By Adam Lucas

 

FORT WORTH—There’s a lot happening in Fort Worth.

 

To the outside world, this is just one big DFW conglomerate, where Dallas is the same as Fort Worth and Fort Worth is the same as Dallas.

 

This is completely wrong.

 

Fort Worth is different. Fort Worth has the Stockyards and hats and boots. 

 

And music, it has lots of music. Tracy Byrd was at the iconic Billy Bob’s on Friday night and as soon as Eric Church’s crew loads up the last tractor-trailer in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Lady Gaga is moving in to Dickies Arena for two weekend shows. So to hold the attention of people who otherwise might be distracted by The Keeper of the Stars or Poker Face, you’ve got to do something pretty special.

 

And you might think a four-song run of “Springsteen,” “Drink In My Hand,” “Record Year” and “Cold One” would qualify. The first is generational. The second had people all over the Dickies Center dancing in the aisles. The third is one of those sing-alongs to which everyone knows the words (“I’m either gonna get over you/Or I’m gonna blow out my ears” is a fist pumper). And then Church capped it off with “Cold One” and a surprise trombone solo from Roy Agee in the middle of the song.

 

Would you believe that even that four-song sequence won’t be what people are talking about from this show?

 

Nope, that had come just a little earlier. Church had warned the packed crowd. “We’re going to try some stuff now,” he said after “Give Me Back My Hometown.” He just grinned at them. “We’re going to do some real shit for the next 20 minutes,” he said.

 

He started with “Creepin’.” Then he was joined on stage by opener Stephen Wilson Jr. That’s when the real shit began, as they combined forces on Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” the first time Church has ever performed that song.

 

The Clark homage somehow seamlessly turned into “Seven Spanish Angels,” first made famous by no less than Willie Nelson and Ray Charles and another first for Church.

 

The surest way to tell something big is happening at a concert is to watch the roadies. They’ve seen everything before and they’re hard to impress. When they make the effort to watch a specific moment, you know you’re seeing something special. And virtually everyone on Church and Wilson’s crews were stageside to make sure they didn’t miss these ten minutes. Near the end, with Church and Wilson going back and forth, it felt like one of those big CMA Awards performances, one that will live on social media and YouTube forever.

 

But this one was just a Friday night in Fort Worth.

 

“That’s not something you see every day,” Church told the crowd when it was over. “That’s my favorite thing about touring. I have too many whiskeys and I say, ‘I have an idea! We should take a Guy Clark song and let it turn into a Willie song and add Ray Charles.’ And that’s how we got here, Fort Worth.”

 

What makes a Church show special, though, is that he doesn’t just nail the big moments. The small ones can be just as impactful.

 

Standing near the front of the pit, Charlette and Jay Hilton were singing along to almost every word. But for certain songs, Charlette held up a photo.

 

“This is my son,” she explained about the photo of 21-year-old Grant Madden, a member of the Louisiana National Guard who died unexpectedly in September. “He loved Eric Church.”

 

“He loved this dude,” echoed Jay, who was Grant’s stepfather.

 

It was Jay and Grant’s father, Ryan Madden, who found him on that terrible September day. “It was the worst day of my life,” Jay says. “A grown man started screaming. And then I called my wife and she started screaming.”

 

There is no way to make peace with a day like that. You wake up and it’s a normal day and then your son’s boss is calling and saying your kid didn’t come to work and no one can reach him. Everything fundamentally changes from that point forward. 

 

So Jay and Charlette try to do what they can. They ran a half-marathon together, carrying Grant’s picture the entire way. Jay looks at you very seriously. “That shit,” he says, “hurt.”

 

And they brought the picture with them on Friday night for their third time seeing Eric Church in concert. They danced and they had fun but they also remembered Grant. Charlette held the photo high over her head for “Hell of a View” and “These Boots” and “Sinners Like Me.” 

 

And a funny thing happened: “Mr. Misunderstood” hasn’t been on every set list on this tour. Church didn’t play it last night in Tulsa.

 

But there it was on Friday, right between “Homeboy” and “Give Me Back My Hometown.” And that one, they held the photo a little higher, and maybe cried a little.

 

“Mr. Misunderstood,” Jay said, “was absolutely Grant’s song. It was 100 percent his favorite song.” 

 

Now it’s also one of their favorites. And it’s a stark reminder that every time Church picks up a guitar he’s entertaining someone and inspiring another and maybe healing someone just a little bit, too.

 

Friday night was about big, epic performances like a one of a kind collaboration with Stephen Wilson Jr., two artists taking a chance and trying something just to see if they could do it (answer: hell yes).

 

But it was also about much smaller, much more personal moments, like parents remembering a son.

 

And when you have both in the same show? Well, that’s how you can succeed anywhere—even in Fort Worth.