Musically and lyrically, the singer doesn’t stray from the tried and true.

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When Luke Bryan asked the audience if there were hunters in the house on Wednesday night at Saddledome, the house had already been questioned about its composition on numerous occasions.

Bryan was asking about the hunters and fishermen in the crowd as a prelude to his cheerful good-guy party, Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day. It was early in the set and one of the highlights when Bryan and his band turned the number into an extended banjo, dueling guitar and honky-tonk piano. But at that point he had already asked the audience if there were any tequila drinkers in the house. . . or whiskey drinkers in the house. . . or red wine drinkers in the house.

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Of course, those questions came from Chayce Beckham, one of the opening acts, before Bryan even took the stage. But he succinctly summed up the mood of the opening night of Bryan’s tour, appropriately titled Mind of A Country Boy, which kicked off in Calgary to an appreciative, sold-out crowd. It’s doubtful many expected a cerebral evening with one of country’s first and most successful purveyors of bro-country, a label Bryan apparently dislikes but has done little to distance himself from in the past 15 years. While Wednesday night’s performance was certainly predictable, it was never boring. Bryan more than made up for his somewhat limited sphere of interests (girls, drinking, country living, listening to the radio in his truck with his girl, more drinking) and musically formulated singing with tireless exuberance.

Fresh off a lengthy Las Vegas residency in 2022, Bryan proved to be the consummate showman and extremely gracious to boot, overcoming blow after blow with polish and energy. Admittedly, there wasn’t much variety in the opening salvo, which was made up of dizzying runs through paint-by-numbers anthems like Kick the Dust Up, Knockin’ Boots, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, What Makes You Country and But. I have a beer in my hand. But did anyone really expect variety?

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Not that Bryan is immune to celebrating the simple joys of country life and drinking beers. But unlike some of his peers who insist on producing leaden, moralistic ballads about small-town life or sad country anthems about his supposed bad attitude, Bryan seems to at least have a sense of humor about it. Yes, there is a certain absurdity in a 47-year-old man singing lines like “Guys like me need girls like you to kiss me,” but his smile suggests he’s in on the joke.

On Wednesday night, Bryan checked all the boxes for a polished show in Nashville. There were the aforementioned anthems, extended jams, and some effective ballads, including a long run of Strip It Down. At one point, his backing band gathered around him Hootenanny-style for a series of songs that included a possibly (but probably not) improvised medley of Brian Adams songs, a nice version of the mournful Drink a Beer, and a cover elegant of Buy Dirt, the ballad he recorded as a duet with Jordan Davis.

As was becoming the norm, the Saddledome show featured a generous almost four hours of music, with two opening acts. That included Saskatchewan’s Tenille Arts, who smiled through some unfortunate sonic gremlins that made their song performances difficult to listen to. However, it offered a strong opening with catchy country-pop songs like Back Then, Right Now and Last Time Last. American Idol winner Beckham also opened his set with his strongest material, including Steve Earle-esque Devil I’ve Been and Heartland rocker Waylon on 75 before delivering a suitably swaggering cover of Tyler Childer’s Whitehouse Road.

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To end the night, Bryan returned to the stage wearing a Flames t-shirt for an encore of a song from That’s My Kind of Night. Interestingly, at one point, this 2013 hit was held up as an example of country music’s current identity crisis and deep division (Entertainment Weekly called it a ‘civil war’) after Zac Brown declared it was “a “one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.” ever heard.”

Yes, this mix of hard rock and bro-country still sounds absolutely ridiculous. But it’s hard to deny its infectious qualities when thousands of people sing along. There may not be anything revolutionary in this country boy’s mind, but the hits still please the masses.

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