From hip-hop to twang, Country Thunder shows off musical diversity

Then there was Saturday’s headliner Morgan Wallen, whose music incorporates a little bit of everything, from driving rock and pop to hip-hop and twangy country.

The lineup represented a full picture of what country music is today — music that straddles a few worlds and increasingly attracts more diverse and, frankly, interesting artists.

But it also hit home one thing all popular music shares: If the music is good it shouldn’t matter what box we stuff it in.

On Saturday, Blanco Brown, the lone African-American on Country Thunder’s 2022 lineup, had the late afternoon crowd swaying and fist pumping to a reggae-fused ballad “I Need Love” whose thumping beats punctuated the idea that everybody regardless of any labels we might assign ourselves needs love.

Then he got the audience numbering about a third or so of the night’s full house of 30,000-plus doing “The Git Up” dance — a little two step, then left, then right, roll your shoulders and slide. The sea of cowboy hats stretching the expanse of the festival grounds looked like a giant wave as they slid and dipped along with Brown. 

Braden, a former firefighter who had the whole Luke Combs thing going on from his full beard to his soulful, twangy baritone, brought an old-school country feel to the day. Porter, who played guitar and fiddle, added the pop country energy and enthusiasm, running sprints on the stage thrust gutting out into the reserved area while singing covers of “Scrubs” and “Strawberry Wine” mixed into her handful of original songs including her new single “Pickup” and her solo version of her “Thinking ‘Bout You” duet with Dustin Lynch.

The 1990s singer Tracy Lawrence, opening the night lineup, was the bridge. Neo-trad country songs with fiddle and acoustic guitar and his nasally, mid-range baritone twang. He pulled out his greatest hits, songs that take you to lost loves in Birmingham, dysfunctional disconnected families and a front porch where it all makes sense, sort of setting the table for Hardy and Wallen.

The Country Thunder crowd had started chanting his name — “Hardy!” “Hardy!” “Hardy!” — long before he bounded on stage to driving guitars and pounding drums on his latest single, the on-the-verge-of-screamo rocker “Sold Out (Wall to Wall).”  Hardy, who has written songs for Blake Shelton, Wallen, Nickelback and Brantley Gilbert, is the poster-boy for today’s country. On Saturday, he sang his pop-leaning country songs “Truck,” “Give Heaven Some Hell” and “One Beer” —  he brought Porter on stage to fill in Lauren Alaina’s part — alongside honky tonk rockers “Unapologetically Country As Hell” and “Rednecker,” with a couple segues into hip-hop with a country accent.

Wallen, whose career is rebounding after he was sidelined last year when he was caught on video saying the “N” word, was the perfect summary of everything that had been on the Country Thunder stage Saturday. He made his way to the stage while his hip-hop country song “Broadway Girls” with rapper Lil Durk played, then settled behind a keyboard to accompany himself on the ballad “Sand In My Boots.” Then he launched into a 90-minute show that traversed his definition of country — twangy with a little hip-hop style on “Somethin’ Country” and driving honky tonk with “Country A$$ S***.” But it was the breadth of his songs, from the small town anthems “Still Goin’ Down,” “More Than My Hometown” and “This Bar” to the love songs “865,” “Chasin’ You,” “Silverado For Sale,” that set him apart. Wallen’s unpretentious honesty in performing them with a nasally twang that can’t hide his small-town Southern roots had the audience that filled every patch of the festival grounds Saturday night singing along to every word.

Country Thunder 2022 wraps up in Florence on Sunday, April 10, with headliners Florida Georgia Line and a lineup that includes Sawyer Brown and Chase Rice. Music starts at 2:30 with Maggie Rose.