The Black Crowes kick off tour in Nashville with high-energy show featuring Lainey Wilson

The Black Crowes' brothers Chris and Rich Robinson kicked off their 35-date "Happiness Bastards" tour Tuesday night at the Opry House in Nashville and introduced the crowd to arguably some of their best new music in decades backed up with a few classic favorites and choice cover tunes.

On a minimal set decorated only with strings of white lights, uniquely mismatched Marshall stacks, a life-size dressing room mirror, and a cardboard cutout of Chuck Berry peeking from behind the curtain, the Crowes gave the crowd exactly what they'd been hoping for: Chris' pipes of steel, Rich's excellent guitar chops and a surprise appearance by Lainey Wilson.

"If you're going to play the Grand Ole Opry, you have to bring out a bona fide country superstar," Chris told the crowd as he welcomed Wilson to the stage. She sang a duet from the new album called "Wilted Rose" and then stayed to back the brothers on a powerful version of "She Talks to Angels."

Chris danced and strutted across the stage in typical Black Crowes fashion, while his brother Rich focused on his guitar playing.

Kicking off the night at the packed-out Opry House despite looming severe weather Tuesday night were "Bedside Manners" and "Rats and Clowns" from the new album, "Happiness Bastards," which is the group's first original release in 15 years.

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"It's been a little while since we've had some new songs to play for you all," Chris Robinson teased the crowd.

Next came an old favorite, "Twice as Hard" from the band's 1990 smash "Shake Your Money Maker." The band would layer in hits from that first album including "Remedy," "Jealous Again," and their biggest hit they didn't write, "Hard to Handle."

"A few years ago, we were lucky enough to have the idea to record this song," he said of "Hard to Handle." "Written by the greatest soul singer of all time from Macon, Georgia. His name was Otis Redding and we've been riding on this song for a long time."

The band seemed to enjoy performing the show as much as the crowd enjoyed watching it and dancing to it. The Crowes played for a solid 90 minutes before leaving the stage briefly to return for a one-song encore with Lou Reed's "White Light/White Heat."

It was a great way to kick off this new tour, which Chris Robinson said was not the first one they've started in Nashville.

"This marks two tours we've started in Nashville," he said. "Maybe this could become a thing."

The Setlist:

• "Bedside Manners"

• "Rats and Clowns"

• "Twice as Hard"

• "Morning Song"

• "Cross Your Fingers"

• "Waiting and Wanting"

• "Hard to Handle"

• "Kickin' My Heart Around"

• "Wilted Rose"

• "She Talks to Angels"

• "Flesh Wound"

• "I Ain't Hiding"

• "Sting Me"

• "Thorn in My Pride"

• "Jealous Again"

• "Remedy"

• "White Light/White Heat"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Black Crowes welcome Lainey Wilson, open tour at Nashville Opry House