Top acts were cut from the Stagecoach roster on Friday after high winds forced thousands of fans to temporarily evacuate the grounds. The festival resumed an hour later, with headliner Lainey Wilson‘s set pushed back to 10:30 pm. Scheduled sets by Gavin Adcock and Pitbull were also delayed, while Journey and Riley Green had their performances canceled altogether.
When the “Watermelon Moonshine” singer finally took to the stage, she was welcomed by the roar of the crowd and she thanked fans who had stuck out the gusts of dirt to see her show. “Hopefully you sat in y’alls cars for a bit and drank some tequila,” she told the crowd. “We came to Stagecoach to have a damn good time and that’s what we gonna do,” she declared and launched into “Can’t Sit Still.”
Her followed up with the sentimental “Dreamcatcher” and “Things a Man Oughta Know,” while offering “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” swaggering across the stage in leather chaps with fringe. As her Wilson’s fiddle player performed “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” the singer sang “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Wilson’s single off her deluxe re-issue of Whirlwind, interpolating the melody of Garland’s hopeful ballad into its chorus.
Yet one of the most touching parts of her 90-minute set arrived when she invited Green, whose set had been nixed, on to the stage alongside Little Big Town (who performed earlier in the day). Together they performed a rendition of Merle Haggard’s 1980 hit, “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” which Green followed by his song “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” which he wrote in tribute to his grandfathers (who he credits as cow-writers.
While Saturday was Wilson’s first time headlining Stagecoach, the country star last performed at the festival in 2023. She has since won Best Country Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards for her fourth studio LP, Bell Bottom Country. The album also garnered Album of the Year at the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards, and Album of the Year at the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards.
Earlier this week, Netflix‘s documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, released on the streaming platform. The Amy Scott-directed doc chronicles Wilson’s 14-year journey to “overnight” success, providing a rare look at it what it took the beloved artist to make it in country music and the family and friends who supported her along the way.
The feature sees the singer go through the highs and lows of fame including opening up about her struggles with mental health and touches on her decision to freeze her eggs for a future IVF cycle. It also shares how Wilson feels about the state of country music. “People keep saying country’s cool again,” she says in the doc. “Well, I say it never stopped being cool. The world just caught up.”
It’s an idea Wilson discussed with Rolling Stone back in October 2023 when asked about the massive surge of country music on streaming charts. “It’s becoming pop culture. It’s like everybody, all of a sudden, is wanting a horse and wanting to wear a cowboy hat. You get on TikTok, and you see these kids wishing that they were country,” she said at the time. “It’s like, ‘Welcome to the party — where ya been?’”
