiliar with an opener get into it THAT much. They were cheering, clapping, stomping their feet and even singing a little here and there as they figured out what the lines were. It was definitely a sigh to see.
It was nice to meet Rob's drummer and bass player ... his male cousin on drummer and his little sister on bass ;) We aren't afraid to push it here ... so sorry Rob ... but your little sister stole the show buddy!
Overall, the whole set was about 45 mins or so and it felt like 5 minutes. The band was locked in, the songs were perfect and the crowd loved it.
Now, for the headliner. And honestly I thought ... how do you follow that? But I mean after all it is Whitey Fucking Morgan. What do you mean?
For those of you who don't know, Whitey is a force in the country rock n roll space and has been at it for years and will soon be releasing his first album in 8 years titled 'Hell on the Highway'.
We hadn't had the pleasure of seeing Whitey in the past. Every time he has come up this way we have had other obligations unfortunately, so we weren't about to miss this one. We actually missed Willow Avalon to be here and I think we made the right choice. We have seen Willow in the past. Anyway, I got off on a tangent. Some would said, I went off the rails ....
I wasn't sure what to expect here. My buddy Matt Westerman assured me I would not be disappointed and I wasn't.
The crowd was into it, the band was on fire and the walls were shaking. I loved seeing that an artist like Whitey can control a room the way he did and everyone was there to see him. When an artist can get close to selling out a room with zero radio play in a region, it's a testament to their craft and their relentless fight to be bigger and better with every note.
One of the biggest highlights for me was when a band has a dedicated Harp player. There's nothing better than a good harmonica in a rock n roll country band that can really take over a sound and make it their own.
This is a band and artist I will never miss again. Whitey has new music coming out, and maybe ... JUST MAYBE ... we can get him on the podcast very soon!
Thanks for reading! See ya'll soon!
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