CMA Fest 2023 continued to celebrate its 50th anniversary at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday (June 10) with a lineup that highlighted the country genre’s vast musical repertoire.
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From the arena-ready country rock of Eric Church and Jason Aldean to the traditional-leaning Jon Pardi and Tracy Lawrence paired with the harmony-driven Little Big Town, Night 3 of CMA Fest proved the genre’s wide reach.
Below are some highlights from Saturday night’s show.
Tracy Lawrence
Lawrence’s career-spanning Saturday night opening set at Nissan Stadium showcased the country legend’s knack for recording timeless story songs. After he powered through 2019 patriotic “Made in America” and 2007 chart-topper “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” Lawrence asked the audience to “help me out by singing the verses with me tonight.” He then segued into the infectious 1993 No. 1 “Alibies.” The audience obliged and with soaring fiddle accompaniment, Lawrence and his band effortlessly transported the crowd of 50,000 country fans back to the 1990s.
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Jason Aldean
Aldean’s catalog-spanning eight-song set was chock full of arena-ready anthems. In his 16th year as a performer at CMA Fest, Aldean brought the energy and the hits, including early career singles “Tattoos on This Town,” “Fly Over States” and fan-favorite set closer “Hicktown.” He also showed his unique blend of country and hip-hop influences with “Dirt Road Anthem” before he launched into new music.
Ahead of his performance of the recently released song “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean promised more music is on the way. “We got a brand new album for you coming out later this year,” he told the crowd. He then launched his set into high gear with “My Kinda Party” and “She’s Country.”
Little Big Town
Little Big Town’s spellbinding set spanned the emotions and showcased the quartet’s mesmerizing harmonies. Set opener “Boondocks” got the stadium on its feet, where they stayed for summer sing-along “Pontoon” and the Taylor Swift-penned “Better Man.” A horn section amplified the performance of “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” where Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet traded lead vocals before Karen Fairchild took over on the Grammy Award-winning “Girl Crush.”
The group made their debut at CMA Fest in 2002, and the fact that they’ve remained festival-mainstays was not lost on them. “We’ve been a band for 24 years now,” Fairchild said at the close of their set. “Thanks to country music fans like y’all, we get to do this for a living and it’s not lost on us at all. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for letting us make music for you. That’s all we want to do.”
The band then closed with the heartfelt piano ballad “Friends of Mine,” a song they said they wrote “to express to our fans how much we love them.”
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Old Dominion
(Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage,)
Old Dominion brought the energy to their seven-song performance. The band’s musicianship was evident throughout the optimistic “Make It Sweet” and current top 10 single “Memory Lane,” the latter of which featured a captivating minute-long instrumental outro.
Fan favorites “One Man Band,” “Snapback” and “Hotel Key” were peppered throughout the performance that showcased Old Dominion’s clever songwriting. Meanwhile, an instrumental-only intro to Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” before “I Was on a Boat That Day” kept the audience on its toes.
“One of the most special things about CMA Fest is it is the best way to say thank you because you’re allowing us to make our dream come true,” frontman Matthew Ramsey said. “Thank you guys so much for making all of our dreams come to life. … Thanks for showing up. It’s what gives us the life we have.”
Jon Pardi
Pardi kept the party going during his eight-song set, which also spanned his vast catalog of country radio singles. The 2018 top 5 hit song “Night Shift” launched Pardi’s 30-minute set, followed by his recent single “Your Heart or Mine.”
The high-energy “Heartache on the Dance Floor” highlighted Pardi’s blend of traditional and modern country while “Tequila Little Time” – complete with accordion accompaniment – excelled in the live setting. All the while, Pardi showed off his fancy footwork dancing along to each track as he sang like a modern-day Elvis Presley.
Pardi dedicated the heartfelt “Last Night Lonely” to “all my single people out here.” Later, he’d bring the drinking songs to the forefront with “Heartache Medication” before he closed out with his first two chart-toppers, “Dirt on My Boots” and “Head Over Boots.”
Eric Church
(Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage,)
Church closed out CMA Fest Night 3 with a set chock full of deep cuts. Always one to do things his own way, The Chief launched into his performance with the ear-grabbing “Country Music Jesus.”
“It’s late in the evening so we’re gonna keep it funky for you,” Church promised before “Bad Mother Trucker.” He kept his promise as he segued into the spirited “Hangin’ Around” complete with a horn section. He’d later switch up 2011 chart-topper “Drink in My Hand” with a swampy new intro that kept fans captivated.
“I had the greatest night of my life here one time a while back, so it’s always fun to get to come do this,” Church later said. “We always try to do something different every year. We’re gonna keep that theme going. As long as you guys want to do this, I ain’t got anywhere to go. We’re gonna sleep in [tomorrow] anyway.”
Church then covered Little Feat’s “Sailin’ Shoes” before his own “Cold One” and “Smoke a Little Smoke.” His set ended abruptly after his seventh song. Without a goodbye, Church walked off the stage and confused fans who anticipated a marathon set. When the lights went on moments later, the stadium erupted with boos. Whether the set’s abrupt end was due to curfew or television production constraints, Church followed through once again by doing “something different.”
CMA Fest 2023 runs through Sunday (June 11) in Nashville.
(Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage)
