The country star recently sold out Richmond, VA’s newest concert venue
“Country music superstar” was not on Bailey Zimmerman’s dream job list. A fact he made abundantly clear in early interviews, to the point that one wondered if he had been kidnapped by some sort of Music Row cabal. But TikTok has a funny way of helping the naturally talented find their calling.
Zimmerman has grown from a reticent record-deal signer to one of the most captivating entertainers of his generation. That was on display at Allianz Amphitheater in Richmond on Saturday (Aug 23rd). Zimmerman’s freshness to the genre is still something he embraces, calling this the New to Country Tour.
Zimmerman exploded from a stage catapult in a storm of fireworks, swinging from a rope towards the center stage. He grabbed the crowd from that moment on. Knowing what his crowd wants, he was almost immediately shirtless—not even two songs in.
A goofball, Zimmerman’s stage presence is natural and engrossing to watch. He commanded the stage as he stalked, ran, and jumped around his LED risers on the ever-present country radio hit “Fall in Love.”
The stage was decked out in all white—white microphones and stands, white floor matting, even white drums—that gave his space a clean look. It made everything not white (like the screens or Zimmerman’s ginger hair) pop even more. If Bailey designed this himself, he also has a great eye for production design.
“Chase Her” saw Zimmerman do his best Benson Boone impression, though he gave a cartwheel instead of a backflip. Oh, and there were more fireworks. But the spectacle is not hiding musical mediocrity—Zimmerman has had multiple No. 1 hits. His openers Dylan Marlowe and Drew Baldridge joined on “Back-Up Plan,” Zimmerman’s fifth chart topper.
Zimmerman is also maturing as a songwriter. “Fixin’ to Break” and “Coming in Cool” are two of the most “country” songs in a repertoire that can sometimes veer heavily into pop-country. But that just adds to Zimmerman’s individuality: in an era that can see the genre hyper-focused on a turn toward the 1990s, the redheaded wild child is doing exactly what suits him. And it works.
It also helps that Zimmerman has a great voice. His twang is lifted with a natural vibrato that sounds like autotune, but isn’t. It’s just his own warble. His signature tune “Rock and a Hard Place”—played last—exemplifies this.
The tenderest moment of the night was when Zimmerman slowed it down to sing “Hold On,” dedicated to a friend he lost due to mental health issues. The song—and his introduction of it—held the kind emotional depth that can be tough to have when fame is thrust upon you. That is yet another sign he’s grown into his place in country music.
The energy that Zimmerman gives off was returned tenfold by the 7,000-plus who sold out the Allianz Amphitheater, which itself just opened this year. If he screamed, they screamed louder. If he so much as lifted his arms, the banshee behind me, having the time of her life, decided everyone around her no longer needed their eardrums.
Seven thousand people knew every word to every song, including the new ones. which makes sense, as Zimmerman’s new record debuted on the Billboard all-genre Hot 200 Chart. That’s a connection you can’t fake from behind a phone screen.
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