Country Thunder Arizona 2022 by the hour: A complete four-day festival recap

FLORENCE, Arizona — After one of the shortest breaks in this festival's history (Country Thunder Arizona 2021 just wrapped up in October), Country Thunder Arizona returned to Canyon Moon Ranch outside Florence for a four-day weekend.

The event — which ran from April 7-10 — featured headlining sets by Riley Green, Blake Shelton, Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line. Plenty of crowd-pleasing acts took the stage before the headliners, including Hardy, Gabby Barrett, Lindsey Ell, Tracy Lawrence, Michael Ray, Chase Rice, Maggie Rose and many more.

Thousands of country music fans made the trek to Florence for a weekend of music, dancing and fun.

We were there all weekend filing live in real time (or as close to real time as technology allowed). Here's what we saw and what we thought about it.

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Music fans enjoyed the scene in Florence: The people of Country Thunder Arizona 2022

Florida Georgia Line closed the festival with a hit-filled set

Florida Georgia Line may not have drawn as many fans as Morgan Wallen or Blake Shelton, but they brought the final night of Country Thunder to a crowd-pleasing conclusion, setting the tone with a spirited “I Love My Country” and following through with a steady procession of hits that felt like they were written for a night like this.

Most songs rang out like celebrations of the Country Thunder lifestyle.

“That’s how we do it ‘round here.”

“Long live longneck bottles and wide-open throttles and old dirt roads with no name.”

“May we all get to grow up in a red, white, and blue little town/Get a won’t-start hand-me-down Ford.”

“This elm shade, red rust clay you grew up on/ That plowed up ground that your dad damned his luck on.”

There’s no way lines that vividly connected to the small town way of life won’t lead to massive singalongs at Country Thunder Arizona — especially when those lyrics are attached to songs that were all over country radio.

Florida Georgia Line have 13 hits that topped the country airplay charts, from “Cruise,” a breakthrough hit that spent a record-breaking 24 weeks at the top on Billboard's country chart on its way to becoming the first country song to be certified for sales of 10 million, to their latest No. 1, “Long Live.”

The fans at Country Thunder got to sing along to almost every hit they could’ve hoped to hear before the set was through.

They even piped in Bebe Rexha’s part for their collaboration, “Meant To Be.” (It's since gone 11-times-platinum).

That song closed the proper set, but they returned as everybody knew they would.

There’s no way they thought they were leaving Florence without doing “Cruise.”

— Ed Masley

Florida Georgia Line: Hitmakers close out the show at Country Thunder

Chase Rice displayed casual charm

Chase Rice took the stage in an unbuttoned flannel draped over an untucked white T-shirt, a look as casual as his singing style, a conversational approach that makes it feel like he’s just telling stories over beer.

That’s part of his appeal, especially with the ladies. When he started reciting the half-spoken sexual come-ons of “Ride,” it drew a huge reaction from the women.

His set included hits as big as “Ready Set Roll,” “Eyes on You” and “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.,” which he kept in reserve for the closer it was born to be.

And there was a point toward the end of the set where each musician led the band in a cover, from “All the Small Things” to “Sweet Caroline.”

But the highlight may have been a playfully boozy rendition of “Jack Daniels Showed Up,” performed while drinking from a bottle of Jack Daniels and distributing shots to the folks pressed up against the runway.

— Ed Masley

Jameson Rodgers had a tough act to follow

Having Jameson Rodgers follow Sawyer Brown felt kind of weird. He’s on his second hit, “Cold Beer Calling My Name” with Luke Combs. Now, granted, both of Rodgers’ hits — the other being “Some Girls” — topped the country airplay charts. But Sawyer Brown have 19 Top 10 singles to their credit. And they’re really entertaining.

It didn’t help that Rodgers’ set was pushed back more than 15 minutes while they sorted out whatever issues they were having with the sound.

Then, Rodgers hit the stage and launched directly into “Cold Beer Calling My Name” and the crowd went wild.

He held off on his other big hit so they could go off on a high note. But several other songs he played felt like they could be his next calling card, from “Girls That Smoke” (a cautionary tale) to the contagious country-grunge of “You Won’t” and their current single, “Missing One.”

Before they started that one, Rodgers noted that the first line in the song is “I had every Eagles record” by way of explaining their new introduction to the song — the a cappella harmonies of “Seven Bridges Road.”

They also did “I Don’t Know About You,” the Chris Lane No. 1 he co-wrote, and his guitarist took the spotlight for a surprisingly credible vocal on the Van Halen David Lee Roth-era classic “Runnin’ with the Devil.”

The crowd down front was way more into Sawyer Brown, though, in the end.

