Maren Morris w/ Miya Folick at Midland Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-19)

Summer and ice cream!

Each seems to go hand-in-hand, and no sound is better when growing up, than hearing the bell ring announcing the local ice cream man. One of those treats usually on the menu was a Dreamsicle, a frozen concoction of sun-kissed orange sherbet with a vanilla ice milk center, that could often hit the spot, on a hot and humid day.

The musical version of that same level of satisfaction comes from Grammy, ACM, and CMA Award-winning singer-songwriter Maren Morris, currently out on her Dreamsicle World Tour, which made a stop in downtown Kansas City at the Midland Theatre.

The evening got underway with a seven-song set from rising LA singer-songwriter Miya Folick who just released her self-produced third studio album, Erotica Veronica via Nettwerk. There’s obvious pride in presenting the new material, as almost all songs played were taken from the record, beginning with its opening track.

“Elton John” is a yet-to-be-released song, inspired by her father who passed away four years ago. and is about the greater themes of loss, memory, the healing power of music, and a newfound perspective about her LA home area, and will be included on the upcoming deluxe version of the record (released in January with digital previews available now).

Folick turned more fierce for a soaring “Love Wants Me Dead” from the new album, and that fierceness lyrically turned into more rage on the set-closing “Fist”, an exhaling release from trauma and how that affects feeling safe and self-assured… or not (with all delivered in the nicest musical way).

Folick deserves your attention and can be better appreciated in a more intimate setting, so we hope she’ll return to headline a local club soon.

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After a brief set change, all was ready for the anticipated hundred-minute headlining performance from Maren Morris in support of her new full-length, D R E A M S I C L E (released in May via Columbia Records).

The album continues, and is a culmination of previous EPs, The Bridge and Intermission, and represents a bit of a 2.0 re-birthed version of the artist; on her first full outing following some life changes and needing to distance herself from the more ‘toxic’ aspects of the Country community, and to lean in a bit more towards pop.

Morris shimmered in a pastel sparkling short dress with wispy feathered pieces making up the skirt, appearing first on a cake top-looking round tiered elevated platform with Lego/domino-like structures framing her and her five-piece band (they also doubled as light kits).

Morris seemed dream-like herself, gesturing while singing between two whisper fans that fluttered her hair back with just enough wind to make the right breeze.

Beginning with the new “cry in the car,” the song grabbed and held the crowd’s attention from its first notes and was followed by early hit, “80’s Mercedes” from Hero, her 2016 major label debut, which got the audience into a sing-along mood early on. The recent songs continued with the Jack Antonoff produced stomper, “People Still Show Up” then went back to the 2019 title track of her album, “GIRL.”

New song, “Cut!” is a collaboration with Julia Michaels and exemplifies Morris’ spirit of saying exactly what’s on her mind, knowing when to say enough, and not ashamed to admit when she has no F’s left to give.

It’s that kind of honest and relatable spirit (plus that gallon-sized voice in a pint-sized frame), evidenced even more so in her conversation between songs, that makes Morris highly relatable- describing universal troubles that are easy to identify with, and comfortably feeling like you’re spending time with a friend.

“I just want to hear songs about those awkward in-betweens,” she told the crowd, who was in full agreement about wanting to listen to the unvarnished truth.

The new “Be a Bitch” was about being duped and seeing some true colors shown and was a bit of a deep cut, taken from the deluxe version of the new record. She explained how difficult and eventually cathartic the new album was to create, and how most of the title track came to her, randomly in the middle of one night.

Huge crossover hit “The Middle” was performed just past the mid-way point, with the electro dialed down which showcased how her versatile voice can really sing probably any musical genre (that is, when we could clearly hear it over the crowd singing every chorus of the song back to the stage).

The lone cover of the night was an ideal song that seemed to reflect her personality as well as its original writer’s- “Talking Body,” the radio single from Swedish songstress Tove Lo, is an energetic pop song that is unabashed and empowered, as well as suggestive. And, as fans of Lo may know, she usually does a certain action when performing the song, but rest assured that Morris deferred, and kept the night mostly family friendly, save for an errant curse word or two.

She described the new “This is How a Woman Leaves” (co-written by Lawrence, KS’ own Sarah Buxton!) as a life-changing track for her, a song that helped get her through her own hard times and said she feels gratified when fans describe to her similar, as related to their own lives.

Early breakthrough hit “My Church” brought out a multitude of camera phones and the sing-along choir of the audience, and before “Carry Me Through” she thanked the loyal for sticking by her for the last decade, through thick and thin.

The evening would end on one last song of joyous resilience (and a mega-hit at that, topping multiple US charts in 2019), “The Bones” with Morris emoting, “I know any storm we’re facing will blow right over while we stay put, the house don’t fall when the bones are good.”

It may seem to some like a form of ‘public therapy’ that she deals with and helps move past her struggles by turning some of that energy into the form of songs (Swifties should be able to relate) but with Maren Morris, it’s more about shining a spotlight on those greater and common themes (good and bad) in hopes that other people can also relate. To be possibly helped through their own difficulties, via her music, and knowing they’re not alone in any dark. That sounds like the bigger treat.

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)