Captivating a sold-out Music City crowd last Thursday night, the pride and joy of La Porte, Texas and reigning Texas Country Music Association Male Artist of the Year Jake Worthington brought TONK to Tennessee at his first-ever Nashville headliner.
The twanging hour-long set highlighted Worthington’s signature Texas drawl, including cuts from his self-titled debut album of “Next New Thing,” “Single At The Same Time,” “Honky Tonk Crowd,” and waltzing “State You Left Me In,” alongside a crop of unreleased gems that had the crowd hanging on his every note.
Worthington’s third song of the night was a solo take on unreleased Miranda Lambert collaboration, “Hello Shitty Day,” slated to drop Sept. 27. A loping jaunt about a truly rotten day, the curse-laden true country cut made an impression, with audience members yelling back the song’s title as Worthington sang near the end of its over four-minute runtime.
Another powerful testament to Worthington’s artist-to-artist cred, the set featured Jake’s rendition of his HIXTAPE: Vol. 3: DIFFTAPE track featuring Reba McEntire, “Is It Cold In Here.”
Rousing covers of his heroes’ tunes rounded out the evening – George Jones’ “White Lightning” and “If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will),” and Merle Haggard’s “Heaven Was A Drink Of Wine.” Notably, Jones’ former steel guitarist Tom Killen accompanied Worthington throughout the show.
Closing the night with an encore, Worthington made sure that we are in no danger of losing traditional country music as long as he’s around.
Worthington continues down the road this week, headlining in Texas and Okla. before supporting Cody Jinks and Kameron Marlowe respectively on select dates through the end of 2024.
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