— Ed Masley

The crowd was hootin' and hollerin' with Sawyer Brown

Sawyer Brown’s Mark Miller was the only singer on the Country Thunder Arizona lineup who could tell the crowd “We’re gonna play y’all 38 years worth of music right now” without just meaning several years of his own records and a Merle Haggard song.

What makes that staying power even more impressive is that he spent much of that performance throwing his entire body into keeping people entertained with the boyish enthusiasm (and silly dance moves) of an entertainer half his age (or younger).

If his voice has aged at all? It didn’t show.

His goofy jokes and zany antics were as entertaining as the hits they dusted off, reaching back their breakthrough on “Star Search” with an animated “Smokin’ in the Rockies” and such early hits as “Step That Step” and “Betty’s Bein’ Bad.”

When the crowd went wild for “All These Years,” he told them, “Thank you very much for all that screamin’ and hootin’ and hollerin’ for a song about adultery.”

If someone tells you they saw anyone have more fun on that Country Thunder stage this weekend than the guys in Sawyer Brown, it’s safe to add that person to your list of people you should never trust again.

— Ed Masley

Maggie Rose's soulful set deserved more attention

What a difference a day makes.

Rolling into Country Thunder with less than an hour to spare before the first act of the day was set to take the stage, the upper parking lots that had been packed with cars at that same hour the previous two afternoons had been replaced by nearly vacant fields of grass. The only time the traffic heading into Country Thunder stopped was so the people heading home after sleeping off Saturday night with Morgan Wallen could get out.

And that was not good news for Maggie Rose, whose entire performance should be entered as Exhibit A in the case of Why She and Her Bandmates Should Be Going on Much Later in the Day.

If someone were to tell you those were probably the most impressive vocals they had witnessed this entire weekend, I would simply add, “I don’t get what that person means by ‘probably.’”

Those kind of pipes don’t often come with taste and nuance. But in Rose’s case, they do.

Rose was so committed to the country-soul aesthetic she envisioned for her latest album that she traveled to the source – recording at the studio in Muscle Shoals where Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin tracked so many of the greatest moments in the history of soul.

And the musicians on that stage were clearly as committed to that vision as their singer, whether she was giving Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” a soulful makeover, rocking an early Aretha vibe on “Do It” or taking country fans to church on Sunday gospel-flavored “Pull You Through.”

— Ed Masley

Morgan Wallen drew the weekend's biggest crowd

Morgan Wallen brought Saturday's music to a rousing conclusion at Country Thunder Arizona Arizona. Wallen made his way through 16 songs from his album "Dangerous" and reached back to his first album, "If I Know Me," for "Up Down," "Chasin' You," "The Way I Talk" and "Whiskey Glasses."

Hardy's rowdy set got the crowd ready for Morgan Wallen

Hardy is, as he sang in the hillbilly anthem that brought his Country Thunder set to a triumphant close, “Unapologetically Country as Hell.”

And that made him the perfect candidate to get the crowd more fired up for Morgan Wallen.

Taking the stage in a camouflage ball cap and a D-Backs jersey, Hardy came out rocking, shouting the lyrics to “Sold Out,” in which he promises “I’m still the same old redneck” despite drawing wall-to-wall crowds to his concerts.

Nearly every song he played became a rowdy singalong, from “Truck,” the first of several odes to trucks, to “Rednecker,” which had people gleefully shouting the line “You might think that you're redneck, but I'm rednecker than you.”

How was Morgan Wallen? The 'Dangerous' singer drew the weekend's largest crowd

He brought MacKenzie Porter back on stage to join him on “One Beer,” a celebration of getting drunk enough to accidentally start a family, and led the Country Thunder Nation in a chant of “USA” at the end of “God’s Country,” a patriotic hit he co-wrote for Blake Shelton.

For all his self-styled redneck bluster, he’s also the rare breed of artist who could write a genuinely moving tribute to friends no longer with us that had thousands of festival goers raising their glasses while joining the master of ceremonies in telling the dearly departed, “Give Heaven Some Hell.”

But in the end it all felt like a warm-up for the massive singalong that greeted “Unapologetically Country as Hell,” an ode to "buck blood on my Sunday clothes" that eulogizes George Jones after rhyming "my chicken's more fried" with "my dogs live outside."

— Ed Masley

Tracy Lawrence brought old-school country to the stage

Country Thunder likes to toss the old-school country fans an occasional bone by throwing a “heritage” artist or two into the mix at each year’s festival. This year, that meant Sawyer Brown and Tracy Lawrence, whose breakthrough single, “Sticks and Stones,” topped Billboard’s country chart in early 1992, a year before the Wallens had a baby boy named Morgan.

