Mellowed Out in the Music City Zone

(contributed by Kirby Smith)

The GAC Music City Stage offered a breather from the action at other packed and high-energy CMA Music Fest venues.  Besides a well-blended mixture of hip and vintage Country, the show on Sunday afternoon, June 13 included among its incentives chairs for the weary, personal cabanas in the form of umbrellas and tables and fountains perfect for cooling off. 

Sunday afternoon’s show featured Charmaine, originally from Sydney, Australia, and a Nashville resident for a decade now. “Being from Australia, I understand this scorching hot weather,” Charmaine empathized in her faint Aussie accent.

The light stylings of Charmaine’s music washed over the crowd like a cool breeze.  Her minimal band of a drummer and keyboardist provided the foundation for her songs like “Tokyo” and “At My Door.”

In contrast, Charlie Louvin opened the history of Country Music to the assembled spectators.  Louvin, who made history with his late brother Ira as The Louvin Brothers, performed a Louvin Brothers classic, “The Christian Life.”

Two special guests were in the audience: Louvin’s grandchildren, Cassidy, 13, and Cade, 11, Louvin of Reading, Pa.