Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker Rock an Empty Stadium for ‘CMA Best of Fest’

Check out this snippet of their "Small Town" performance.

Written by Chris Parton
Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker Rock an Empty Stadium for ‘CMA Best of Fest’
Darius Rucker and Luke Bryan; Photo courtesy of CMA

Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker teamed up to inject some fresh energy into last night’s (July 13) CMA Best of Fest special, covering John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” in socially-distant style.

The map-dot celebrating anthem was the only new performance of the evening, which was meant to hold fans over until the real CMA Music Festival can return, post-COVID. Almost spooky in a ghost-town kind of way, it found the two stars singing to a totally empty Nissan Stadium — the same Nashville venue which CMA Fest usually fills to the brim — but still somehow making it feel like a communal experience. At this point in the pandemic, we’re all isolated into our own proverbial “small towns,” but like Bryan and Rucker illustrate, small towns have their charm.

Hosted by Bryan, Best of Fest featured standout performances from the last several years of the CMA Fest, including memorable moments from Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and many more. This year’s festival was cancelled, but the fan-favorite event will return June 10-13, 2021.