There were times in Saturday’s performance where you couldn’t help but notice Lawrence struggling with the high notes that were obviously easier to nail back in his 20s, when those songs were new.

As Lawrence sang toward the end of his set after leading his band in a spirited cover of the Charlie Daniels classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Time marches on.”

But he sang what he sang with conviction and heart at the helm of a band full of stellar musicians. And that was all it took to put those timeless songs across for a crowd that sang along with just as much emotion when he followed that wistful performance of “Time Marches On” with a set-closing “Paint Me a Birmingham.”

Lawrence started the set with a newer song, “Made in America,” and dusted off his latest single, “Don’t Drink Whiskey.” But for the most part, he stuck to the hits that have come to define him, “If the World Had a Front Porch,” “How a Cowgirl Says Goodbye” and “Texas Tornado” to “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” a chart-topping hit from 2006.

— Ed Masley

Blanco Brown keeps the audience engaged in his entertaining set

Blanco Brown setting the tone for his performance with a deeply soulful reading of “A Change is Gonna Come,” the Sam Cooke classic that became an anthem of the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60s, was a bold, inspired gesture for the only Black performer on a lineup topped by a singer whose career was derailed, however briefly, over using racial epithets in early 2021.

And it went over really well.

His vocals were beyond inspired as he segued seamlessly into a cover of “Tennessee Whiskey,” a soulful country standard originally done by David Allan Coe in the early ‘70s.

He even slipped into a range more commonly associated with Mariah Carey for some awe-inspiring ad libs.

The originals Brown did were a mix of soulful country ballads and the hip-hop/country hybrid he calls trailer trap, playing spoons on “Nobody’s More Country” and bringing his set to a crowd-pleasing finish with “The Git Up,” thanking the crowd for making the No. 1 line dancing song in country history.

Brown plucked a kid from the end of the runway to show his best dance moves on “The Git Up,” because as he said, that’s what it’s all about right there — the children.

It was a wildly entertaining, at times mystifying, ride that featured several new songs he’s been working on, the best of which was probably a heartfelt ballad called “Sooner or Later” that he introduced with an impassioned speech about how he wants to see people learn to love themselves “so they can learn to love others and we can all grow gracefully.”

But Brown was there to entertain, and he devoted large chunks of his set to making sure he kept the audience engaged by singing along to the original recordings of other people’s hits, from Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton to Tim McGraw and Outkast.

— Ed Masley

MacKenzie Porter shows off her vocal chops

Like several other daytime artists on the Country Thunder bill, MacKenzie Porter is a bigger deal back home in Canada, with three chart-topping singles to her credit.

But as Porter explained after starting her set with Canadian chart-topper “These Days,” she’s been based in Nashville for the past six years. And it’s already paying off.

She recently topped Billboard’s Country Airplay charts with a feature on the Dustin Lynch hit “Thinkin’ Bout You.”

She’s an expressive vocalist with an impressive upper register. And her enthusiasm was beyond contagious.

She even brought a little girl up from the audience to join her on the runway during one song.

It was cute.

And when the computer that she and her bandmates were using to pipe in additional instrumentation malfunctioned, she handled the momentum-crushing hiccup like a pro, signing hats on the runway while her drummer tried to sort it out.

After a while, it was clear that the laptop wasn’t ready to rejoin them so they carried on without it, Porter playing fiddle on a soulful country reinvention of the Harry Styles hit “Watermelon Sugar.”

As reinventions go, it made more sense than putting a train beat under Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” which earned a huge reaction when they did it earlier in the performance.

What do critics know, right?

— Ed Masley

'American Song Contest' semifinalist gets Saturday's show started

Tyler Braden’s week peaked early when he made the semifinals on the latest reality TV music competition, “American Song Contest” on NBC.

Unlike “The Voice” or “American Idol,” “American Song Contest” is all about the song.

And Braden made the semifinals on the strength of “Seventeen,” a sweet nostalgic ballad. There were several songs in his performance as the first act up on Saturday at Country Thunder Arizona that seemed like they would do well on a show like that.

What’s interesting is that his singing voice and how he uses it would do just as well on “The Voice” or “American Idol.” He’s a real belter with just enough grit and character to stand out in a crowd.

He even shouts on pitch.

He’s also really likable, which never hurts. And that cover of “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, the first live band he ever saw, would make for one hell of a perfect audition. I can’t imagine Blake Shelton resisting the urge to spin his chair around on that one. I’m also pretty sure he’d like his beard.

