Nashville - Day #5

Last night's show was again AMAZING!!! 🤠

The evening kicked off with Jo Dee Messina, who surprised the crowd by bringing out Lauren Daigle. 

Then, Good Morning America host Lara Spencer joined Riley Green to announce performers for the upcoming CMA Fest ABC/Hulu TV special. 

Their first announcement was Blake Shelton—and wow, what a way to start!

Blake was incredible. He's a true entertainer and put his talents on full display. He had the crowd engaged from the moment he stepped on stage.

Blake was followed by Scott Teasley on the small field stage, 

and then Shaboozey took over the main stage. He was fantastic and kept the energy level high.

Next up was Maggie Antone on the field stage while the crew prepared the main stage for The Red Clay Strays. 

Their performance wasn't really our thing, but the crowd absolutely loved them.

They were followed by a two song set on the field stage by The Band Perry. 

The next act truly electrified the stadium—Keith Urban. Lara Spencer interviewed him just before he took the stage, and then he flipped the switch and delivered an incredible performance. 

Not only can he really play the guitar, but he also brought out Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame to perform a duet from his new album. Wow! What a set!

Then it was time for the night's closer, Cody Johnson. He sang his heart out, performing six of his biggest hits and bringing out Brothers Osborne to join him on one of his songs. 

He's an amazing performer—emotional, energetic, and completely captivating.

The show finally came to an end at 12:30 a.m. Due to the massive crowds exiting the stadium, it took us a full hour to walk back to our hotel. Another late night for these old-timers! 😄

One more night to go!

We were definitely slow getting out of bed this morning! We didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 a.m. How did we do this so often when we were younger? 😄 

We finally got moving around 9:30 and met up with Ann and Chris at about 11:00.

We headed down to the CMA Riverfront with the intention of catching an act at one of the three stages. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea! It was a sea of humanity. Without exaggeration, there were thousands of people everywhere, and we couldn't get anywhere near any of the stages. To make matters worse, it was around 90°F, with humidity approaching 90%. The skies had been clear the past few days, but today a blanket of dark clouds rolled in. No rain is forecast for today, but tomorrow brings a 70% chance of thunderstorms. Looks like we're leaving town at just the right time!

While we were walking among the masses at high noon, very loud sirens suddenly started blaring from several directions. Immediately, people were pulling out their phones to see what was happening. We asked an obvious local what the sirens meant, and he casually replied, "Tornado warning!"

What?! 😳

Chris quickly checked his many weather apps—he's somewhat of an amateur meteorologist—and none of them showed any tornado activity in the area. Still, for a few minutes, we were wondering where in the world we could find a safe place among tens of thousands of people!

Fortunately, the sirens stopped after a few minutes, and we received a notification from the CMA Fest app explaining that it was simply a quarterly test of Nashville's tornado warning system.

Whew! That certainly got the adrenaline flowing. For a brief moment, we thought our CMA Fest adventure was about to include an up-close lesson in severe weather preparedness! 🌪️😄

We eventually made our way back to Morgan Wallen's place and got lucky when Haden Carpenter was just starting his set on the fourth floor (there are five floors in total). We took the opportunity to rehydrate while enjoying his performance. 

We tried to grab lunch at the restaurant on the second floor, but the one-hour wait convinced us to change plans.

Next, we waded through another sea of people to Post Malone's. There are definitely more people in town today! The place was packed, but our timing was perfect—we scored a table right near the stage. Our luck continued as the Beasley Brothers had just started their set, and they were really good! 

We enjoyed lunch, a few adult beverages, and great music until about 4:00 p.m.

Getting out was another adventure, as we practically had to fight our way through the crowd. It was sooo crowded! I'm pretty sure they don't have fire marshals enforcing occupancy limits around here. 😂

After that, we walked back to the hotel for some much-needed showers and to get ready for tonight's big show. Details will be in mañana's blog! 🤠

Nashville - Day #4

WOW!!! What a night!

The show at Nissan Stadium was AMAZING! We were very happy with our seats, we had a great view of the stage.

Most of the performers sang three to four songs, while the bigger names performed at least six songs each. The show started at 7:30 p.m., and Jason Aldean didn't close the show until 12:30 a.m.! It was a long night, but it certainly didn't feel like it.

I'll try to list the performances in chronological order.

The show kicked off with veteran country singer/songwriter Rhett Akins. 

Tucker Wetmore followed with several of his recent hits. 

Zach John King then performed from a smaller stage located in the center of the field seating area.

We were then treated to the first surprise of the night—Jelly Roll! He performed at least six songs and completely commanded the attention of all 60,000 fans in attendance. What an inspirational performer, and he looked fantastic. He must have lost half his body weight.

Vincent Mason then took over the smaller field stage while the crew prepared the main stage for Ella Langley. 

When Ella finally took the stage, as she put it, she "sang her ass off!" She admitted she was nervous because performing at CMA Fest had been one of her lifelong goals. She was terrific, performing all of her recent hits and winning over the crowd.

Deana Carter followed with several of her hits from the 1990s, which she jokingly referred to as "old country." That comment earned a huge cheer from the audience.

Then came the second surprise of the night when Ella Langley joined Gretchen Wilson on stage. Together they put on a fantastic set!

What followed was another surprise, the duo Florida Georgia Line suddenly emerged from the audience and took over the field stage. The crowd absolutely erupted!

Jason Aldean then closed the evening with a long list of his biggest hits, bringing an unforgettable night to a fitting conclusion.

Afterward, with the weather absolutely perfect, we decided to walk back to our hotel. It was only about a 30-minute walk, although half of it was slightly uphill. To say we were exhausted by the time we reached our room would be an understatement! We both slept very well. 🤠 

After a quick bite at the hotel this morning, we made a stop at Fan Fair inside the Music City Center, where Carly Pearce was hosting a talk and Q&A session. It was a fun way to start the day.

Afterward, we met up with Ann and Chris on Broadway. We strolled around, taking in the sights—and the people! The people-watching has been especially entertaining. 😄

Unfortunately, we weren't able to show them Ole Red, as it has been transformed into "Spotify House" for the week. The lines to get in were incredible, stretching more than three blocks!

We eventually made our way to the rooftop of Luke Combs' Category 10, where we enjoyed a nice lunch while watching the activity along the riverfront below. We listened to some great music and spent a few hours catching up on life.

At 3:00 p.m., we headed down to the main floor for the Billboard Live performances. The place was absolutely jam-packed! We caught sets by Kaitlin Butts (we'll see her again during tomorrow nights show at Nissan Stadium) and the duo Something Out West, both of whom put on excellent performances.

By a little after 4:00 p.m., it was time to make our way back to the hotel to get ready for tonight's big show at Nissan Stadium.

Details from tonight's adventure will be in mañana's blog! 🤠