When music plays everyone listens–live music is even better! This is a ranking and review of Zach Bryan, Nate Smith, Sam Barber, Eddie Flint, Morgan Wade concerts that I’ve attended–my favorites, so far. I never really listened to music for most of my life up until about 2022. I never really found a passion in the music I heard around my parents and brothers, so I had to explore more to find my music passion. Country music just naturally came to me and is really the only music I have a passion for. Ever since I found country music, it has become a huge part of my life; it’s a way for me to drown out noise and express my feelings to myself.
5. Morgan Wade
I had never heard of Morgan Wade until about two days before the concert we won free tickets to over the radio last month. She’s in the middle of the pack in popularity for an artist. She has 818.8 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. I saw this concert at the Ogden Theater in Denver, Colorado, on February 23rd. The concert was definitely at the bottom of the list on energy and music. The first half of the concert was just okay, but it got a lot better after she played “Your Love” by The Outfield. My favorite song from the concert was “Obsessed,” an original by Wade. Morgan Wade is a country musician from Virginia and she started her career in 2018. Later in 2021 she released her solo debut album “Reckless” and made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 2022.
4. Eddie Flint
I’ve been a fan of Eddie Flint since he had his first three demo songs out in 2023. Eddie is currently serving in the Navy, so he doesn’t have a lot of time to release very many songs. Eddie Flint is a pretty small artist, with 272.4 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify but he definitely deserves to be more popular and will probably rise in popularity once he is done serving in the Navy. I saw him on October 18th, 2023, at the Aggie Theater in Fort Collins. This concert had a great opener, Kade Hoffman. He was a really small artist at the time with only two songs out, but he quickly became one of my favorite artists. During Eddie’s show there was a lot of energy and passion from both him and the crowd–singing every word together. He said that it was his “I made it moment,” even calling his mom at the end telling her he made it. After the concert Eddie took the time to meet everyone there, and I was the first person to meet him and take a picture. My favorite song from the concert was “Mad Man,” an original. Eddie Flint is a country music artist from New Jersey and started his career in 2023 posting videos of him singing on TikTok.
3. Sam Barber
It’s so hard to put Sam Barber at three because he has always been in my top five favorite artists of all time. I’ve been a fan of Sam since he only had two songs out back in 2022. Sam has gathered a whopping 10.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify since 2021. I saw this concert on August 15th, 2024, at the Aggie Theater. The show was opened by Ty Myers who recently has been added to my top ten artists. When Sam finally started, playing it was nothing short of great. Everyone was singing every word to every song that was already released. Sam played a lot of unreleased songs because a couple months later he released his first album. This concert had my favorite moment from any of the concerts. For the last song, they pulled everyone off the stage and brought out one person at a time. First, they brought out the bass player and he started playing and the crowd started chanting, “Let’s go, Brandon!” and then they brought out everyone else one by one. My favorite song from the concert was “Dancing In The Sky,” an original. This concert was nothing short of great and it’s hard to put it at three, but these next two somehow beat it in every category.
2. Zach Bryan
I’m a long time fan of Zach Bryan. He is the artist that made me fall in love with country music and has been my favorite artist since I started listening to music. He has a ginormous following with 26.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, which is second most among country music artists. This was my first ever concert. My Mom and I went on a road trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for this concert. We were going in blind to this whole thing, and it turned out that this concert was a part of a festival called Summer Fest on July 7th, 2023. Before the concert my mom and I were walking around outside the venue and heard Zach warming up. Hearing that, it felt pretty cool because it’s like getting the concert before it even happened was also pretty surreal because in that moment I realized I was about to see my favorite artist. Charles Westly Godwin was the opener for Zach. I wasn’t totally invested because it was a huge venue and I didn’t know what to expect, and I was thinking about when Zach was going to play. The roar of the crowd when Zach came on stage was absolutely crazy; it wasn’t like anything I’ve ever heard. The music was amazing. I rank the music first out of all the concerts. The whole concert was great; it will be a memory for the rest of my life. My favorite songs Zach played were “Whiskey Fever” and “68 Fastback,” two originals by Zach Bryan.
Nate Smith
I started listening to Nate Smith a couple years ago, but there was a period of time that I stopped listening to him and then I fell back in love with his music after a little bit of time. Nate has a solid following with 8.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. I saw Nate at the Adams County Fairground in Brighton, Colorado, on July 31st, 2024. Nate Smith put together a concert that was completely free for everyone who attended. Kassi Ashton was the opener for this show. I had never heard of her before this show, but she is a really good artist that I have grown to like. When Nate came out on stage, I could already tell that the energy was going to be way higher than any other concert I had been to, and it is still the show with the highest energy I’ve been to. I rank the music second out of all the concerts I’ve been to. The crowd interaction and the way the whole thing was put together was the best out of all of them. I was almost at the front of the crowd for this concert, and the experience was amazing. It’s going to be hard for any artist that I ever see to be better than Nate Smith. I get to go see Nate again this summer? He released a new album since I’ve seen him, so I’m hoping that it’s the same experience with different music. My favorite songs from this concert were “Bulletproof,” the first song of the concert, and “Oil Spot,” both originals by Nate.
If you have the opportunity to get to any of these artists in concert, I recommend you go. I can promise you, you won’t regret it. There’s nothing like seeing someone live that you listen to daily. Go get lost in music and find yourself in the moment.