— Ed Masley

Gwen Stefani dropped in to sing with Blake Shelton

Blake Shelton was 10 songs deep in a crowd-pleasing headlining set at Country Thunder Friday night when Gwen Stefani emerged from the wings to join him in a romantic duet on “Nobody But You.”

It was sweet.

— Ed Masley

Love was in the air, onstage and off

Gabby Barrett brought her husband on stage tonight and the crowd was absolutely loving it.

His name is Cade Foehner and the two met on the 16th season of American Idol where they were both contestants. When Barrett performed her first piece, "The Good Ones," Foehner came right up beside her and leaned into his wife, his wedding band glowing in the flashing lights.

They love the crowd too. I've never seen an artist sign so many hats while singing at the same time. Barrett signed about 10 in five minutes.

But not everyone was focused on the stage. A pair of star-crossed lovers was hardly watching Barrett, even though they were about as close to the stage as they could get. They just kissed a few times and gazed into each other's eyes.

— Sofia Krusmark

Gabby Barrett proved she earned her prime spot on the bill

After finishing third on "American Idol" in 2018, Gabby Barrett sent her first two singles to the top on Billboard’s country chart — the six-times-platinum "I Hope" and double-platinum "The Good Ones."

Four years later, the momentum of those early wins is still enough to earn the 22-year-old from Munhall, Pennsylvania, a prime time spot at Country Thunder Arizona — just before fellow reality star Blake Shelton on a Friday night.

And Barrett definitely rose to occasion, drawing shrieks of approval for starting her set with “The Good Ones” and following through with nearly every song you could’ve hoped to hear from “Goldmine,” the singer’s first and only album, including all four singles.

She also covered songs by Lady Antebellum, Dolly Parton, Alison Kraus (as an unplugged and seated duet with her husband, Cade Foehner) Guns N’ Roses, Miranda Lambert and Journey.

Barrett’s vocals were as strong as you’d expect from a singer who managed to make it that far on “American Idol.”

And Foehner proved the perfect onstage foil, an electrifying lead guitarist.

As Barrett noted after one especially impressive bit of flash, “Is he not good on guitar or what? Lindsey Buckingham up here on stage.”

The couple also did a medley of their favorite hymns, preceded by some fire-and-brimstone proselytizing from Foehner.

That segment featured some of Barrett’s most impressive vocalizing. Then it was back to the secular programming with Footprints on the Moon.” That was followed by crowd-pleasing covers of “Paradise City,” “Little Red Wagon” and “Don’t Stop Believing,” the biggest singalong of Barrett’s set.

She only has one song that could’ve followed Journey’s greatest hit. And that’s exactly what she reached for, an impassioned reading of her biggest hit, “I Hope.”

— Ed Masley

Come for the music, get a tattoo

Kenneth Deets Jr. has been with Enchanted Dragons Tattoo for the last 25 years.

And Enchanted Dragon has been at Country Thunder for the last three. As the sky gets darker, more people are lining up for tiny tattoos. Deets has seen hundreds of people in his booths at the festival.

"Look at the crowd," Deets said. "We are the only ones that are allowed to tattoo at this festival, and we can tattoo as long as we want until we decide otherwise."

What have people tattooed on their bodies most, I asked?

"The country thunder logo with the bull skull," Deets said, laughing. "It's been a lot of stick this here, please. I'm drunk."

Nothing too sentimental in the tattoo tents, the Marine Corps veteran added. He's been in the tattoo business long enough to know this is all mostly fun and games, he said. At least for now.

And festival goer Madison Rowlee from Phoenix confirmed this. She's getting her second tattoo tonight, but it's a red heart the size of a quarter. Simple, nothing meaningful, she says.

"I'm here," Rowlee said. "Why not?"

The perfect touch before Gabby Barrett hits the stage.

— Sofia Krusmark

Michael Ray struck a chord with songs about small-town life

Michael Ray took the stage in an Army t-shirt and launched directly into his new single, “Holy Water” which tells the story of a small-town preacher who buys himself a Lincoln selling moonshine to the congregation and what happens when two deacons call him on it.

It wasn’t long before he’d settled into more familiar material, playing the chart-topping “Whiskey and Rain” and “Kiss You in the Morning,” back to back.

He also slipped in hits he wrote for other artists — Jason Aldean’s “Small Town Small” and Big & Rich’s “Run Away With You.”

The lyrics to that Aldean song — about keeping a small town small — were something of a running theme, resurfacing in the defiant “Just the Way I Am” and “Didn’t Know I Was Country,” a song whose title line was followed by “Thank God I am.”

Those lyrics got a huge reaction, as expected, from the Country Thunder faithful.

By the time his set was through, he’d covered Garth Brooks’ “Rodeo” and played his other biggest singles, “Think a Little Less” and “One That Got Away.”

