From classic country to modern superstars, 5 moments that defined Day 2 at CMA Fest
On CMA Fest's second day , rabid crowds lured by country music's meteoric rise in mainstream popularity arrived downtown Nashville in droves.
Two of CMA Fest's daytime stages — Reverb in front of Bridgestone Arena and Riverfront on the Cumberland River's banks — were closed to additional fans by midafternoon due to overcrowding.
However, that didn't deny the crowd's excitement over seeing established performers like chart-toppers BRELAND and Colbie Caillat, plus America's most unexpected top-selling country performer of 2024, Shaboozey.
Alongside the day celebrating the past two generations of pop intersecting with country music, the evening's offerings at Nissan Stadium highlighted the modern era's latest contributions to the genre's timeless traditions.
Shaboozey's stunning, star-making 24-hour moment
June 1 marked a month since Northern Virginia native Shaboozey's hit single "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" achieved No. 1 status on Billboard's country sales charts. One week later, he'll leave CMA Fest not only having seen that success key him to earning a joyous ovation while playing the song at Nissan Stadium on Thursday evening but also shutting down a major thoroughfare in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
As the entry gates were closed before his performance in front of what the Country Music Association confirms as an estimated 5,000 people at the Good Molecules Reverb stage at 1:35 p.m., an officer near the stage was asked if this was the first stage they had ever closed. "There hasn't been anyone else this big on this stage," he told a Tennessean reporter,
While that statement is debatable, Shaboozey's popularity is undeniable and is potentially growing stronger.
When coupled with his decade-long body of work, his latest album, "Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going," feels well-suited — alongside rhythmic hits by artists like Post Malone and Morgan Wallen — to satisfy the needs of country-curious pop fans willing to have their three chords and the truth soaked in Jack Daniels and Western vibes.
On Thursday, he smiled blissfully at his Nissan Stadium response. Sixteen hours later, he played "Tipsy" twice in the same set. While inciting delirium from a live crowd, he wiped tears of joy from his eyes.
In 2024, life still happens fast, but music industry acclaim happens faster.
Not losing himself amid the madness could yield more considerable star-making moments.
Cody Johnson delivers a 'real deal' superstardom-entrenching performance
"He's the real deal, a real damn cowboy and a real damn Texan," stated CMA Fest co-hosts Jelly Roll and Ashley McBryde before Sebastapol, Texas native Cody Johnson took to the Nissan Stadium stage for yet another year.
Though five years into jumping from road-worn independent renown to mainstream country superstardom, songs like 2023 "Leather" album track "That's Texas" and five-year-old "Ain't Nothin' to It" single "Long Haired Country Boy" sound like they've been in country's multigenerational songbook since at least when Charlie Daniels released "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" 45 years ago.
"Seven men are pouring their heart and soul into this music," stated Johnson about the earnest work of his longtime touring band, The Rocking CJB.
Not but a minute after making that statement, Jelly Roll, an artist and man Johnson noted earlier in the day at CMA Fest's Spotlight Stage, was "an (unlikely) friend (he'd learned) to admire and respect because of his moral fabric — and love of classic and modern country music," joined him for their "Leather" album collaboration "Whiskey Bent."
Couple those moments with a follow-up of his current country radio single "The Painter" — about how important his wife of nearly 20 years, Brandi, is to his life — and who Johnson is, at present, emerges:
He's at peace with the life his current success, which is growing from the least-anticipated to the most-wanted variety, allows him to experience.
Thus, his sing-along-enhanced performance of set closer "Til You Can't" was as much a catharsis as it was a celebration shared with tens of thousands.
Clint Black, Little Big Town, Gretchen Wilson, bring throw-back country stylings
On Friday night, three generations of country favorites crooned, grooved and rocked Nissan Stadium.
"Hello CMA Fest, it feels so good to be back here after all these years," roared Gretchen Wilson, who started her early evening set with "Here for the Party."
The "Redneck Woman" performer (who opened at Nissan on Friday), Clint Black (who performed his iconic 1989 No. 1 hit "Killin Time" with Jon Pardi) and Little Big Town (who appeared on the mid-field Nissan Stadium Spotlight Stage to crush their hit "Girl Crush") have achieved over four-dozen top-10 country hits in full in their careers.
Extending their hits into legacies, in Aug. 2024, Little Big Town will release a "Greatest Hits" album to mark their 25th anniversary as a band.
Backed by harmonies, Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild delivered powerful vocals. She sang the final refrain with the crowd, crooning, "I've got a girl crush / Hate to admit it but / I got a heart rush / It ain't slowin' down."
Black appeared as a surprise guest during Pardi's set.
Long before achieving quintessential modern country success, the "Last Night Lonely" vocalist cut his teeth in Northern California and downtown Nashville playing songs like Black's.
"Legend!" Pardi roared after the song, thanking Black. "A legend right there."
Kelsea Ballerini's uniquely confident stardom inspires sing-along excitement from Nissan crowd
Kelsea Ballerini entered the Nissan Stadium stage to a triumphant ambiance as it was awash in purple lights: an artist entering a new chapter defined by confident, main character energy.
Her first song?
"Rolling Up The Welcome Mat" album breakup anthem "Mountain With A View."
Similar to the stripped, "healed" version of "Rolling Up The Welcome Mat" tracks "Penthouse and "Blindsided," on record, "Mountain With A View" sounds like quiet yet strong encouragement. After filling her first arena show at nearby Knoxville's Thompson-Bolling Arena in Nov. 2023, it sounds like a bombastic, fully evolved anthem of freedom.
Calling her set a brief journey through a decade of her work, she celebrated the tenth anniversary of her debut single, "Love Me Like You Mean It."
2016's "Yeah Boy" was met with squeals of joy from Ballerini's fanbase. If they're 21 as she turns 30, they were newly teenaged and singing pop-country songs about drinking wine with boys wearing blue jeans and ball caps.
Now that Ballerini and her core fanbase are all legally able to drink, that song being followed by "Hole In The Bottle" was as much an opportunity for the performer to sip a glass of red wine onstage as it was to play her bluegrass-inspired and honky-tonking hit.
Speaking of bluegrass, her East Tennessee roots and strong songwriting skills benefit making IF YOU GO DOWN (I'M GOIN' DOWN TOO) not just feel like an "unhinged" throwaway but a crowd-beloved, sing-along set closer that earned one of the night's loudest ovations.
Luke Bryan delivers beloved favorites to CMA Fest crowd
"Y'all ready to party on a Friday night?," Luke Bryan said as he strutted onstage, sporting a flannel, jeans and a baseball cap.
"This is the first Friday night I've played at CMA Fest in a long time. And I feel amazing and I'm ready to have some fun with the greatest country music fans in all the world, you guys."
Everything about a Luke Bryan set feels like a familiar television commercial about how much the art of country music evolving into America's most saleable musical brand is linked to the Georgia native's 30 No. 1 singles.
That's not just because he's an "American Idol" co-host.
Instead, imploring a building with a capacity of over 50,000 people to engage in "hunting, fishing and loving every day" sounds, as earnestly delivered, dogmatic and for many, wildly entertaining.
Bryan's live band is so dialed into its art that country fans are amazed and transfixed by extended musical solos.
Later in Bryan's set, he delivers the banjo-driven honky-tonk groove of his 13-year-old, nearly diamond-selling hit "Country Girl (Shake It For Me)." Rare is the song that grows from a radio hit to a cultural anthem.
Bryan finished the night appropriately, with "I Don't Want This Night To End" to, for the remaining crowd, a wild ovation.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CMA Fest Friday highlights: Cody Johnson, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan
