Lainey Wilson, ERNEST, more appear at Grand Ole Opry's NextStage Live concert

Audrey Gibbs and Marcus K. Dowling, Nashville Tennessean

Updated December 7, 2023 at 2:26 PM·6 min read

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On Wednesday evening, country music fans filed into Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House to watch the next generation of country music step into the circle.

The third annual Opry NextStage Live performance, which features a class of performers who are a part of country's rising sound, brought a night of fresh country tunes to fans. The Opry NextStage program highlights up-and-coming artists emerging onto the scene, bringing them center stage at the Opry for an evening.

Hosting this year's NextStage show was one of the first spotlight moments for NextStage alumnus Lainey Wilson, who, a month ago, was crowned the Country Music Association's 2023 Entertainer of the Year.

Also, performances from 2023 NextStage class members Ashley Cooke, Chapel Hart, Corey Kent, ERNEST, Jackson Dean and Kameron Marlowe were featured.

Also, a part of the 2023 class and not in attendance at the Opry's Wednesday show are "Tennessee Orange" singer Megan Moroney and "Long Live Cowgirls" performer Ian Munsick. Past program alums include Tenille Townes, Riley Green, Priscilla Block, Niko Moon and BRELAND.

Wilson kicked the show off with her song "Smells Like Smoke" before handing the mic over to Corey Kent. The passionate and gritty Oklahoma-raised country singer is best known for the song "Wild as Her."

Following Kent was TikTok to arena main-stage rising Ashley Cooke, who let the Opry audience into her heart, singing "I Almost Do," "It's Been a Year" and "Your Place," moving around the stage with an energetic pop-star aura.

Next was Nashville hitmaker ERNEST, whose crowd-pleaser "Flower Shops" brought the Opry crowd to a roar.

For ERNEST, a year of Opry's NextStage support provided his career as not just an already renowned songwriter but as a burgeoning artist behind double-platinum-selling "Flower Shops" greater visibility.

Ernest performs during the Opry NextStage Live concert hosted by Lainey Wilson at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.

Opry NextStage class membership typically involves frequent Opry stage appearances, plus greater inclusion in the program and venue's marketing strategies. That's a wide-open notion that's as narrow as becoming a mainstay of the show's calendar, becoming artists with more standing ovations on the Opry than times they've appeared like class members Chapel Hart.

For ERNEST, book-ending 2023 by recording acoustic versions of songs including his cover of John Mayer's "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room" for Opry Entertainment Group's Circle Network and playing back-to-back concerts at the Ryman Auditorium -- the Opry's home from 1943-1974 -- made the best use yet of Opry NextStage's ability to synergize stardom and artistic brand development.

"Being able to come into the NextStage program already being an admirer of the Opry's history and importance allowed me to live out many of my childhood pipe dreams I've had for my career," stated the Big Loud-signed performer while in conversation with The Tennessean.

"Whatever you emotionally give to the Opry, it has a way of rewarding you back," ERNEST continued.

Did that include mirroring everyone from George Jones, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams by walking across the alley to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge for a few cold libations before and after his recent Ryman performances?

"I think Hank did it that way," joked ERNEST, alluding to a 1975 Waylon Jennings classic.

Jackson Dean performs during the Opry NextStage Live concert hosted by Lainey Wilson at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.

Among the trio of songs Jackson Dean performed included "Don't Come Lookin'." Moments like performing his country radio hit at the Opry and the Ryman in the past 12 months put him on the radar of not just country music fans worldwide but also host Wilson, who he's preparing to join for an extended 2023 tour run.

Dean's quiet confidence more frequently elicits rousing approval from live crowds.

"It's all about maintaining momentum so we have more shows than hours in the day and we get to eat well, right? The access we have as Opry NextStage class members puts us in a shared community of people who love the life and opportunities that taking the risk of making a career in country music [allows]," stated Dean to The Tennessean.

"What started for all of us as a nerve-wracking rite of passage has become something of a life-changing adrenaline rush."

One of the last to hit the stage was Mississippi-born familial trio Chapel Hart, whose "America's Got Talent"-made hit "You Can Have Him Jolene" elated the crowd before Kameron Marlowe took to the stage, performing as the last member of the NextStage class for the evening.

"My brain still can't calculate the success we're having here," joked Chapel Hart's Devynn Hart as the trio spoke to The Tennessean.

Lainey WIlson, left, intervies Chapel Hart during the Opry NextStage Live concert hosted by Lainey Wilson at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.

The trio's Grand Ole Opry debut 14 months ago has started the next arduous climb of their career. Now, converting multitudes of fans crammed into small-town venues and red-dirt dance halls filled with classic-era country fans is the work in which they toil. These are genre fanatics who still view frequent Opry gigs -- moreso than trophies, streaming plaques, or growing social media numbers -- as a symbol of achieving peak acclaim in the genre.

"Cultivating a die-hard fanbase driven by live-crowd approval requires us to come back to this building and program," adds Trea Swindle.

"We're frequently on the stage with major label-signed icons like Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban singing songs that we humbly and independently wrote ourselves. Watching country music's core fanbase believe in our work as much as they love country music's superstars maintain our ability to work in this town and others worldwide, too," adds Danica Hart.

Marlowe, a North Carolina-raised performer, debuted a song on the Opry stage about his fiancé called "Quit You," which captures the overpowering, intoxicating feelings that can arise from love.

To end the evening, Wilson sang her nostalgic track "Watermelon Moonshine" and welcomed the other performers from the evening back to the stage to sing her star-making No. 1 hit "Heart Like a Truck" alongside her.

It was the previously-mentioned Cooke, a pop-leaning country performer whose touring schedule has included appearing in support of Luke Bryan, Jordan Davis and Cole Swindell of late, who offered the best perspective on the broader appeal of Opry NextStage as the dynamics of country's stardom evolve more dynamically than ever before.

Ashley Cooke performs during the Opry NextStage Live concert hosted by Lainey Wilson at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.

"Being affiliated in any way with the Grand Ole Opry is as much an honor as it is a [surefire way] to highlight your insecurities as an artist. The victory of being a part of NextStage is that, as an artist, you're continuing to learn how to confidently be your best and most authentic self -- when people resonate with that as much as genuinely respecting how you honestly view yourself in relationship to country music's more classic traditions, it's an amazing feeling."