— Ed Masley

Golden time of day at the festival

As the sun set on Country Thunder this evening, the crowd shared a special moment together. "God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood played on the loud speakers as they awaited country artist Michael Ray to hit the stage.

Cowboy hats tipped into the golden light. So did the cans and bottles of beer. More people stood up from their comfortable lawn chairs than usual.

No one was performing. But no one needed to be.

The festival goers will sing on until the next performer hits the stage. They’re happy to fill in as the main artist until the next one shows up on stage.

After all, Country Thunder thrives on its culture of empty beers, red, white and blue attire and too many cowboy hats to count — just as much as it thrives on its star-studded line-up.

— Sofia Krusmark

Phil Vassar banged out his crowd-pleasing hits

From the time he hit the Country Thunder stage and took his place at the upright piano, Phil Vassar’s performance was closer in spirit to a stripped-down E Street Band with a hint of Billy Joel, from the overall vibe to the saxophone solos, than anything that made you think he knows the words to many Merle Haggard songs.

But that was just as true when he was tearing up the charts at country radio with those same songs at the turn of the century.

He front-loaded the set with hits from his self-titled breakthrough, from “That’s When I Love You” to “Carlene,” “Just Another Day in Paradise” and “Six-Pack Summer,” which segued into “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” by the Four Seasons.

He also played a handful of the hits he wrote for other artists — Tim McGraw’s “My Next Thirty Years” (with a bit of the Beatles song “Day Tripper”) Jo Dee Messina’s “Bye Bye” and “Little Red Rodeo,” the Collin Raye hit Vassar introduced as his first No. 1.

Before the set was through, he’d made his way through the chart-topping “In a Real Love,” “I’ll Take That as a Yes (The Hot Tub Song)” and a spirited //version of a song he didn’t write — Huey Lewis and the News’ “Workin’ for a Livin’.”

— Ed Masley

Working the festival and learning to love country music

Meet DaRon Battle.

He drove all the way from Las Vegas to work a beer cart at Country Thunder. But this isn't his first music event.

No, Battle is a regular when it comes to working food and beverage at music events. Though he's a package handler for FedEx by day, he'll always do what he can to work at music festivals or events. He'll never turn down a concert, he said.

Which is why when the Country Thunder staff called him last Friday asking him to be in Florence by Thursday, he didn't hesitate. He's been doing it for 20 years.

"I just never got out of it," Battle said, laughing.

At times, he's worked backstage at events. Stevie Wonder, Katt Williams, Erykah Badu, and T-Pain are among the many artists he's met while working his shifts for music.

He's just getting into country music, Battle said. R&B, jazz and hip-hop are his typical mix. But he's learning to love country, and he's looking forward to seeing his favorite country artist tonight: Blake Shelton.

Battle met Shelton's bus driver this morning, he said, smiling.

"This is a great show, so far, and that's coming from me, whose never been into this whole country thing," he said.

— Sofia Krusmark

Canadian country group takes the stage

The James Barker Band have yet to crack the U.S. market, but they’re all the rage back home in Canada, with four chart-topping country singles, a Juno Award for Country Album of the Year and a Canadian Country Music Award for Single of the Year.

And you could definitely hear what made those singles work on country radio, from the time they hit the Country Thunder stage and kicked things off with the contagious country-rock of Canadian chart-topper “Over All Over Again."

Highlights ranged from “Keep it Simple,” “It’s Working” and “Chills” (which had to have surprised most people watching when it ended in a finger-tapping solo) to their recent Dierks Bentley-assisted Canadian hit about how “they ain’t makin’ new old trucks.”

They even dipped their toes in old-school country waters on a pair of jokey songs that made the most of Barker’s goofy sense of humor.

But here’s the moment guaranteed to have a lot of people talking about this performance weeks from now — an emotionally invested, non-ironic cover of the Olivia Rodrigo ballad, “Drivers License.”

— Ed Masley

Be patient as you approach the festival

Those arriving at Country Thunder should prepare for stand-still traffic on the way into Florence. You're not the only one who wants to listen to the music that’s happening tonight.

And as of 4 p.m., it seems like everyone is trying to come at once.

Prepare for at least 30 minutes of traffic starting at E. Price Road before you even hit a spot to park. And be ready for a wait once you get there, too.

In the meantime, pump up your tunes in the car. Extra time in the car just means extra time to hype yourself up for the headliner tonight, Blake Shelton.

