Jason Aldean and his army take over Walnut Creek

Words by Sheila Walsh

Members of the Aldean Army gathered in the Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek on Friday, September 30th for Jason Aldean’s Six-String Circus Tour, featuring Thomas Rhett and A Thousand Horses.

The Aldean Army is the badge of honor fans of Jason Aldean wear proudly as they fill up the sold-out arenas he’s been playing all over the country this summer. Friday night’s show was no different as around 20,500 of his army camped inside the amphitheater and checked another show off their list.

Nashville-natives A Thousand Horses opened the Six-String Circus Tour with a taste of their latest album Southernality. The Carolina territory is familiar scenery for vocalist Michael Hobby and guitarist Bill Satcher as both men grew up in Newberry, South Carolina; short drive through the Palmetto state and into the Tar Heel State brought along familiar faces and the Southern charm they grew up with. Friday’s show brought along five new tracks from A Thousand Horses’ Southernality, stirring the pot for what was to come as the circus progressed.

Singer-songwriter and music industry bigwig Thomas Rhett took the stage shortly after and demonstrated why his name is among the most popular in the Country music industry.

Rhett wrote songs for Country superstars, including Aldean, prior to releasing a body of work with his own name on the front cover.

These days, Rhett is touring the nation with not one, but two records under his belt, with another one most likely being written as he travels. Rhett is known among his “hometeam,” the badge his fans wear, to put on a wild show, and Friday was no different.

Playing songs from his two albums and covering DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean” and the Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars smash-hit “Uptown Funk,” it’s easy to see why Aldean brought the Tennessee musician to the circus.

The Aldean Army was prepped and ready to go by the time the Nashville-megastar graced the Raleigh stage. The Six-String Circus Tour kicked into gear as Aldean played many of the smash-hits that lived on the Country charts for record-breaking amounts of time.

Aldean has his latest album, and more specifically the opening track “Lights Come On,” to thank for his massive success in 2016. They Don’t Know is his most current release, his seventh album, and his third record to top the Billboard 200 chart.

“Lights Come On” is Aldean’s seventeen No. 1 Country hit during his eleven-year career, and the origin of the tour’s name. “Six-string circus” is a lyric in the song that was co-written with Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line, as well as a last minute addition to They Don’t Know. The single was recorded, mixed, and on the desk of radio stations within three weeks.

Unbeknownst to me, Aldean somehow crammed twenty songs from his seven albums into a 90-minute slot, and put on a show that left Raleigh and the “Aldean Army” weak in its knees according to the Twitter-verse.

The social media platform was soaked in joyful tweets, GIFs and memes galore as the Country star left the stage. What more could an audience full of 20,000+ Aldean-fans want?