BY MARK DARE
CMA FEST 2024 at the Nissan Stadium brought tears of joy, collaborations at every turn and stellar performances throughout!
Here’s my summary of an incredible set of concerts, of which it must be emphasised: ALL artists give their performances for free, and all ticketing proceeds go to festival benefit music education programs in public schools through the charitable arm of CMA, the CMA Foundation. Hats off to you all!
From the first moments when Reyna Roberts opened proceedings with her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, to the last notes of HARDY’s set, it was a veritable triumph!
Collaborations
With so many big artists in town, it’s no surprise that collaborations (which are big in country anyway) should pop up over the weekend…and they did!
Firstly on the opening night when Ashley McBryde called in Gretchen Wilson to perform Wilson’s Hit “Redneck Woman” also Post Malone showed up unexpectedly and brought out Blake Shelton to perform their new duet “Pour Me a Drink.”
Other Collaborations throughout the weekend included:
Jon Pardi and Clint Black “Killin’ Time”
Cody Johnson and Jelly Roll “Whiskey Bent”
Lainey Wilson and Terri Clark singing Clark’s “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me.”
Keith Urban and Lainey Wilson “GO HOME W U”
HARDY was the King of collaborators though, and during his Sunday night headline slot he brought the following to the stage:
Big & Rich for “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
Lauren Alaina “One Beer.”
Carly Pearce “Wait in the Truck,”
Personal Favourites
Emotional: Jelly Roll was spectacular headlining Saturday night. His tears and his words said it all before “Son of a Sinner”. He was genuinely overwhelmed by the reaction of the crowd in his hometown, especially as the juvenile detention center he once attended was within earshot.
Also, with a surprise appearance on the Platform stage, Little Big Town; only 1 song but a beautifully performed “Girl Crush”
Energy: Bailey Zimmerman never stopped running around the stage…at all, whilst gliding effortlessly through “Religiously”, “Where It Ends”, “Rock and A Hard Place” and more.
Platform/Pop Up Stages : As an advocate of new talent, it was so good to see some of the newer artists getting a slot at the stadium, and hopefully some or all of these will be on the main stage sometime very soon.
Chapel Hart/Dylan Gossett/K Michelle/Dasha/Tanner Odell/Dylan Marlowe/Zach Top and Wyatt Flores.
Legends:
So good to see Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining for a 90 minutes plus set on the Thursday night. Quite unprepared for this and I never thought I’d ever get to see “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird” ever played out live in my lifetime. Bringing on ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons was the icing on a very sweet rockin’ cake!
Full Main Stage Line Up
Thursday: Reyna Roberts/Craig Morgan/Jordan Davis/Ashley McBryde/Shaboozey/Thomas Rhett/ Lynyrd Skynyrd
Friday: Gretchen Wilson/Parker McCollum/Jon Pardi/Kelsea Ballerini/Cody Johnson/Luke Bryan
Saturday: Terri Clark/War and Treaty/Old Dominion/Lainey Wilson/Brittney Spencer/Keith Urban/Jelly Roll
Sunday: Josh Turner/Megan Moroney/Brothers Osborne/Carly Pearce/Jackson Dean/ Bailey Zimmerman/HARDY