— Sofia Krusmark

Jackson Dean kicks things off with gritty rockin' country

Someone has to be the first performer on the Country Thunder main stage. Friday, that task fell to Jackson Dean, who made a strong case for the gritty brand of Southern rocking country songs you’ll find on “Greenbroke,” a first album produced by Luke Dick, whose previous clients include Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley.

Dressed in black from his cowboy boots up to his trademark hat, he commanded the stage with a gravity beyond his years, snarling lines about leaving a breadcrumb trail of shotgun shells and having more tattoos than prisoners do in a raspy baritone that felt like it was custom-made for singing songs of shotguns shells.

He opened strong with the hypnotic country blues of “Trailer Park,” making his way through such highlights as “Don’t Come Lookin’,” a song that wound up on the Kevin Costner TV series “Yellowstone," the breezy change-up “Don’t Take Much” and a closing song that definitely lived up to his promise of ending the show on “some high-octane (expletive).”

— Ed Masley

Riley Green closed day 1 with classic country storytelling

Riley Green set the tone for his headlining set at Country Thunder with “Different ‘Round Here,” the first of several songs he played that are essentially a celebration of his vision of rural and small town America, where “we stand for the flag and if you don’t like it, we don’t care.”

“If It Wasn’t for Trucks” found him wondering “Why would any teenage boy cut grass?” and “Where was I supposed to cry that July day grandaddy died?” if it wasn’t for trucks.

Randy Houser returned to the stage for a crowd-pleasing version of “Family Tradition” by Hank Williams Jr., sticking around at Green’s request to take the spotlight on a deeply emotional version of his first single, “Anything Goes.”

Then it was back to extolling the virtues of life in a one-stoplight town with “Outlaws Like Us” and the Waylon Jennings classic, “Where the Corn Don’t Grow.”

Not every song was as caught up in singing the praises of how things are “different ‘round here.”

There were songs of romantic regret, where the one that got away is “prettyin' up some old boy's shotgun seat,” and romantic longing, where “them cut-off jeans need a Chevrolet bench seat.”

The highlight of his set was arguably “Get That Man a Beer,” in which the guy who stole his girlfriend ends up with a cheating wife who “did what she did to me to him” and Green figures the dude in the corner of the bar with a scar on his left cheek “from a mean right hook of mine” might have done him a favor. “So if you ever get that chance,” he sings, “won’t you get that man a beer?”

It’s classic country storytelling and Green sold it like a champ, from his delivery of the lyrics to the way he introduced it with “She cheated on him too and I thought that was really sweet of her.”

He opened the encore with an unplugged and seated performance of “I Wish Grandpas Never Died, where his wishes ranged from wishing “kids still learned to say ‘sir’ and ‘ma'am’” to wishing everybody knew the words to Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and “country radio still played country music.”

Before the night was through, he’d made it clear that someone damn sure knew the words to ‘“Mama Tried.”

But first, he dusted off the breakthrough single that remains his biggest hit, “There Was This Girl,” an unabashedly romantic love song.

— Ed Masley

Randy Houser conjured images of Waylon Jennings

It somehow fell to Randy Houser to uncork the day’s first proper drinking song. And it was definitely worth the wait, a deeply soulful version of “What Whiskey Does,” the bittersweet ballad that served as the lead single from “Magnolia,” his latest album.

Houser started the set on acoustic guitar with one of two new songs he played in the course of his set, “Still That Cowboy,” before reaching back to his first album for a swagger through the country pride of “Boots On” and “My Kind of Country,” leading the charge on a Gibson Les Paul.

According to the lyrics, Houser’s kind of country is “a little bit o’ Waylon, a whole lot o’ Motown,” but I’m pretty sure there’s way more Waylon in the mix than Motown.

Not that anybody seemed to mind. And Houser’s rumbling baritone sounds right at home on songs it would be easy to imagine Waylon Jennings doing, of which there were many in Thursday’s performance. There aren’t many modern country singers with the voice to sell a song with the emotional conviction Houser brings to the occasion.

Houser’s catalog includes a string of major country hits from the early 2010s, and he made sure to play them all, including three that topped the country airplay charts, “How Country Feels” (which felt more like an AC/DC song than country), “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” and “We Went.”

He also covered Garth Brooks (“Rodeo”), Alan Jackson (a playful “Chattahoochee”) and Travis Tritt (“Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)”) and dedicated an emotionally charged "Like a Cowboy" to the military families and personnel at Country Thunder.

He didn’t do much from his latest album. But the songs he did were chosen wisely — from the show-stopping “What Whiskey Does” to “No Stone Unturned” and the Ray Charles-flavored country-soul of “No Good Place to Cry,” which featured one of Houser’s strongest vocals of the evening.

