It was a barefoot blue jean night at Boots and Hearts on Friday

Friday was a hot one but the fans filed into the Main stage area early on to see the smoking lineup Boots had for Friday.

I got to see Mackenzie Porter do a Sirius XM session inside the barn in the VIP area and while it was only 10 minutes or so it was a lot of fun to hear acoustic songs in such and intimate setting she closed with just a little bit of her hit song with Dustin Lynch “Thinkin’ bout you” and let the fans in on a secret that she’d be playing it later on in the evening. She hit the main stage about a half hour after that finished and had the crowd singing along and loving the couple songs she pulled the fiddle out for.

She actually told the boots crowd that she had to audition for the part in Dustin Lynch’s song and she didn’t hear anything back for 4 months and was almost thinking about quitting music until one day Dustin followed her on Instagram. She also said she was very thankful for everyone that showed up because 5 years ago or so she said she was playing a small stage in the middle of the festival where people sat on hay bails and watched and she said it was embarrassing because there were only like 5 people watching her but Friday night she had thousands show up to see her set and she nailed it.

Next up was Dustin Lynch and he sure brought the Party Mode tour to Boots and Hearts strong. He said he went out in the campgrounds and played beer pong and flip cup with some of the campers and said that this festival has the best looking crowd by far. After about 4 or 5 songs he went looking in the crowd for the guy that wanted to party the hardest (while the rest of Dustin’s band threw out beers to the crowd) and gave him a football helmet decked out in party mode stickers with 2 beer can holders on each side with the straws. The guys name was Gary and Dustin told Gary that anytime he needed more beer to flag him or the band down and they would refill him. He also picked a girl and a guy from the left and right side of the stage to come up on stage and play beer pong while he continued to play songs; Dustin even grabbed one of the ping pong balls and drained his shot and that got a big roar from the crowd.

Near the end of his set he was talking to the crowd about how when he moved to Nashville in 2003 that he didn’t really get to play outside of the state of Tennessee until he wrote a song for his grandparents who he said have been together 67 years ago this past July and said he never would’ve been able to travel to places like Canada without this song then went into “Cowboys and Angels”. He closed his set by saying he’s been waiting a long time for this moment and he brought out Mackenzie Porter to do their 6 week #1 song “Thinkin’ bout you” which had the thousands that were now packed into the Main Stage area singing along, before he left the stage he topped Gary up with 4 more beers to get him through the rest of the night.

To close the night was Jake Owen and he addressed the elephant in the room early on in his set by saying “ya I know I’m not supposed to be her”e and went on to say that he was supposed to spend this week with his 2 girls BUT always told himself after the pandemic that if the call ever rang to fill in he would take it and when Boots and Hearts called him he said “fuck yeah I’ll be there” he said some of the best things in life aren’t planned that they just happen and he said he was lucky and just trying to soak in the moment.

He opened with his most recent #1 “Best thing since backroads” and kept the party, Dustin Lynch started, going by bringing out a wagon with a cooler on it and started throwing beers to the crowd. After about 6 or 7 songs he pointed to a guy who had a girl on his shoulders for his whole set and told him and the girl he was with and all the friends he was with to come up on stage and watch the rest of his set from on stage. After a couple more songs he went back to the drums and had 3 Sombrero’s he found 3 amigos to do a shot of tequila with before playing some of his old school hits like “Yee Haw” and “8 second ride” all while roaming around the stage in his famous barefoot blue jean look. He closed the night saying thanks again to Boots and Hearts for giving him this night and then went into “Made For You” and let the crowd sing the last verse while he just enjoyed being on stage.

For more coverage be sure to click here and check out Brian John Harwood’s review as well!

Boots and Hearts continues today with performances by Riley Taylor, Sykamore, Aaron Goodvin, Meghan Patrick, Russell Dickerson and, of course, Florida Georgia Line. Full lineup and information can be found at www.bootsandhearts.com