A string of Nashville hitmakers and rising artists will take over Ascend Amphitheater Wednesday night (Oct. 2) for the inaugural Red Bull Jukebox Nashville concert, headlined by Grammy-winning duo Brothers Osborne.
The lineup will also feature Shaboozey (who is in his 12th week atop Billboard’s Hot 100 with his song “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” BRELAND, Tucker Wetmore, Priscilla Block, Muscadine Bloodline and sibling trio The Castellows.
Ward Guenther, founder/owner of the popular music discovery series Whiskey Jam, will be on hand to host the event. He tells Billboard he and his team “worked very closely with them on curating the lineup.”
“We try to include Whiskey Jam family members, ‘Jam Fam,’ as we like to call ’em, people that have played our shows through the years and honestly just bring the best blend of music and entertainment that we could find,” Guenther said. “Brothers Osborne has one of the best live shows you’ll ever see. So as a headliner, they’re going to encompass exactly what we want to do with this event, having a high-energy set that is as much for the audience as it is for the artists involved. We chose [outdoor venue] Ascend Amphitheater as a good place to start — it feels like a mini-festival.”
The Nashville show will be the Red Bull Jukebox series’ first event within the United States, having previously been held in countries including Japan and Switzerland (the Switzerland show featured the artist Hecht).
A key differentiating factor in the Red Bull Jukebox shows is the setlist, which is curated through fan voting. Fans offer their choices to a set of questions posted on the Red Bull Jukebox website and on artists’ socials, such as selecting whether they would prefer Brothers Osborne to play with a marching band or a bluegrass band, whether they would want to see Block covering hit songs from Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Paramore or Riley Green, or if BRELAND should welcome one of his musical cohorts from the genres of country, hip-hop or songwriting as a guest. Fans will also have the opportunity to vote in-person during the show on Oct. 2 through using wristbands that will be distributed to attendees.
“It’s all going to be as much a surprise for us and the artists as it is for the people in the crowd,” Guenther said.
The event’s houseband will be led by celebrated Nashville musicians including ACM Award-winning guitarist-producer Derek Wells.
“It’s going to be fun to watch the artists do [their performances] on the fly,” Guenther says. “We’ve got a world-class band that’s backing up all the artists and they’re having to learn tons of songs so they can be prepared for whatever happens. But I think that is going to be a big part of the magic of this show. If you’ve seen everybody on the lineup, you’ve never seen this show.”
Since launching in 2011, Whiskey Jam has put on over 1,000 shows, spotlighting rising Nashville songwriters and artists, with Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll being among those who have appeared at Whiskey Jam over the years. The Red Bull Jukebox show’s similar mission was part of the appeal for Guenther.
“The focus on the upcoming artists is a big deal. As we’ve done in Nashville with Whiskey Jam, you have to have some kind of recognizable names to get people in the door, but the hope for this event, and the future of this event, is we are bringing the future of music,” Guenther said. “When you come and see a Red Bull Jukebox show, you’re getting a sampler of what’s to come. It’s been a great collaborative effort…it’s like Whiskey Jam magnified with the power of Red Bull.”
Red Bull Jukebox Nashville show will put rising artists in the spotlight—though in this case, one of those rising artists, Shaboozey, has seen his artist profile skyrocket since he signed on for the show.
“When we started the conversation with Shaboozey, he hadn’t even been featured on the Beyonce record [Cowboy Carter], and then when [“A Bar Song (Tipsy)”] came out, and he had that [packed show in the middle of downtown Nashville at] CMA Fest, we were like, ‘Wow, we’re about halfway to Red Bull Jukebox and this is already the response. We can’t wait for the October roll around.’”
Guenther says another Nashville-based Red Bull Jukebox show could be a possibility, as could holding Red Bull Jukebox concerts in other U.S. cities.
“You could do a Red Bull Jukebox event in a place like Miami that would be the polar opposite of the one we’re doing in Nashville. You could have one in Texas or New York and they would all feel completely different,” he says, adding, “I can see it repeating again [in Nashville] if it goes as well as we are expecting it to. And there’s room to grow with a lot of potential in Nashville for doing bigger, even completely different shows here.”