"Magnolia" should’ve found a bigger audience. With any luck, Thursday’s performance will have people streaming it back at the campgrounds as the festival rolls on. Assuming they can get a signal.

— Ed Masley

Lindsay Ell thrills on guitar, vocals

Canada’s Lindsay Ell was a revelation at 2018’s Country Thunder Arizona, tearing it up on guitar in an afternoon set when the only song most people in attendance would’ve recognized was "Criminal," her breakthrough hit.

She's topped the Billboard country charts since then with Brantley Gilbert on “What Happens in a Small Town." And although it didn’t cause much of a stir at country radio, she upped her game artistically on 2020’s “Heart Theory,” a concept album about breaking up.

On Thursday night at Country Thunder Arizona 2022, Ell dusted off a number of that album’s strongest tracks, from “Good on You” and “Body Language of a Breakup” to “Want Me Back” and “I Don’t Love You.” She opened with “Criminal,” soloing from the wings before joining her bandmates on stage.

Nearly every song featured an opportunity for Ell to stretch out on guitar, whether setting the tone for an anthemic cover of Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” or squeezing out soaring emotional high notes on the instrumental break of “Want Me Back.”

But Ell is also an uncommonly expressive vocalist, a point made abundantly clear as she underscored the conflicting emotions at the heart of “I Don’t Love You” with vulnerability to spare.

She stripped it down to acoustic guitar at the end of the runway for a heartfelt rendition of “Strawberry Wine,” a Deana Carter hit she introduced as “a song my dad and I used to play together on stage.”

She returned to that spot with her bassist and keytar player for E Street Band-style bonding at the end of “Body Language of a Breakup” and alone for the electrifying guitar pyrotechnics at the end of “I Don’t Love You,” much of it performed while lying on her back.

Before “Strawberry Wine,” she talked about how she’s essentially grown up on stage, which may be why she comes across as such a natural entertainer.

She ended her set with a version of “What Happens in a Small Town” that made it hard to care that Gilbert wasn’t there to join her, boldly building the song to a triumphant finish with the instrumental break to Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

— Ed Masley

Up at 2 a.m., at the campground by 6

As the sun set over Lindsay Ell performing a fan favorite, "The Other Side," 21-year-old Madyson Monoghan lingered in the back of the lawn.

Most fans were settled into their folding camp chairs. Monoghan laid out smushed in what looked like a beanbag chair.

But no: It was an air chair — and she and her friends Luke and Hannah Polvino and Kai Glency were loving their comfortable, unconventional seating.

It's her first time at Country Thunder Arizona. She was up at 2 a.m. this morning to drive from Peoria and settle into her campsite at 6 a.m.

"We were already up and just thought, 'Well, we might as well just go."

Now, they await the rest of the artists headlining Thursday evening: Randy Houser and Riley Green.

— Sofia Krusmark

No dance skills? No problem

Head into the Electric Thunder tent and there's a good chance you'll see more than a few pairs of cowboy boots tapping and clacking across the dance floor.

About a dozen people are following the line-dancing instructors as a DJ plays country pop tunes. When the emcee promises to "Keep It Simple" (by James Barker Band), more beginners mosey their way into position on the dance floor.

When the song transitions to "SnapBack" by Old Dominion, the participants seem to instinctively know the line-dancing lessons are over and the two-stepping takes over.

— KiMi Robinson

Turning 24, Country Thunder-style

Nolan Sotillo kicked off Country Thunder Arizona 2022 and his cover of Harry Styles' "Watermelon Sugar" cover started drawing a crowd — including Phoenix native Brandon Martin, celebrating his birthday.

Martin turned 24 today, and front and center at Country Thunder is where he kicked off his four-day weekend.

He's ready for the festival, he says, tipping his cowboy hat signed by some of his favorite artists. Keith Anderson, Ashley Wineland, Lainey Wilson, Noel Haggard and of course, Nolan Sotillo have all penned his beloved hat. He also treated himself to a gray and orange Country Thunder tank top.

"When I saw Country Thunder was on my birthday, there was no choice," Martin said.

That's why he'll be back next year — but not without VIP seating, he said, laughing.

"I love discovering new artists," Martin said. "You never know what you're going to hear."

— Sofia Krusmark

Opening the show with Aerosmith and 'Watermelon Sugar'

As the artist tasked with opening the Country Thunder Arizona 2022 main stage, Nolan Sotillo did his best to get the party started for the small crowd watching his performance by drawing them in with a cover of Aerosmith’s classic-rock radio staple, “Sweet Emotion.”

Here’s the thing about starting your set with an Aerosmith song.

If you can’t sing like Steven Tyler, all you’re really doing with that cover is you’re telling everybody “I can’t sing like Steven Tyler.”

