The three main venues where you can see many of your favorite country stars are the Wrangler Exhibit Hall during the daytime hours, where you can meet and get autographs from many country stars. The second venue is the Riverfront Stages which sits on the banks of the Cumberland River, and many stars perform there during the day. The third venue is the Coliseum, where the nightly shows are hosted.
The first show at the Coliseum was set to start at 7:00 pm. I boarded the Free Fan Fair Shuttle over to the venue and made my way down to the field, and my seat. I must say that if I go next year, which I hope to, I won't bother buying Field Seats, unless I can get the first 22 rows (Gold Circle), as the view from my Row 37 seat was awful. Not only was I far back, but I was on the far right, so anyone performing on the left stage was hard to see. Add to that the gentlemen in front of me with the large Stetson and I had to stand up in the aisle in order to see anything at all.
The Festival started with Miss America, Ericka Dunlap singing the National Anthem, which she dedicated to Ray Charles, who had passed away earlier in the day.
Ed Benson, head of the CMA Executive Director spoke next, as did Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, Mike Neal, and lastly Tom Conway, head of the CMA Music Festival committee. They all said basically the same thing, welcoming everyone to the first night of the CMA Music Festival. As Ed Benson spoke, four fighter jets from the Moonlighters of Beaufort, South Carolina flew overhead and the crowd cheered.
The first performers were "Naturally Seven," who sang "Amazing Grace" in honor of the men and women that have lost their lives fighting for our country.
Ronnie Milsap followed with "Oh Beautiful."
Lorrie Morgan was the host for the evening, and she appeared center stage adding her welcome to the show. She mentioned she is a fan of everyone performing tonight, and introduced Charlie Daniels.
Charlie burst on stage performing the upbeat "Drinking My Baby Goodbye." Next he sang a song dedicated to Dale Earnhardt, called "The Intimidator." One of my favorite fiddle tunes was next with Orange Blossom Special." Then, Charlie ended with his trademark "Devil Went Down To Georgia."
Next up was Sara Evans who started her set off with "Rocking Horse" from her most recent album, Restless. She followed that with "Perfect," then "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus." Her current single, "Suds in the Bucket" was next.
Sara then said she was going to sing something she'd never sung before, and said she was making this Loretta Lynn song her new anthem. With that, she sang "One's On The Way," referring to her pregnancy. Sara is due in September.
Sara ended her set with the No. 1 "Born To Fly."
Buddy Jewell came out to perform next. He opened with the song that talks about all the people that turned him down for years in Nashville before he won the Nashville Star competition and got his record deal. That song is "I Wanna Thank Everyone." "Abilene" was next, leading into his latest single, "One Step at a Time." From there it was the Southern favorite, "Sweet Southern Comfort," and then Buddy thanked everyone for making the next song his first Top 5 Record, and sang "Help Pour Out The Rain (Lacey's Song)."
Buddy introduced his band, and then gave the crowd a rowdy version of "Gimme Three Steps" that got the crowd singing along.
Terri Clark was the next performer, and started her set out with "Better Things To Do." From there it was "Easy on the Eyes," "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me," and then her latest single from her upcoming "Greatest Hits" album, "Girls Lie Too."
After singing "Girls Lie Too" the crowd was told that from time to time during the evening, the artists would be singing a song over as the shows were being taped for a TV Special to air later this year. She redid "Girls Lie Too" one more time. Two more songs rounded out Terri's portion of the show, with "I Just Wanna Be Mad," and "I Wanna Do It All."
Vince Gill was up next, and started his show out with "Liza Jane." He then remarked about Ray Charles passing away that day and said he wanted to do something no one has done so far; sing a slow song. He remarked Ray Charles sang the slow songs with the best of them. He then sang "When I Call Your Name." Bringing up the tempo, he kicked it into "Oklahoma Borderline."
Vince said he re-joined with the original members of the group "The Cherry Bombs," saying he wanted to perform their first single next. He warned everyone that the song is very politically incorrect. The song was It's Hard To Kiss The Lips That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long."
Vince ended his set with "What The Cowgirls Do."