Lainey Wilson has already earned four Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s and has been named entertainer of the year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music (she up for the CMA entertainer of the year accolade again this year), won a Grammy, become a Grand Ole Opry member and opened her Bell Bottoms Up bar in downtown Nashville. But she’s still crossing off long-held dreams on her career wishlist.
Thursday night (Oct. 2), she knocked off another one when she headlined a celebratory show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena for the first time, bringing her Whirlwind World Tour to Music City.
“I’ve sat in every corner of this arena,” said Wilson, who at one point lived in a camper trailer after moving to Nashville in 2011. She’s spent the past 14 years steadily ascending to become one of country music’s most charismatic, multi-faceted entertainers.
“It’s always been a dream of mind to headline this place,” she said. “God is good. He gives you the desires of your heart.” Meanwhile, Wilson gave fans their desire that evening–an energy-filled set brimming with hits and heart—and plenty of surprises, too.
This small-town Louisiana native has swiftly risen to the music industry’s upper echelons, through a combination of richly-detailed, relatable songs, a high-octane performance style, a relentless work ethic, a powerful voice, and an insistence on bringing her full self to her artistry — standing apart from the crowd by celebrating her Louisiana roots, while embracing her signature Southern drawl and Western-meets-hippie inspired fashion sense.
Throughout the evening, she offered up both hits and deep cuts, including “Hang Tight Honey,” “Watermelon Moonshine,” “Even the Devil Don’t Go There,” and “Somewhere Over Laredo,” the latter featuring Wilson standing high aloft a pedestal, belting out the song as a long, gauzy cape flowed behind her. A nod to her country bona fides, a massive horseshoe served as the main backdrop for the evening, while screens regularly featured horses and lassos.
Several times during the evening, she paused to soak in what was surely an overwhelming feeling of long-held dreams being realized. She also brought to the stage many of the friends she’s made along the way, highlighting the power of the connected creativity that fuels the rise of so many of Nashville’s artists, both past and present.
She welcomed back to the stage one of her openers, Muscadine Bloodline, as the band performed an early collaboration, “Pieces,” from its 2020 album Turn Back Time. Wilson and Bloodline’s Gary Stanton reminisced about writing the song in a janitor’s closet, as they didn’t have a writer’s room available when they wrote the song. Stanton and bandmate Charlie Muncaster then surprised Wilson with a plaque, and news that the song had been certified Gold by the RIAA.
“We’ve come a long way from the janitor’s closet,” she quipped.
She also welcomed singer-songwriter ERNEST to collaborate on their stone-cold country duet, “Would If I Could,” an aching ballad written nearly 30 years ago by Dean Dillon and Skip Ewing. The evening would also find her surprising the crowd with collaborations with Ella Langley and Jelly Roll.
Multiple songs in the set, such as “Call a Cowboy” and “Peace, Love and Cowboys” paid homage to cowboys, but she was also quick to tribute the cowgirls as well. In what has become a well-regarded regular occurrence in her shows, Wilson crowned one young fan “cowgirl of the night,” reminding young girls in the audience that they are smart, beautiful and talented, and advising them to work hard, set goals, believe in their ambitions — and most importantly, believe in themselves.
Wilson also gave a tip of the hat to her fiancé, Devlin “Duck” Hodges, when she performed a song called “Yesterday, All Day, Every Day,” and telling the crowd, “Your girl got married at the top of the year. It’s insane,” with all the candor of the girl-talk among close friends.
She wrapped the set with a powerful renditions of the romantic “4x4xU,” and “Heart Like a Truck.”
If her headlining concert just over a year ago at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater found Wilson exploring her potential toward industry-dominating brilliance, the Bridgestone Arena show was Wilson fully stepping into her power as a seasoned entertainer and musician, as her career scales to new heights.
Below, we highlight five more top moments from Wilson’s headlining Bridgestone Arena show.
