Bobby Johnson & Leith Loftin

w/ Sweet Tea Trio, Adam Hood, Hayes Carll, J Edwards, & Andy Griggs

Wednesday February 16, 2022

@ The Nashville Palace in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

When The National Wild Turkey Federation makes their descent on Nashville for their annual convention, the Music Valley area of town becomes a bustling who’s who of the turkey hunting world as hunters, fans, and the famous faces behind the brands all come together and converge inside the famed Opryland Resort.

As such, the Music Valley area automatically becomes the place to be for all things country related, including music.

Just across the street from the resort sits one of Nashville’s most iconic music venues – The Nashville Palace. Since 1977 when they first opened their doors, they’ve welcomed so many legends to their stage and helped launch the careers of many aspiring artists at the time who’ve since gone on to cement their name in the country music family album. 

Jerry Reed, Randy Travis, Lorrie Morgan, Ricky Van Shelton, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Alan Jackson, and so many more have all graced the hallowed stage.

In correlation with the NWTF’S convention, the Nashville Palace welcomed all those in town for the convention to their venue for an incredible show that featured some of the hottest talent in country music: songwriters Bobby Johnson & Leith Loftin, renowned group the Sweet Tea Trio, songwriter Adam Hood, and a few additional surprises not advertised on the bill.

In front of a very packed front of house, Bobby Johnson and Leith Loftin took the stage to assume their roles as the hosts and instantly set the tone for the night ahead with a selection of cover songs that embodied the spirit of the Nashville Palace, hitting on some Waylon Jennings with “Waymore’s Blues, sliding over to Merle Haggard with “Silver Wings” and “It’s Been a Great Afternoon, and tapping into Strait’s “The Cowboy Rides Away,” Dwight Yoakam’s “Guitars, Cadillacs,” and Hank Jr’s “Born To Boogie.” 

But the true depth to this showcase of amazing talent began when Alabama’s Sweet Tea Trio hit the stage and immediately captured everyone’s attention with their stellar 3-part, female harmonies on a cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “When Will I Be Loved” to open their set.

They continued rolling deeper into their set, balancing in covers such as “Seven Bridges Road backed into “Tulsa Time,” and a purely Nashville staple with “Fishin’ In The Dark.”

However, they very cleverly dropped in two originals which elevated their set and audience participation levels to enticing heights. After explaining that “being from Alabama all we ever did was date country boys and when we came up to Nashville all we did was meet city boys wearing cowboy hats” they played the tongue and cheek laden “All Hat No Cattle.”

While 2-songs later they played the summertime jam “SPF50,” which during they would lead a clap-along with the crowd and then take them down to the river with them through their lyrics, but they also announced that it would be their next single coming out in March just in time for the warmer weather months.

A singer/songwriter favorite from my earliest days of first getting into country music, Adam Hood took the stage next and put on a pure songwriter showcase that perfectly displayed what Nashville does best.

Though he didn’t talk too much other than a few thank you’s between songs, he didn’t need to. All he needed was his acoustic guitar, smoothly delivered vocals, and incredible lyrics to pull in the crowd and keep them grooving along with every song he played.

After opening with a cover of Steve Wariner’s “Lynda,” Hood then dug into his catalog of songs to deliver the biggest of his fan favorites including, “Bayou Girl” from his 2018 album Somewhere in Between, while placing heavy focus on his 2011 The Shape of Things release, lifting from that album “Front Porch Thang,” “Tennessee Will,” and “Hell of a Fight.” 

And then the unadvertised surprises hit the stage.

Unbeknownst to even Bobby Johnson and Leith Loftin, Texas country mainstay Hayes Carll showed up to hang out and when they brought him up to the stage for an impromptu set, he quietly allowed his songs to do the talking for him.

Opening with the one that’s currently inching its way into the top 20 on the Texas Regional Radio Report, Carll had the crowd leaning in for a close listen as this amazing wordsmith performed “You Get It All,” before giving a nod to those in town for the convention by playing, “Wild as a Turkey.”

However, it was when he had finished playing “Chances Are” and was getting ready to leave the stage, that he received an audience request for “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” an ultra-popular tune from his 2008 Trouble in Mind album that elicited the loudest ovation of the night, full of hoots and hollers from the crowd as they shouted back the lyrics to him bringing a crooked smile to his face. 

It’s not unheard of for a songwriter to drop into any given show in Nashville, and that’s exactly where J Edwards found himself othis Wednesday night. So as any good hosts would do, Bobby Johnson and Leith Loftin invited him up to the stage to play a few songs.

The snarl and growl tint to his raspy vocals injects the raw, real element to the songs he writes and performs in a way that only the songwriter behind the song can do.

He put this aspect well on display in front of the rowdied up crowd, whether he was singing about going back to the whiskey during a time of turmoil in his life, satisfying a request from his wife with “Country Coming On,” or playing to the mostly convention going crowd with “Duck Blind,” a mud-stomping song that John Schneider of Dukes of Hazzard fame recorded for his Redneck Rebel album in 2018.

In the last of those unexpected guests, Andy Griggs took the stage alongside Leith Loftin to cap off the night.

Although he did play some of his original songs, including “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely” and “Waitin’ On Sundown,” for the most part like Loftin and Johnson did earlier in the night, Griggs bent his set towards the cover songs that you’d expect to hear within’ the hallowed walls of the Nashville Palace.

With a nod towards the legendary artists and songs, Griggs displayed what makes his rich voice such a sought after one in country music as he covered George Jones’ “The Grand Tour,” and Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” and “Seven Spanish Angels.”

However, the Louisiana native kept his set much closer to home with his song choices coming mostly from the catalog of Hank Jr, whether it was on his opener “In The Arms of Cocaine,” or throughout his set when he was joined by Loftin for the Wayon/Hank classic, “The Conversation,” brought Bobby Johnson back to the stage to handle leads on “Old Habits,” or led the crowd in a rousing sing along with “Women I’ve Never Had” and “Kawliga.”

Shows like these are everything that I love about living in Nashville; you never know who is going to drop by, get up on stage, and play a few songs for an unexpecting crowd. These are those true “only in Nashville” type of moments that you hear about so often, and if you weren’t there and then see the pictures the next day splattered all across social media, you kick yourself for not going.

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