All for the Hall: Keith Urban, Vince Gill, joined by country legends and new stars, raise nearly $1M in Nashville
Nearly two dozen stars -- Hall of Famers, would-be hall hopefuls and modern-day favorites -- took to Bridgestone Arena's stage in Nashville for the 8th "All for the Hall" benefit concert on Tuesday evening.
For as much as the event was a benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, it also served as a reminder that country music's top artists, like the fans who love the genre, are equally as emotionally connected to the power of top-tier songwriting.
Or, as Keith Urban advised early in the proceedings, it was a "loose, disheveled, flying by the seat of our pants backyard pickin' session."
The event raised an unprecedented nearly $1 million in support of the nonprofit museum's education programs and celebrated music's power as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On stages like the one at Bridgestone on Tuesday, artists can reflect on how life goals being achieved and the realization of career aspirations make a song's connective power more profound than ever expected.
Concerning that last point, Billboard's current No. 1 Hot 100 artist, Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee, made a special guest appearance to perform 65-year-old "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." After finally achieving historic chart-topping status, the song's power has profoundly increased for her in the past 48 hours.
HARDY also sang "TRUCK BED," but it's when he sang that he was "cooking rice in the microwave" and it was "A Great Day To Be Alive," the essence at the core of his hard-rocking exterior was revealed to Travis Tritt, a good-timing member of the Class of 1989. Alongside his forthcoming "HIXTAPE" series, which takes on Joe Diffie's classics, his deviation into 90s country fare has softened his aggression in a potentially mega-hit-making manner.
Here are three other highlight takes from Tuesday evening.
Hosts Vince Gill and Keith Urban shine
Backing Lee were the event's hosts, Keith Urban and Vince Gill. Urban opened with his most recent hit single, 2022's "Wild Hearts," followed by the soulful ballad "Blue Ain't Your Color." Insofar as him using one of Waylon Jennings' guitars to play the outlaw-era icon's theme to the "Dukes of Hazzard" television program, he recalled being enraptured by watching Jennings' hands play the theme weekly in the program's opening shot, plus hearing him as a narrator. Both instances served as foundational points in his growth as a country music artist and lifelong lover of the genre's historical artists and traditions.
Gill played his own 1992 classic "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away," then dived back nearly a half-century in his musical existence to later Eagles member Joe Walsh's 1973 classic "Rocky Mountain Way." Of course, Gill mentioned that one of the last times he'd played at Bridgestone was with Walsh as a touring member of The Eagles.
Did Keith Urban -- himself also a virtuoso guitarist -- stick around for a guitar solo with Gill? Of course. Then, as is tradition, he stayed onstage with the Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member to fill out an eight-piece band (including steel guitarist Paul Franklin -- another Hall member) backing the artists performing with guitars and vocals.
If in attendance at Bridgestone, you witnessed Kelsea Ballerini sing what she described as her "most unhinged lyrics yet" to recent favorite "If You're Going Down, I'm Going Down Too," as supported by two male icons she considers musical forebears and critical influences.
Similarly, ERNEST's take on Merle Haggard's "That's The Way Love Goes" was another fascinating moment wherein, as a trio, the "Flower Shops" singer, Gill and Urban created a direct linear tie to Haggard's brilliance.
Country Music Hall of Fame member closers Brooks and Dunn playing "My Maria" was fun but not as entertaining as Kix Brooks recalling seeing Vince Gill onstage in the early 1980s "shredding on a Fender Telecaster" with Rodney Crowell's band. Brooks, Dunn, Gill and Urban's take on Crowell's 1979-released "I Ain't Living Long Like This" recalled, with note-perfect excellence, why the space between classic rock and mainstream country has remained perpetually vital.
The War and Treaty earned a standing ovation
In an event meant to highlight modern hits and country music's existing traditions, it isn't easy to elicit a standing ovation unless you are a Hall of Famer. However, the last dozen times that the Universal Music Group-signed, multiple-time award-nominated duo The War and Treaty have played stages in Nashville, they've left crowds with no other move than to rise to their feet in praise.
For Michael and Tanya Trotter, Tuesday evening saw them elicit their most boisterous standing ovations of the year.
