The event started out great, with Little Jimmie Dickens cracking up the crowd and an amazing performance by Kris Kristofferson and Teri Clark. It started down hill after that when Mel Tillis decided to be the comedian instead of singer and by the end of the night it was pretty brutal to watch. I think they really misjudged the crowd when they started playing the watered down rock called new country. Cole Ford, an obese country rapper, was comically bad. Randy Houser decided to try out his new material, which would be fine if this was his concert, but it came off as a sad self promotion and the songs were predictable Nashville pop. The appearance of Jamie Johnson was a surprise but he seemed angry about something and pulled his plug and walked off before the band even finished his song.
Usually you put the light weight acts up front and the big stuff at the end, but they reversed this and by the end of the night the Ryman was 60% empty. You don't go to the Ryman to see overweight white rappers and long speeches by the mayor, you go for true country music. Thank god Kristofferson was there or this would have been a total waste of time.
