Regardless of how you feel about Nashville, and trust me there’s lots to say, I’ll watch the Nashville New Year’s Eve broadcast 1o times out of 10 over the Times Square one…
Sure, NYC has its upside, like the ball drop and Brandi Carlile teaming up with Miley Cyrus on “The Climb,” but given all the insanity that comes with it, give me some country music all day everyday.
There were a few great performances throughout the night, including Carly Pearce rocking a Shania Twain cover, but the one that stood out to me was Jon Pardi, Riley Green and Chris Janson teaming up for a Dwight Yoakam tribute.
The trio performed “Honky Tonk Man,” a song originally co-written and performed by Johnny Horton, but covered by Dwight Yoakam as his debut single off his 1986 Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. album. It peaked at Number 3 and kick started a career that continues to be one of the most underrated, yet legendary, in the business.
The guys sure did a kick ass job with this one.
Both Riley and Jon are proud carriers of the ’90s sound, with Jon really digging into the Bakersfield sound that Dwight was known for, even covering this song before as well as “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose”.
Wouldn’t mind some more of these guys together, that’s for sure…
