Cam began her Stagecoach set with one, long, glorious, sustained note, as she went into "Diane," her response to Dolly Parton's "Jolene."
Only the second female artist to grace the Mane Stage at Stagecoach this year, Cam's femininity and fearlessness about defying social norms was a welcome change of pace.
"If you think sex isn't as important to women as it is to men, then I got a story about your mama!" she playfully exclaimed before going into her debut single, "My Mistake" (once described by the New York Times as a "sex positive" song).
Later in her set, she recalled her grandmother telling her about sex. "'Camaron Marvel, sex is like a milkshake,'" she remembered her grandmother declaring. "Once you have it, you're alwyas going to want it." (There was a round of cheers for Grandma.)
But the reverence for Stagecoach expressed by nearly every performing artist was shared by Cam. "I can't tell you what it means to be here," she gushed. "I'm from California. I got marreid in Joshua Tree, right down the road there. It's really special to be around this magical scenery, these magical people."
In what is likely one of her first performances since its release earlier this week, Cam performed her new song, a collaboration with Diplo, "So Long," hinting that she may be a guest at the Sunday Late NIght after party in the Palomino tent.
She also performed her collaboration with Sam Smith, the achingly beautiful "Palace," and another new song, "Forgetting You When I'm Alone," about "the one person you can never get out of your mind."
"But you know what I love most about country music?" she asked. "It's full of strong, honest women. That's how we got Loretta Lynn's 'The Pill' and Kacey Musgraves singing about pot.'" She then noted that early in her career, she'd written a song for Miley Cyrus ("That was the highest I'd ever been!"), then performed a country-fied version of "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" mashed up with "Jolene," from Miley's godmother, the aforementioned Dolly Parton.
She briefly left the stage to don an elegant pink shawl that made her look positively ethereal for her closing number and signature song, "Burning House."
Setlist:
1. Diane
2. Mayday
3. Runaway Train
4. Forgetting You When I'm Alone
5. My Mistake
6. So Long
7. Palace
8. Til There's Nothing Left
9. Nothing Breaks Like a Heart / Jolene (Miley Cyrus / Dolly Parton covers)
10. Burning House
