12/01/09 - RYMAN AUDITORIUM , NASHVILLE, TN

Review by Craig Shelburne, CMT Blog:
Bryan Adams said he's heard about the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville ever since he was a kid although he didn't seem the least bit nervous about first-ever performance there on Sunday night (Jan. 11). The laidback setup was appropriate for the Mother Church of Country Music with just Adams and an acoustic guitar and sometimes a piano accompanist. He told a few stories (for example, about how 'Heaven'� was inspired by a movie pitch about a male stripper), but mostly he stuck to the love songs. Lots and lots and lots of love songs.

Incidentally that first line of 'Heaven'� "Oh, thinking about all our younger years"� - reminds me when my older brother collected all those Bryan Adams cassettes in the early 1980s. I would hear him playing them when he got his own room and how 'Summer of 69'would seep through his Walkman headphones in the station wagon. Going into this show, those were about the only two songs I could remember, but Adams jogged my memory with 'Can't Stop This Thing We Started', 'Cuts Like a Knife', 'Run to You', 'Please Forgive Me'� (which he said would make a good country song) and 'Straight From the Heart'. After he spotted Martina McBride in the crowd, he plucked her from her seat to join him on 'It's Only Love'. Earlier in the night, Nashville songwriter Gretchen Peters harmonized on a few songs they've written together.

Adams also tipped his hat to Willie Nelson and Ray Charles by crooning 'Seven Spanish Angels'. I wonder if the right duet partner could help Adams make his own mark on the country charts. He certainly has the charisma and vocal prowess (and loyal fans) to pull it off. Not that he needs to prove himself. He's playing plenty of cool places on his own.

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