Rain was already falling on the Ocean City Inlet when Miranda Lambert’s set began Saturday night, and according to OceanCity.com’s festival diary, it got heavier as she started. She called it a “bad-hair, ball-cap-wearing kind of day,” the account says, and she wore a ball cap and braids to match. The crowd sang “Kerosene” back to her through the downpour. Chris Stapleton followed on the Boot stage, and the same report says the rain never let up during his set.
That was the shape of the second and final day of Country Calling on Oct. 3, a sharp turn from the sunny opening day the Chronicle recapped. The forecast had warned of mid-60s temperatures and scattered showers, though not a washout, and with winds far lighter than the nor’easter that canceled Oceans Calling a week earlier. WBOC described the day as “gloomy, yet fun,” with rain affecting the crowd but not stopping the party. The festival, trimmed this year from three days to two, opened its gates at noon and enforced an 11 p.m. curfew.
The official schedule put 13 acts on three stages, Boot, Scoot and Boogie. Sons of Habit opened the Scoot stage at 12:30 p.m., and at 1:15 p.m. The Jack Wharff Band started on Boogie while Ocean City native Jimmy Charles started on Boot. Tyler Nance followed on Scoot at 2 p.m.
The first real fork in the day came at 3 p.m., when Rodney Atkins was scheduled on Boogie against Carter Faith on Boot. Faith, a Davidson, North Carolina, native, has ridden her debut album “Cherry Valley” to an Academy of Country Music Awards Album of the Year nomination, and that record was released on Oct. 3, 2025, exactly one year before her set.
Jackson Dean took the Scoot stage at 4 p.m. Setlist.fm lists “Make A Liar” from his third album, “Magnolia Sage,” which came out April 24. His management says an expanded edition, “Magnolia Sage (In Full Bloom),” arrives Friday, Oct. 9, with a new track featuring Laci Kaye Booth, and that he is in the middle of a 27-date tour that runs through Dec. 19 in Little Rock, Arkansas. At 5 p.m. the schedule split again. Charley Crockett was on Boot, in the middle of the tour for his April release “Age of the Ram,” the final chapter of his Sagebrush Trilogy, and the partial setlist includes “Waylon Rides Again” and “Run Horse Run.” On Boogie, Clay Walker’s listed songs were “Rumor Has It” and “If I Could Make a Living.” Dustin Lynch, on Scoot from 6 to 7 p.m., drew fans in ponchos who settled in despite the weather and his posted songs include “Chevrolet” and “Good Girl.”
The evening belonged to the three names at the top of the poster. Brothers Osborne played the Boot stage from 7 to 8:15 p.m., a set the duo had framed as a homecoming. TJ Osborne told Fox Baltimore the brothers grew up in Deale, Maryland, and that they planned to “show up on stage and bring high energy like we always do.” Setlist.fm shows the set included a cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” plus “Shoot Me Straight” and “It Ain’t My Fault,” though that list is incomplete.
Lambert’s 8:15 p.m. set on Scoot ran 17 songs, according to the setlist posted by fans. It started with “Fastest Girl in Town” and moved through “Kerosene,” “Heart Like Mine,” “White Liar” and “The House That Built Me.” She covered Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” and Audra Mae and The Almighty Sound’s “Little Red Wagon,” and she closed with “Gunpowder & Lead.”
Stapleton took the Boot stage at 9:30 p.m. for the final set before the 11 p.m. curfew. a calm, understated performance with no big production, played under rain that was not quite a downpour but enough to keep ponchos on and shoes wet. Fans held up birthday signs, and at least one couple got engaged during his first songs. One fan told the writer he was “100% worth the wait.” Stapleton is on his All-American Road Show tour, and the setlist.fm entry for the Ocean City show had no songs listed when this story was prepared, so the Chronicle is not reporting his song list.
The weekend landed in a town that needed it. The Chronicle’s pre-festival report found hotels 79% full in August, down from 89% a year earlier, and a beach waiting on a $27 million Army Corps replenishment project that is due to start this month, as the Chronicle detailed after the storm. Last year’s festival ran three days and ended with Luke Combs. This year it ended Saturday night, in the rain, at the curfew.
Coverage of Southern Maryland is sponsored by Coast2Coast RV Rentals, the Official Coverage Sponsor of the Southern Maryland Chronicle. Heading to the shore this fall? Coast2Coast RV Rentals delivers and sets up campers across the Delmarva Peninsula, at campgrounds, private lots and festivals. Learn more at coast2coastrvrental.com or on Facebook.
