After two years of graceful, intimate productions, the ACMs doubled down on huge spectacle at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium
in Nashville in 2019 with a full band, it sounded like someone previewing but not purchasing songs on the iTunes store circa 2005.complete with a choir and the singer’s fierce guitar licks, was an early high point, but even that performance was in danger of being swallowed up by the stadium. Inexplicably, the upper decks of Allegiant, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, were entirely devoid of fans, a fact the cameras didn’t attempt to hide.
At least one performance felt bloated, however. Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood’s duet of “If I Didn’t Love You” incorporated the sharpest of Vegas cheese, with Aldean rising out of the floor in front of a piano and Underwood descending onto the stage in a floating hoop.But let’s focus on the good.
There were also some great performances in spite of the less-than-ideal setup. Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde gave a master class in melodrama with “Never Wanted to Be that Girl,” paring the instrumentation back to almost nothing and giving some engrossing narrative to go along with their sublime vocals. Walker Hayes exuded goofy dad charm during his ambitious stroll around the stadium for “AA” and “Fancy Like.
Brothers Osborne were typically superb, dishing out some riffage in matching glow-in-the-dark suits for the brawny “Skeletons” and backing up future star Brittney Spencer for a show-closing cover of “These Boots Were Made for Walkin.” Breland, the face of a new Amazon promotion, sang his face off on “Praise the Lord.” And Kelly Clarkson
with a stunning rendition of Dolly’s “I Will Always Love You.” It was enough to make Dolly herself a little emotional. “I know Whitney is smiling down on us tonight,” she said.