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Miranda Lambert, country guests benefit MuttNation at Nashville Ascend Amphitheater concert

Posted on by Kennedy
Miranda Lambert, country guests benefit MuttNation at Nashville Ascend Amphitheater concert

To support her 15-year-old charity MuttNation, Miranda Lambert teamed up with Little Big Town, Dan + Shay, RIley Green, HARDY and more at the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville.

Twenty-seven songs from a dozen performers later, and Miranda Lambert's headlining concert Saturday night at the Ascend Amphitheater was not only a charity event for her 15-year-old dog rescue organization, MuttNation, but also served as a powerful statement about her career in that organization's “Postcards From Texas” era “album and the lively tonal diversity of country music bear witness to this.

Other dog fans also appeared at the event, including Jake Worthington, Dan + Shay, Riley Green, HARDY, Natalie Hemby, Little Big Town, Ashley Monroe and the Lone Star State-born country icon's new Big Loud Texas signee Lukas Nelson . And yes, for the occasion, Lambert's custom-made, fringed and rhinestone-encrusted stage attire featured the faces and names of her beloved dogs.

Lambert's nonprofit has raised more than $10 million since its inception. With the damage from Hurricane Helene also fresh in the audience's minds, she noted on stage that MuttNation had raised $100,000 since the tragedy in the southern United States last week.

Little Big Town, Dan + Shay shine

Miranda Lambert has been in one of the country's most storied modern careers for two decades.

The evening showed how they preserve and develop the country's heritage even in modern times.

Little Big Town and their robust four-part vocal harmonies rounded out the event with Lambert. Of particular note was the trio of Little Big Town's “Boondocks” and “Little White Church” with Lambert's “White Liar” in between.

“Boondocks” still sounds fresh from the Alabama catalog. “Little White Church” constantly feels like a boot-stomping dirt road rocker, and as a five-part harmony, “White Liar” was given a layer of almost gospel-like soul to complement its rocking truth-telling.

Combine that with Dan + Shay performing “Speechless” and “Tequila” (and yes, the duo wore black, rhinestone-encrusted mariachi-style suits in homage to Lambert). When Shay Mooney reached and hit his final note, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

Dan Smyers said his greatest joy about the fundraiser is that his wife, Abby, is also a passionate supporter of animal rescue, particularly the national organization Wags & Walks, for which she helped establish a rescue facility in Music City.

On Saturday night, both Dan + Shay and Little Big Town emphasized that while country is a genre built on chords and songs, the qualities of the top 1% of pure singers of the last two decades are undeniable.

The stars of Lukas Nelson and Jake Worthington are shining brighter than ever on the Nashville scene

Jake Worthington of LaPorte, Texas, opened the show, and as Lambert noted on stage, Worthington is a slow-burn artist who is “countryier than a cookie.” As neo-traditional country continues to gain popularity in hip mainstream country circles, he, like Zach Top, demands to be listened to.

Discerning ears are one thing, but keeping them is difficult. Worthington also doesn't do these listeners any favors by loving the sad, dancefloor-ready honky-tonk two-steps and waltzes (including “Ain't Got You To Hold” and “The State You Left Me In”) by Willie Nelson once sung : “Not selling this year.” However, for the past 18 months he has played Marty Stuart's Ryman Auditorium late night jam session and had Vince Gill watch him from the Grand Ole Opry's side stage. He has also now sung a new ballad: “Hello S–ty Day.” Written by Dean Dillon and Lambert, another Country Music Hall of Fame member, at the Ascend Amphitheater.

Worthington may not be for everyone. But if it's your thing, it's the sweetest you've eaten in a long time.

Lukas Nelson performed alongside Lambert as the duo honored the legacy of the late Kris Kristofferson with a rendition of Merle Haggard's “Silver Wings.” Lambert then handed the stage over to Nelson and he had a mind-blowing moment during his latest album track, “Find Yourself.”

“Country is at its best as a genre when so many pop effects are stripped away and soul is injected into it,” he told The Tennessean in July 2023.

Exuding a similar humility and groove that brought rock icons and soul legends John Lennon and Donny Hathaway to critical acclaim with “Jealous Guy” half a century ago, Nelson grinned broadly as he watched the crowd opened his eyes and opened his mouth – the latter to finally be filled with an ovation.

If there's anything about the kind of moments Lambert cultivates in this era of her career, a tour of dive bars and dive bars across Texas will produce the kind of tact and mind-twisting that reveals the blues and soul at the heart of the country.

Riley Green, HARDY have moments

Another pair of artists who share opposite sides of the same coin are Riley Green and HARDY. Yes, they both found fame on country radio. However, at Lambert's MuttNation benefit, they've likely settled on how they want their fame to be defined in the years to come.

Green, who is currently on the rise with his Ella Langley duet “You Look Like You Love Me,” arrived late to the show due to a show cancellation caused by Hurricane Helene.

His 2019 instant classic “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” contains the line “I wish good dogs never grew gray and old.” However, Green's appeal as a broad-shouldered, mustachioed and tall former college quarterback with a confident tenor is for one Audience in which three out of four visitors are a rhinestone-studded cowgirl, timeless.

A crowd settled into the spirit of an evening of familiar Lambert hits, new and old, as well as a pleasant honky-tonk vibe, and were brought into party spirit by one of the more bittersweet ballads to hit the country's mainstream in recent memory.

Riley Green's rise from rising star to established superstar is a story as old as time and one that should shock absolutely no one.

As for HARDY, his looks made his signature style shine on his ten-year-old “Dog Years.” Lambert has probably carried it in her heart for as long as the song has existed. HARDY also sang his country and rock chart-topper “Truck Bed.” But it was the turn back to a tear-jerker duet about a dog's final days – which he sang while cutting his teeth as a songwriter on Bluebird Cafe circuits – that impressed the audience the most.

Lambert's hits become timeless

Two decades into her career, Miranda Lambert has created an expectation around Texas country rockers like “Mama's Broken Heart” and songs like “Automatic” that are so deeply connected to the heart that the soul beats in time with their rhythms.

However, “The House That Built Me” still has the performer standing tall at the microphone as if she were reminiscing about being a child at a talent show.

Since she didn't write it herself, her skills as a stylist are particularly evident in the way she performs the song. By breathing enough life into it, she can acknowledge the text's allusions and place alongside them the ghosts of her similar memories. This is a rare magic that invites the listener to hold emotional space with the performance.

2019’s “Bluebird” is similar but different. Alongside the song's co-writer – and frequent collaborator – Natalie Hemby, there's already a palpable, honest humanity to the song that, when shared, becomes extremely accessible and commonplace. “Bluebird” is an award winner for, like Alanis Morrissette’s “Ironic,” making what is human and therefore fallible (“when the whole wide world stops singing / and all the stars go dark”) universal and therefore entirely in (I will keep a light burning in my soul / keep a thrush in my heart”).

In this respect, “Postcards From Texas”? Yes, there is the “Kerosene” style rocker “Wranglers”. But watch her face light up as she prepares to play the rock shuffler “Alimony.” It's like she's still amazed and overjoyed that at this career crossroads she's playing songs that are so close to her heart and deeply embedded in her DNA.

The pause before she made a statement while speaking to The Tennessean about her new album makes her sound more proud of her career and less thoughtful about her art. It also serves as a note to summarize the power of the evening and Lambert's next career moves:

“I love a funny Texas song.”

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