Garth Brooks & Luke Bryan scale it down at special Nashville shows

ABC Radio

Garth Brooks and Luke Bryan are used to rocking stadiums, but for the Country Radio Seminar, taking place in Nashville this week, both superstars scaled things way down.

Garth performed an intimate one-man acoustic concert on the floor of Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena for an audience of fewer than a thousand people. He sang, told stories and took questions from the crowd, while performing snippets of everything from George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning” and Keith Whitley‘s “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” to Bob Seger‘s “Against the Wind” and Don McLean’s “American Pie,” to Ed Sheeran‘s “Perfect” and Billy Joel‘s “Piano Man.”

Garth played abbreviated versions of his own songs too, of course, often choosing certain tunes to illustrate songwriting concepts or memories. He also took requests, playing songs like “The Red Strokes,” “Wolves,” and “Somewhere Other Than the Night,” as well as favorites like “Unanswered Prayers,” “That Summer” and “Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old).”  He ended the show with the one-two punch of “Friends in Low Places” and “The Dance.”

As for Luke, he took the stage at a place in which he feels pretty comfortable: his own bar, 32 Bridge Food + Drink, on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.  Claiming he didn’t have a set list, Luke sipped bourbon as he and his band ran through a string of hits, including newer songs like “What Makes You Country” and “Most People Are Good,” and older favorites like “That’s My Kind of Night,” “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” and “I Don’t Want this Night to End.”

Luke also pulled Morgan Wallen onstage to sing his hit “Up Down,” before finally getting off the stage, explaining that he had to fly to Los Angeles.  Luke returns to your TV next month on ABC’s American Idol.

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