Things got better as Sotillo moved on to material more suited to his voice, from a medley of Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It” and the Georgia Satellites’ “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” to a handful of solid originals, the best of which (“Where I Fit In” and “Stop”) were on the soulful side of country.

He also covered Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” and Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” (which segued nicely into “Watermelon Crawl,” a Tracy Byrd hit from the early ‘90s.)

After “Watermelon Crawl,” he told the crowd, “I like the Harry Styles song, but you can’t beat some good old-fashioned country music.” He seemed pretty into “Watermelon Sugar,” though.

— Ed Masley

Making a fashion statement at Country Thunder

I'd call country thunder fashion "summer Western."

Handheld fans — paired with a solid pair of cowboy boots — seem to be the accessories for the day.

Those who can't handle the heat just wear less. Women are out in bikinis and one man walked by, shirt-off, in red, white and blue swim trunks. Other festival goers show off their neon striped bell bottom pants while wearing bandanas for tops.

Plus, you can't miss dog fashion, either. Rodeo is out in top-Country Thunder form wearing a cowboy hat and a saddle on his back. He may just be the one best dressed for the occasion.

— Sofia Krusmark

Finding boba tea at a music festival

I was walking toward the retail area when I saw it. The thing I didn’t realize I was looking for. Something that would make my day complete as a self-described boba connoisseur.

You see, a man had just walked past me holding a cup of boba tea.

My mission then became clear: Find Country Thunder’s boba vendor. A short walk to the food court later, I came across Boba King Bubble Tea (“Drinks with a pop”). For the low cost of $13 — the price of two to three drinks outside of the festival — you can cool down with a cup of peach, mango, lychee or passion fruit-flavored iced black tea with either tapioca or popping boba. The menu also offers milk tea ($10 for the drink; $3 extra for the topping) and icy slushes for $13.

After much deliberation, I settled on the mango-flavored tea — I confirmed with the vendor that it was mango flavoring with black tea — with boba. Though the iced drink is a welcome antidote to the unrelenting sun, both the drink and the boba were lacking. The iced tea tastes more like apple juice, and the boba is pretty tasteless (it would ideally be sweet, cooked in sugar) and lacks the perfect chewy texture.

If any fellow boba tea fans plan to come out here, you’re better off grabbing your treat on the way in.

— KiMi Robinson

Fans stake their claims on prime locations early

The gates are open for Day 1 of Country Thunder Arizona, and some fans have set up shop on either side of the main stage.

The early bird gets the worm, after all.

The professional method of reserving a spot for the day seems to be tying groups of camping chairs together with yellow tape. Michele Morlet and Joey Ann Staggs — who flew in from Hawaii this week — as well as their friend Sali Fujimoto borrowed another group’s tape to mark their territory.

They’re not here for any specific headliner, they said. They’re here for the experience.

That includes indoctrinating Morlet (it’s her first Country Thunder) and, for Staggs and Fujimoto (who’ve attended twice before), reuniting with old friends they met at previous Country Thunder events.

The trio is commuting from Queen Creek all four days, but they have plenty of friends to visit at the campgrounds as they wait for artists to take to the stage.

— KiMi Robinson

Morgan Wallen makes 'lake music?'

Morgan Wallen's youngest fan may have just rolled into Country Thunder.

Meet Tucson resident Hayden Walker. She's five. It's her first time at the event, though her parents have been coming since 2013, her mom, Jordan Walker, said.

"Country music is life for us," Jordan Walker said. "It's everything."

Which is why the family pulled into their campsite last night with their trailer, something they bought specifically for their trips to Country Thunder.

Hayden is dressed in her finest — a rainbow dress with her makeshift country boots, otherwise the boots she wears when she's trying to dress like Anna from Disney's "Frozen." But they're perfect for this event, she said, and even more perfect to dance in when Morgan Wallen performs.

"I'm most excited for the lake music," she said.

"That's Morgan Wallen," her mom said, laughing.

They turn his music on whenever they head to the lake.

"He's our boy," Jordan Walker said. "And now he's hers too."

— Sofia Krusmark

It's going to be hot, so try to stay cool

Gates are open at Country Thunder Arizona 2022 even though the music won't get started until 4 p.m. If you're headed out to the festival at Canyon Moon Ranch near Florence keep the weather forecast in mind.

In a word, it will be hot for this time of year. The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-90s each day of the event. Make sure you wear light, loose-fitting clothing. Wearing a hat is a good idea since there isn't much shade in the festival area. And, of course, drink plenty of water.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Country Thunder Arizona 2022 festival recap: Reviews on every artist