Luke Bryan is not just arbitrarily ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year. He works hard for his money and fans. If there were any unbelievers, Saturday night’s (July 11) Kick The Dust Up Tour at the Vanderbilt Stadium settled the score.

The show put Bryan’s name down among a handful of all-genre artists who have sold-out the Nashville football field, including Dave Matthews Band, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and U2.

Truss bridges spanned the length of the field for the country show—high above the standing-room pits—transporting performers to a satellite stage in front of the sold-out crowd. Fireworks kicked off Bryan’s set and reignited during various songs throughout the evening, ending in a 10-minute-plus finale. Flame throwers also torched the already sweltering stadium.

The sun didn’t completely set over the top bleacher seats until well into the evening, resulting in Nashville News 2 reporting over 300 concert goers were treated for heat-related illness. Many had tailgated before, and enjoyed beers in the liquor-less venue.

“What is with this heat?” exclaimed Bryan, who pressed on to deliver a 90-minute set. Those titles ranged from 2007 debut single “All My Friends Say” to his string of No. 1 hits after 2010, including “Rain Is A Good Thing,” “I Don’t Want This Night To End,” “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” “That’s My Kind of Night,” and “Play It Again.”

The staging peeled back to spotlight each opening act as the sun dipped into the night. Dustin Lynch sported the only cowboy hat while BBR labelmate Randy Houser belted his signature vibrato during his set, featuring a cover of Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.” BMLG labelmates Florida Georgia Line and Thomas Rhett brought the pop-country flavor. Rhett ditched his boots for some gold sneakers to show off his hip-hop dance moves, featuring his latest “Crash and Burn” and a pop cover of “Uptown Funk.”

Direct support, FGL, toured through hits from the past three years, including Big Loud Mountain EP title track It’z Just What We Do to a current string of hits including “Dirt,” “Sun Daze” and “Sippin’ On Fire.”

“Everybody on this stage moved to this town to follow a country music dream,” Bryan told the crowd as he brought all his buddies back to the stage for a shot of tequila and to cover some pop songs (theme song from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, “Style,” “Bad Blood,” “Sugar”). “This is for you making [that dream] possible.”

Bryan and his band of six proved their relevancy with additional pop incorporation with “Talk Dirty” (Jason DeRulo), “Dynamite” (Tao Cruz), “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk), and “Faithfully” (Journey). Concertgoers were thrilled.

And that is what makes Bryan such a stand-out. He is a 21st century sensation with an understanding of contemporary influences, and an aw-shucks, boy-next-door sex appeal.

Over the past five years, his concert experience has exponentially grown to sold-out stadium events, continuing to impress fans from multiple generations and genre affiliations. That energy and enthusiasm doesn’t seem to be cooling off anytime soon.

Bryan’s 2015 tour will continue with more stadiums throughout October. He’ll sidetrack with Farm Tour 2015 in the fall and another winter run of Crash My Playa in Mexico, in January. His fifth studio album Kill The Lights, will be in stores Friday, August 7.

More dates at lukebryan.com.

Buddy Lee Attractions has promoted Mike Meade to Vice President of the agency. Meade heads up the agency’s speaker and guest appearances division and under his direction the company has inked Pete Rose, Naomi Judd, Brooke Hogan, Sonia Leigh, and many others.

“Mike has been a contributing member of the BLA staff for almost twenty years; he’s been instrumental in the agency’s growth and become a mentor for the younger agents,” stated CEO/President of Buddy Lee Attractions Donna Lee. “His loyalty, dedication and experience are fitting for this role. As a seasoned industry veteran, he’s grown with the changes and has successfully incorporated new approaches to assist the agency in keeping current with the trends and ahead of the curve.”

Meade started with the agency as an intern in 1996 and over the course of his initial 10-year term with the company helped launch the careers of the Dixie Chicks, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Tracy Lawrence, and more. In 2006 he joined TLE, Lawrence’s management company, then worked at New Frontier Touring representing artists like the Avett Brothers and Monty Montgomery before forming his own company, The Meade Group, in 2009. In 2012, Meade returned to Buddy Lee as an agent and spearheaded the newly-formed special appearances division.

“Buddy Lee Attractions became ‘home’ during my first internship,” said Meade. “BLA continues to embrace its ‘family’ business strategy and that alone lends itself to the successful foundation this company was built upon. BLA is historically characterized by its passion to invest in, and develop, an artist and his/her career. That’s the philosophy I cut my teeth on and I am extremely proud to be part of this organization of heart.”

Country took a bite out of the Big Apple last weekend as New York City hosted its first-ever country festival, FarmBorough. Forty-thousand fans took over Randall’s Island Park for the three-day event, which featured headliners Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, and Dierks Bentley along with Maddie & Tae, Dwight Yoakam, Sturgill Simpson, Charlie Worsham, Kip Moore, Canaan Smith, Mickey Guyton, and many more including a Next From Nashville tent highlighting country’s up-and-coming, newest talent.

The country extravaganza packed with food and great music was a collaboration between Live Nation and Founder’s Entertainment, and by all accounts in spite of a bit of rain was a raging success, according to Live Nation President/Country Touring, Brian O’Connell.

“This weekend was a dream come true,” said O’Connell. “It really doesn’t get bigger than New York City and the way that the country community here and those who traveled to get here, took a chance on us and embraced FarmBorough in its first year has astounded me. I can’t say it enough how thankful I am to all the fans and the artists who joined in with me on this.”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the success of FarmBorough’s inaugural year,” added Co-founder/Partner at Founders Entertainment, Jordan Wolowitz. “New York City fully embraced the Country community and FarmBorough proved that it’s here to say. We can’t wait for 2016!”

 

Cam Plays For CRB Board

Arista Nashville’s Cam treated the CRB board members to a special luncheon show Thursday in Nashville. 

The Recording Academy Hosts Roundtable With Martina McBride, Maria Pallante

The Recording Academy welcomed Maria Pallante, Register of Copyrights and Director of the United States Copyright Office, to Nashville earlier this week (June 24) to meet with music creators including Martina McBride and the Nashville Creator Roundtable. They discussed issues surrounding music legislation currently before Congress. The Roundtable meeting was created to enable lawmakers to better grasp the challenges that music creators face in music communities around the country.

Randall Franks Marks 25 Years With AFM

Musician/producer Dave Pomeroy, American Federation of Musicians Local 257 president, recently recognized entertainer and fiddler Randall Franks, (“Officer Randy Goode” from TV’s In the Heat of the Night,) for achieving 25 years of membership in the Nashville Association of Musicians. Franks became part of the union when he first performed on the Grand Ole Opry in 1984. Franks also surpassed 25 years in the Screen Actors Guild now merged as SAG-AFTRA.

Justin Forrest Signs With BLA

Buddy Lee Attractions has announced the addition of indie artist/guitar virtuoso Justin Forrest to its roster. The talented 22-year-old first picked up the guitar at age seven and made his way into the Nashville music scene three years ago by winning the SESAC Next Project Showcase.