The duo performed the traditional Christmas hymn "O Holy Night," then their unreleased track "Mr. Fun." The former was a nod to their misunderstanding of the evening's call for songs. The latter represented a moment where the normally thoroughly humbled duo confidently advocated for their excellence and played a song unusual to their catalog-to-date about the immediate sting of heartbreak.
Tanya Trotter's vocal runs are loud and robust, fitting a long-standing country music tradition of approachable yet unapproachable standards of greatness. She's not singing arias in a five-octave soprano range. Instead, she's a contralto singing heartfelt music directly into your body and soul. Her husband is not just a great keyboardist. As a song interpreter, he's discovered the art of knowing when, where and how to emphasize notes to invigorate the meaning of words. Together, the tandem are peerless in their craft and impressively exist in rarefied air in a century-old genre.
Riley Green brings down the house
Alabama-born ex-college football quarterback Riley Green's decade-long evolution from construction worker to solid mainstream country artist is complete.
Appearing onstage at Bridgestone Arena to perform his 2019 crowd favorite and modern-era instant classic "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" is commonplace now for Green. However, nearly five years after its release, he's played countless stages and released his latest album, "Ain't My Last Rodeo."
Singing from under a black cowboy hat and fully aware that the crowd was in the palm of his hand, he followed "Grandpas" with a rousing take on Alabama's four-decade-old "Dixieland Delight." Suppose you were looking for the most stereotypical "country music" moment of the night. In that case, it was watching somewhere in the range of 15,000 people whooping and hollering as if they were either at a barn dance or honky-tonk and extolling the virtues of "rollin' down a backwoods Tennessee byway."
It continued in a series of star-entrenching performances for Green, whose potential as a bedrock genre star feels like it has only just started to be tapped.
Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood showcase their stylings
2023 Country Music Hall of Famer Patty Loveless saw Mickey Guyton, earlier in the evening, sing about a former lover's "lying, cheating, cold, dead beatin', two-timing, double-dealing, mean, mistreatin', lovin' heart" in her tale on 1993's "Blame It on Your Heart."
Loveless herself took to the stage and her timeless takes on "Nothin' But The Wheel" plus Jackie DeShannon's "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" were delivered with such flawless effort that the notion that she wasn't currently on country radio felt bizarre.
Her wide-eyed joy at finally being inducted into the Hall and feeling that the honor had bestowed upon her career a richly deserved and timeless credibility was palpable in her appearance.
As for Yearwood, it may not just be her husband Garth Brooks who could feel that she deserves enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. The event was branded under the title of her 1993 hit "The Song Remembers When." Her take on that track, similar to Loveless' performance, felt relevant and present in any era's conversation of great crafting and delivery.
Moreover, Yearwood then advocated for Linda Ronstadt's Hall of Fame membership and belted a take on her hit "You're No Good."
Setlist -- Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's "All For The Hall" -- 12/5/23
Keith Urban – "Wild Hearts," "Blue Ain't Your Color" and a cover of Waylon Jennings' "Theme From the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys)"
Vince Gill – "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away" and a cover of Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way"
Mickey Guyton – "Better Than You Left Me" and a cover of Patty Loveless' "Blame It on Your Heart"
Riley Green – "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" and a cover of Alabama's "Dixieland Delight"
Kelsea Ballerini – "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" and a cover of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend"
Paulina Jayne & Abigail Sowards (Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Words & Music program members) – "These Moments"
Patty Loveless – "Nothin' But the Wheel" and a cover of Jackie DeShannon's "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"
Brenda Lee – "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Old Dominion – "Memory Lane" and cover of Pearl Jam's "Alive"
ERNEST – "Kiss of Death" and a cover of Merle Haggard's "That's the Way Love Goes"
The War And Treaty – "Mr. Fun" and "O Holy Night"
HARDY – "Truck Bed" and a cover of Travis Tritt's "It's a Great Day to Be Alive"
Trisha Yearwood – "The Song Remembers When" and a cover of Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good"
Brooks & Dunn – "My Maria" and a cover of Rodney Crowell's "I Ain't Living Long Like This"
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: All for the Hall: Nashville benefit raises nearly $1M for Hall of Fame
