Sam Hunt excites with soulful country anthems at Bridgestone Arena

Sam Hunt's ability to sing about love and heartbreak was never in question at Bridgestone Arena on Friday evening.

Alongside six-time country chart-topper Brett Young and singer-songwriter Lily Rose, Hunt delivered an entertaining evening of songs. His 2014 debut album Montevallo," was a quadruple-platinum seller featuring over 20 million in singles' sales alone.

Heroes maturing

It's also important to note that Hunt and Young are a college football quarterback and baseball pitcher who once hit the diamond and gridiron in Alabama and Mississippi, respectively.

Thus, there's a heroic expectation for both artists entering thousands of spotlights and soaking in cheers.

However, when contemplating Hunt and Young beyond those moments, there's a fascinating notion about maturing into a future that doesn't exactly remember your past.

Both artists highlighted their wives and children – and said that the show was occurring far past their children's bedtimes.

Something changes when lovelorn barroom nights are replaced by awestruck moments in delivery rooms. Now, both artists are attempting to re-acquaint themselves with the mega-popular magic that arrived them at capacity-filled arenas.

The night was also a fascinating discovery of the line, for both artists, between what was, what is and what the future holds.

'Outskirts'

Hunt's hometown of Cedartown, Georgia, is only 30 minutes away from a mountainous region of the Alabama state line and an easy-to-drive four hours away from Nashville. Plus, he attended the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Thus, for the artist who recently celebrated a decade in Nashville, his first headlining Bridgestone Arena show doubled as a unique hometown spectacle.

At various points during the show, he walked through the crowd, stage right and then stage left, while performing the 2015 crossover hit "House Party" and from 2016 "Make You Miss Me." Upon reaching a stage set up in the back of Bridgestone Arena, he was joined by a returning Lily Rose, who took the main stage to perform Ingrid Andress' part in the 2021-released "Wishful Drinking."

Hunt's connection to his fans is fascinating, given that 40% of his 10 years in Nashville included a COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine, plus a 2019 arrest in Nashville for driving under the influence. His August 2021 conviction for the charge resulted in a jail sentenced of nearly 12 months, suspended down to 48 hours. His driver's license also was suspended for one year.

The excitement on the performer's face felt as much inspired by cheers as it did relief.

Material like "Outskirts" (one of three singles he's releasing, piecemeal, from an album he promises is forthcoming) reflect Hunt's personal growth between ages 35 and 39.

Hunt met his wife, Hannah Fowler, when they were in college. Onstage, he recalled a date sitting at a rural airstrip near Birmingham, Alabama, where Hunt attended college from 2005 to 2007. He said they got arrested because they were trespassing.

Fast forward to 2022 and because of Hunt's various issues, Fowler filed for divorce after nearly five years of marriage and 15 years together. At the time, she was almost six months pregnant with their first child, Lucy.

The couple has been reconciled for 20 months and have welcomed a second daughter, Lowry, in October 2023.

Weekends look (a lot) different these days

Brett Young's set highlighted his evolution from a seeker to a facilitator of romance.

Three years, two months, 2 million albums sold and four No. 1 singles into his mainstream country music career, Young married his wife, Taylor, in November 2018.

By 2021, he was a father of two and released his third studio album, "Weekends Look a Little Different These Days."

Onstage three years later, his 2017 debut album inspired slow dances and singalongs throughout the crowd to 13 million singles worth of sales between "Mercy" and "In Case You Didn't Know."

The former is still a stellar piano ballad that highlights the sophisticated power of his vocal instrument.

He's a charming communicator who, when joined onstage by Lady A's Charles Kelley (a longtime songwriting partner) for "Here Tonight," showcases the evident hit potential his art can often reach.

'Break Up In A Small Town'

At his best, Sam Hunt is the most polished version of a decade-long attempt by Music City executives to evolve a generation of stand-up and sing crooners into lovestruck R&B vocalists willing to embrace rural stereotypes. Moreover, these men would remain unaffected by downtown Los Angeles or midtown Manhattan chic like the '80s and '90s era performers who preceded them.

When Hunt leans into this archetype, his performances are, still, a decade later, causing a wildly authentic uproar from a live crowd.

"Break Up in a Small Town" metaphorically jumps off Hunt's chest as manic stream-of-consciousness magic. It's spoke-rapped, half-sang brilliance.

No less of a trap-to-country-aware performer than Jelly Roll has deemed the song a timeless modern classic.

"Once country music figured out how to get the 'cool' factor from the best hip-hop records right, [simultaneous to the time when rap records that sounded like them were cool], artists like me finally had the space to thrive," Jelly Roll told The Tennessean in Nov. 2023 about how well the combination of Hunt's vocal and Zach Crowell and Shane McAnally's production combined on the track.

'Hard To Forget'

In that realm, Hunt's biggest-selling and best-constructed songs, countrified trap ballad "Body Like A Back Road" and soulful, almost Jimmy Buffett-style calypso soul anthem "Hard To Forget" arrive not as outliers but as representatives of how rhythmic blues (note, not rhythm and blues) best define his sound.

"Hard To Forget" samples Louisiana honky-tonker Webb Pierce's 1953 hit "There Stands The Glass."

"There Stands The Glass," moreover, was produced by "Nashville sound" orchestrator Owen Bradley, who was responsible for evolving honky-tonk records into refined pop music.

It's a metaphor for what Hunt represents at his best moments:

The rare refining of already refined excellence.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Sam Hunt excites with soulful country anthems at Bridgestone Arena