Nelly + Tyler Farr Headline A Night Full Of Music At Bayfront [PHOTOS]
Hip Hop and Country joined forces to entertain excited music fans of both genres at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth as Nelly and Tyler Farr headlined four acts that hit the stage Thursday night.
Local act Whiskey Trail opened the evening, fresh off being named a top-five finalist in a national vote by Taste of Country for up-and-coming country music acts. The duo of Heidi Pack and Jake Birdseye, joined by their band, warmed the crowd up with a blend of crowd favorites that included covers of Gretchen Wilson's "Here For The Party" and Little Big Town's "Girl Crush".
Drew Baldridge followed, putting on a Luke Bryan-esque show, strutting his stuff on stage while performing a mix of covers and his original songs like "Love On Your Body", "Burnt Toast", "Tractors Don't Roll" and radio charting songs "Guns & Roses" off his upcoming album and "Rebound", and "Dance With Ya" from 2016's album Dirt On Us.
While Nelly was the only hip hip act of the night, he's no stranger to country music. Among some of his notable country collaborations and remixes he performed at Bayfront were the remix of Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise", his duet with Tim McGraw "Over And Over", and his rendition of Thomas Rhett's "Die A Happy Man". The St. Louis rapper also led the crowd through the rest of his hits, doing a medley of songs that included "Party People", "E.I.", "Shake Ya Tailfeather", "Batter Up", "Air Force Ones", along with "Ride Wit Me", "Hot In Herre", "Dilemma", and "Just A Dream".
Fellow Missouri boy Tyler Farr closed out the night, calling out the common tie between him and Nelly a few times during the night, even sharing how Nelly's album "Country Grammar" is the only rap album he ever bought on the day it came out, saying he wore it out listening to it so much.
Farr stormed the stage with his gravely opening number "C.O.U.N.T.R.Y.", and brought the crowd with him on a ride through some of his beer-drinking party songs and ballads. He hit fan favorites like "Better In Boots", "I Should Go To Church Sometime", "Redneck Crazy", and "A Guy Walks Into A Bar" as well as songs like "Damn Good Friends", "Withdrawls", and a new song called "We Should Get A Beer Sometime", during which he shouted out Nelly, replacing Conway Twitty in the original lyrics "If you think Kanye's a prick and Conway's the king" with Nelly. He crossed genre lines dropping a few bars from Easy-E's "Boys-N-The-Hood", and covering Alice In Chains's "Man In The Box" and The Outfield's "Your Love".
Both Drew Baldridge and Tyler Farr hit the road right after the show, departing for separate tour dates tomorrow. Farr is heading just down the road to Detroit Lakes for a Friday WE Fest performance, while Baldridge is heading to New Salem, North Dakota for a Friday night show at the Morton County Fair. Meanwhile, Nelly can kick back and relax a little, as his next scheduled performance is on August 25 in Louisville, Kentucky.