Alabama @ Bridgestone Arena

Alabama rocked their show on July 19, 2024 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Starting off the night was Gary Allan, making for the perfect night.

Gary Allan

Gary Allan navigated the distance separating hardwood honky tonks and polished country-rock. A path that sometimes resulted in chart-topping singles yet sometimes kept him on dirt roads just outside the mainstream. The tension between his traditional troubadour roots and instincts for anthemic hooks resulted in such number one hits. His hits feature “Man to Man,” “Tough Little Boys,” and “Nothing on but the Radio” in the early 2000s. A decade later, “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” brought him back to the top of Billboard’s country charts, then he took the better part of the decade to complete Ruthless, the 2021 album that was his first record since 2013.

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Alabama

Before Alabama, bands were usually relegated to a supporting role in country music. In the first part of the century, bands were popular with audiences across the country, but as recordings became available, nearly every popular recording artist was a vocalist, not a group. Alabama was the group that made country bands popular again.

Emerging in the late ’70s, they had roots in both country and rock; in fact, many of Alabama’s musical concepts, particularly the idea of a performing band, owed more to rock and pop than hardcore country. However, there is no denying that Alabama is a country band — the bandmembers’ pop instincts may come from rock, but their harmonies, songwriting, and approach are indebted to country, particularly the Bakersfield sound of Merle Haggard, bluegrass, and the sound of Nashville pop. A sleek country-rock sound made the group the most popular country band in history, selling more records than any other artist of the ’80s and earning stacks of awards.

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