The superstar is once again touring his mixtape-style tour featuring country hitmakers Craig Morgan, Deana Carter, and Trace Adkins
Blake Shelton brought a few “Friends & Heroes” with him to CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore on Thursday night (March 20th). Shelton took the stage around 8 pm, opening with his Post Malone duet “Pour Me a Drink.” Unfortunately, Posty was not one of the stable of stars Blake had with him.
Shelton, wearing a tan and black yoked western shirt, mentioned the Opry 100th birthday TV special he hosted the night prior. Saying that because of it, this Thursday felt like a Saturday. “There are no week days in country music,” he said to loud cheers.
Despite no Posty to pour him a drink, Shelton still brought three megawatt country stars along. He welcomed Craig Morgan, Trace Adkins, and Deana Carter to the stage throughout the night. Morgan went first, singing a few of his hits on stage solo. It was really cool to see this proud military veteran and current reservist revel in a packed arena singing “International Harvester.”
Doubly cool is Blake Shelton himself, who completely turned over his stage to each of his three guests for a few minutes. Talk about using a platform to elevate fellow performers. It’s clear he thought asking any of those three stars to open for him would be beneath their dignity–especially since Shelton seemed to truly admire and be inspired by their careers.
Shelton returned to the stage after Craig Morgan’s set with “A Guy with a Girl.” He also performed the song “Happy Anywhere,” which he released with his superstar wife Gwen Stefani.”Honey Bee” featured yellow lighting for the big “B” himself.
Deana Carter borrowed the stage next, running through three numbers that included her seminal 90’s hit, “Strawberry Wine.” Shelton then returned for a string of hits. He took his crowd from “Some Beach” to “Austin,” and even inside a prison for “Ol’ Red.”
Trace Adkins had 14,000 in tears with “You’re Gonna Miss This,” sandwiched between two party songs – “Honky-Tonk Badonkadonk” and “Ladies Love Country Boys.” He was joined by Blake for “Hell Yeah” and the 14-year-old ear worm “Hillbilly Bone,” on which he duets with Shelton.
Fan interactions set the tone for the evening. During “ All About Tonight,” Shelton brought a young girl on stage who held a sign calling the hitmaker her “hero.” Morgan hopped over the VIP bar to reach a female fan holding a sign picturing the two of them when she was ten. Craig promised to meet her side-stage right after his set for a “now” photo to go along with her “then” pic.
Before the night was through, all three friends got up with Blake. And just like at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, joined for an acoustic round sharing songs together—though made into a silly challenge by the “very competitive” Blake who spent over a decade on The Voice. Trace got the best of Blake by saying he couldn’t watch because “I couldn’t stand to see Adam Levine kick your ass every week.”
Baltimore was ultimately the winner. They proved they know their real country by singing along to every word of classics like Adkin’s “Every Light in the House.”
Each artist gave a shout out to producer Scott Hendricks, who was in the audience at CFG arena. Carter and Adkins said they each attribute the individual successes of “Every Light” and “Strawberry Wine,” respectively, to Hendricks.
Once again, Shelton is the man for showing true respect to these artists. This Friends and Heroes Tour is all about respect: respect for the music, respect for the artists, and respect for fans. A lesser man would never relinquish a full stage kit to the undercard. But Blake Shelton is not insecure. Quite the opposite–he’s as earnest as his songs are country.
