After Lainey Wilson‘s headlining Saturday night (April 25) set was delayed an hour or so due to the Stagecoach grounds being temporarily evacuated because of strong winds, she made a triumphant performance on Stagecoach’s massive Mane Stage, blending heartfelt ballads, energetic barn burners, and vivid musical spectacle.
“Thank you so much for sticking out the wind,” the five-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping artist told the packed crowd of concertgoers who had braved the winds and evacuation to make it to the set. “Hopefully you sat in y’alls cars for a bit and drank some tequila,” she said, adding, “We came to Stagecoach to have a d–n good time, and that’s what we gonna do.”
Back in 2022, Wilson played an early afternoon set on a tiny stage at Stagecoach, when the singer-songwriter had just earned her first hits. But Saturday night, she headlined the country music festival’s biggest stage.
Two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner Wilson, clad in her signature bell bottoms, commanded the stage, playing songs including the funky “Ring Finger” and the tender “Good Horses Come Home,” as well as “Bell Bottoms Up,” “Road Runner,” “Hang Tight Honey” and “Country’s Cool Again.” Her songs touched on love, heartbreak, betrayal, work ethic and ambition. A massive horseshoe was centered on the stage, while large cactuses dotted the perimeter of the stage, which was often drenched in warm, sunny lighting that added a cozy ambience to the evening desert vibe that night in Indio, California.
Her fiddle player offered up an elegant melody of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” then Wilson launched into her lovely hit “Somewhere Over Laredo.” She later offered up an older song from her catalog, with the supportive, uplifting 2018 song “Dreamcatcher.”
When the evacuation took place Saturday night, it forced singer-songwriter Riley Green’s set to be nixed. But Wilson surprised the crowd by welcoming Green and Little Big Town (who had performed their own set on the Mane Stage earlier in the evening) to the stage during her own show.
“Y’all like Merle Haggard, right?” Wilson asked. “Oh, yeah!” Green replied before launching into a bit of Haggard’s 1980 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topper “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” with Little Big Town lending their own superb vocals to the rendition.
“Good times and good country music,” Wilson said, leading the audience in taking a celebratory drink. As Little Big Town and Green began to exit the stage, Wilson called Green back to center stage.
“I know how excited all of you were to see Riley Green tonight, so I think you need to do a song,” Wilson said. The crowd started chanting Green’s name. With just a guitar, Green performed his 2019 hit “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
Green and Little Big Town weren’t the only guests Wilson welcomed that evening. During her rendition of “Things A Man Oughta Know,” she also briefly paused to carry on a tradition her shows are known for, as she honored one young girl in the audience as “cowgirl of the night.” Welcoming the girl to the stage, Wilson told her that being a cowgirl isn’t about boots or a hat, but “about grit, about fire, about independence, about a girl that can be wild and grounded at the same time.”
She wrapped her show with two of her biggest hits, “4x4xU” and a song that embodies that sense of having grit and passion, “Heart Like a Truck.”
“I hope you’ve had the time of your life like we have,” she thanked the crowd as her set came to a close, later adding, “Thank you for making my dreams come true right before my very eyes.”
