Marcus K. DowlingNashville Tennessean
Country music's newly-minted stars ruled CMA Fest's third night at Nashville's Nissan Stadium.
From achieving dreams of playing any slot at the festival to capitalizing on minutes in front of the genre's ultimate audience, rising stars — be they viral like Tanner Adell, traditional like The War and Treaty or leading the genre's pop surge like Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson — this new class of performers showcased their artistry Saturday evening.
They did so against the backdrop of six decades worth of Grand Ole Opry members who appeared at the 51st CMA Fest on Saturday.
The War and Treaty complete their superstar transformation
Michael and Tanya Trotter need less than 90 seconds to silence a capacity crowd in a National Football League stadium.
CMA Fest fans across the Cumberland River from Lower Broadway are typically ready to shake it for any manner of farm animals Luke Bryan suggests or throw their hands in the air to a timeless country classic. The soulful stylings of the Americana Music Award-winning Trotters on their 2023-released single "Blank Page" are neither of these.
However, if you ask any performer on any CMA Fest stage this weekend — or better yet, their "Hey Driver" duet partner Zach Bryan — their sound is a peerless representation of how soul music is a tie that, much like country's roots, is an ever-present reminder of earnestly conveyed truth.
The husband and wife duo's set also showcased their gospel-country influences.
On "Yesterday's Burn," the two harmonized for about 20 seconds before Michael kissed his wife on the cheek. At the end, they shared a kiss prior to singing the heartwarming soul-stirrer "Stealing a Kiss."
Those harmonies also benefitted their just-released single "Called You By Your Name."
"We released a song yesterday," Tanya Trotter said. "I know they tell truth in Nashville so if you don't like it, I want to hear what it sounds like to hear 40-50,000 people boo. Just kidding, I don't want to hear that."
The crowd erupted.
The set also contained a memorable fashion moment. "Doesn't Michael look handsome?" Tanya Trotter asked, turning him to show off his gold-and-black studded vest that read "PRIDE LIKE CHARLEY" on the back.
Even for artists as gifted as The War and Treaty, actions speak louder than words.
Lainey Wilson developing the tools to define her superstar turn
When the reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year first attended CMA Fest in 2006, Taylor Swift and Eric Church were playing on the Riverfront Stage and Carrie Underwood was a year into her career and already a Nissan Stadium headliner.
True to her statement, from that date forward, the multi-platinum-selling performer keenly took notes on how to replicate and extend that success.
Wilson sauntered onto Nissan Stadium's stage to the strains of her forthcoming "Whirlwind" album track "Hang Tight Honey," turquoised and rhinestonedto the nines and singing in a microphonewrapped in scarves a la peak-era Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler.
Wilson combines influences as diverse as swamp rock, gospel soul and 90s country into an ear-warming sing-along blend. And once she added cowbell and Terri Clark hit the stage to perform a duet of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," the crowd began to stir.
Then she took it up a notch, following "Heart Like A Truck" with "Watermelon Moonshine," drawing broad smiles and screams of glee from the audience.
"Y'all look beautiful, take it in," she said.
In her third Nashville appearance in a row (following May 31 and June 1 headlining dates at Ascend Amphitheater), Wilson's "Country's Cool Again" started a hair slower and with a tenor huskier than it should be played. Yet once it was allowed to warm, like bourbon, into its most delicious form, the crowd exploded into applause.
A Wilson tilt of her Black Charlie 1 Horse hat to the camera later, followed by a bluesy Zeppelin guitar sent her set into the unhinged-feeling rock madness of "Wildflowers and Wild Horses."
One day, the song's galloping drums and scream-ready lyrics will make it Wilson's signature anthem. Currently, it's a barnstorming locomotive erupting across stadiums worldwide.
"The whole world done gone country y'all, and I'm loving every single minute of it," stated Wilson, laughing at the end of her set.
Keith Urban remains a country music standard-bearer
Jelly Roll and Ashley McBryde, this year's CMA Fest hosts, said right: It's not CMA Fest without Keith Urban.
Ultimately, Urban's work at the festival as a guitar wizard who transforms Nissan Stadium into the largest, intimate dive bar on Earth continued his legacy as entertainer par excellence.
Songs like set opener “Straight Line” and the unreleased rocker “Messed Up As Me” immediately sounded both familiar and fun.
If one walked on Saturday from one end of Lower Broadway to the other, they'd have seen Opry cast members and affiliated artists spanning generations, from T. Graham Brown's and Jeannie Seely's soul-tinged voices to the harmonies and grooves of Opry Nextstage members 49 Winchester and Chapel Hart.
Need more proof of theOpry's presence? When Urban brought out Wilson to perform their new duet “Go Home W U,” the latter shouted “Keith Urban” she shouted at the end as the fringe on her leather vest swayed to the bass.
“Lainey Wilson, the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry,” Urban said.
When Urban kicked into "Blue Is Your Color," all of those qualities crystallized into a rapturous ovation.
The audience then danced during “Better Life” and “Long Hot Summer.”
“Let’s keep it going,” the Aussie shouted running onto the floor. The performer was immediately drowned in a sea of cellphone camera lights.
Urban’s security guards surrounded him as he made his way back to the stage only inches from fans. But before reaching the barricade, he side leapt up the stairs into the audience and grabbed a white cowboy hat from a fan that he placed on his head.Urban hopped on a chair in the first ring level of the arena and made up his own impromptu words to the looped beat of “Long Hot Summer.”He ran back to the stage to close out a stellar set.
Jelly Roll cements superstardom by 'breaking generational curses'
"Wanted Dead or Alive" played as Jelly Roll took thestage to close out Night 3 of CMA Fest.
Anyone tracking the career of the Nashville native born Jason Deford understands the meaning of the Bon Jovi hit, as it relates to one of the hottest country stars on the planet.
Before 2024, Jelly Roll's story was impossible and improbable.
"Tonight, I close the show at Nissan Stadium. I have been a Tennessee Titans fan ever since they came to Nashville," he offered via social media. "I remember watching them build the same stadium. I remember going to the first game at the stadium with my father. God rest his soul. (Tonight, I'll fulfill) a lifelong dream."
Friends like Keith Urban paired with him for country radio's current No. 1 hit "Highway to Hell." At the same time, he performed "Son of A Sinner" as yet another year's homage to youth incarcerated in his home for many years,the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center. While performing at Nissan Stadium at CMA Fest in 2023, he noted the center was right next to the stadium's Parking Lot P.
The rapper-turned-singer smiled as tears flowed from his face, given what was forthcoming in his set.
One of the reasons Jelly Roll works as a pop star is because country fans are hip-hop devotees.
At Night 3 of 2024's CMA Fest, we learned that minimally, tens of thousands of country's fans, in unison, can recite the words to NWA's "Boyz n Tha Hood," DMX's "Ruff Ryders Anthem," Eminem's "Lose Yourself," Outkast's "Ms. Jackson" and Biz Markie's "Just A Friend."
To be sure Jelly Roll's influences curt across genre and generation. On Saturday, he also cited Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Bob Seger, Metallica, Nirvana and LynyrdSkynyrd.
His closing ballads, "I Need A Favor" and "Save Me" (featuring an emotional Lainey Wilson), highlighted two statementshe made as a much larger statement regarding his career and life to come.
"Country music changed my life by helping me break generational curses." And: "You can do whatever the f*** you want to do."
