Lady A launched its Request Line Tour on Friday (April 14) at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The first of two sold-out nights at the famed venue, the evening served as a long overdue celebration between the band and their fans following the postponement of the trek eight months ago. The trio pushed the initial tour launch so member Charles Kelley could begin his sobriety journey.
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“We are so excited,” Kelley said several songs into the band’s nearly two-hour set. “We’ve been thinking about this tour for quite some time and for some reason, we had to delay it just a little bit. But I can tell you it was well worth the wait because of the heart that we’re putting into this now. I feel like this is the most proud I’ve ever been of us as a band. We’ve been a band for 17 years.”
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Kelley went on to explain that the tour was curated by the fans. The trio took requests from fans all over the world through phone calls, social media, and text messages. Throughout the evening, some of the voicemail requests from fans in attendance were played. At one point, Lady A even gifted a fan with an autographed telephone.
The set list spanned the band’s catalog, including “All We’d Ever Need,” (the first song they wrote together as a trio), a new unreleased ballad titled “A Love Song” and No. 1 hits “I Run to You,” “Just a Kiss,” “What If I Never Get Over You,” “Bartender” and “Need You Now.” The most poignant part of the evening came when Kelley sat beside bandmate Dave Haywood and lead guitarist Jason “Slim” Gambill to perform his latest solo release and goodbye letter to alcohol, “As Far As You Could.”
“So, recently I just celebrated nine months of sobriety,” Kelley said to screams from the audience. “It was a long journey. It became obvious to me several times but I finally did something about it. After working on myself for a little bit I came back and got into the writing room.
“I had written in my journal a little goodbye letter to whiskey. I said, ‘Whiskey, you took me as far as you could. Now it’s time to put you down.’ The songwriter in me was like, ‘Oh, that’s a really good song lyric.’ When I got into the writing room, I was with Dave [Haywood] and another songwriter here in town named Jimmy Robbins, and we wrote this song and I’m really proud of it. Sometimes it feels a little uncomfortable singing, but I want to be a little more honest in my songwriting. This is ‘As Far As You Could.’”
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Seated on a stool with Gambill and Haywood beside him on acoustic guitars, Kelley’s emotive vocals and the equally poignant lyrics struck a chord. During the final verse, Kelley stood up while he sang, You put up a good fight but look who’s standin’ now / Oh, to tell the truth, I thought I never would / But it’s time I finally put you down for good / Had to almost lose it all before I understood / But you’ve taken me as far as you could. The audience erupted in applause and screams while seconds later Kelley received a standing ovation.
“I’m not judging drinking, I wish I could,” Kelley admitted. “I just can’t do it anymore.”
Friday’s concert marked the first time in over 10 years that Lady A headlined the Ryman Auditorium. To mark the occasion, the trio closed its set with an encore of a new song and global hit “Need You Now.”
“We couldn’t leave y’all and not play you something new,” Hillary Scott said. “We’ve been writing a lot over this last year. We’ve gone into the studio and recently recorded a handful of songs. Because this is our home, so many of you are our family and our friends, we’re all in the community together and we just wanted to share this with you. This is a new song we’re really excited about and it’s called ‘A Love Song.’”
A powerful ballad that featured Scott and Kelley trading lead vocals, the track details a strained relationship where the woman wishes it could be more like a love song instead of sad melodies. Why can’t we be a love song / That lasts til the end of time / A kind that walks you down the aisle, never gets old / Always makes you smile, greatest story told / Gets the world singing along / Why can’t we be a love song.
As the concert concluded with a singalong to “Need You Now,” the band’s gratitude for their fans’ support throughout nearly two decades together never wavered.
“To me, there’s no sweeter place than in this environment that we can connect and make memories and share something together that will never happen again,” Scott said. “I think that’s the magic of a live show; that every single one of us is bonded forever because we’re in this moment together.
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“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to continue to connect with each and every one of you,” she continued. “And like Dave said, the stories that we’ve heard, how the songs have met you where you are in different phases and times in your life. It’s such a gift. We take this so seriously and we’re just so grateful for the opportunity to be up on this stage.”
Lady A’s Request Line Tour runs through October 2023.
Photo by Mickey Bernal/Getty Images
