Luke Combs’ & Eric Church’s Historic Concert for Carolina Benefit: 8 Best Moments

There’s a reason that Strings is taking the country by storm and selling out arenas everywhere. His acoustic music is anchored in bluegrass, but brings in elements of rock, jam and metal. His guitar playing, along with the musicianship of his bandmates, is clean and tight, but never sacrifices emotion for precision. Upon its October release, his new album,Highway Prayers, became the first bluegrass set to hit No. 1 on  Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart since 2002. He drew upon that set with lock-up song, “Seven Days in County,” but the evening’s highlight was his tribute to his musical hero and N.C. legend Doc Watson with a stirring cover of “Train That Carried My Girl from Town,” that allowed every member of his band to stretch out. It was an invigorating set that wowed the crowd and, undoubtedly, brought Strings new fans.

Church has been known to do cover songs, but it has been a number of years since he’d done as wide-ranging a medley of tunes that influenced him as he did toward the end of his moving 85-minute stripped-down solo set. In the middle of his autobiographical “Mistress Named Music,” he dove  into a 10-song medley of his childhood influences: Ronnie Milsap’s “Smoky Mountain Rain,” Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind,” Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay,” Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” The Temptations’ “My Girl” (which he noted was his father’s favorite song);  Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me,” Waylon Jennings’ “Theme from Dukes of Hazzard (Good ‘Ol Boys),”  Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” (which got the most rousing response) and Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”  It was endearing in a set filled with emotion.

Both Church and Combs adamantly felt that one of the most popular artists to come out of North Carolina, James Taylor, had to be part of the concert. The troubadour’s enduring catalog of beautifully crafted songs delivered by his warm, soothing vocals are still as potent now as they were the days they were released 50 years ago and felt tailor-made (every pun intended) for the cause, especially the poignancy of “Fire & Rain,” the supportive optimism of “You’ve Got a Friend” and, of course, the North Carolina unofficial anthem, “Carolina in My Mind.” He may not live in N.C. anymore, but Taylor still feels like the beating heart of the state every time he opens up his mouth to sing.

It says everything about the cause and about the respect their fellow artists have for Combs and Church that several stars showed up for what were basically glorified cameos, traveling great distances to contribute a few songs. Sheryl Crow joined Church for “Picture,” her 2001 hit with Kid Rock (Church admitted he’d never sung the song before in his life), then delivered sprightly versions of “If It Makes You Happy” and “Every Day is A Winding Road.” Then Keith Urban spent his birthday helping the cause by singing “Blue Ain’t Your Color” and “Wasted Time” (with a wicked break where he used the body of the guitar and the mic as his drums) before Church joined him for their 2013 collab, “Raise ‘Em Up.” Urban’s wife Nicole Kidman came on stage to wish him a happy birthday. Similarly, Combs brought out Bailey Zimmerman, who sang his breakthrough hit, “Rock and a Hard Place” and the Avett Brothers, who canceled their own arena show to be at the benefit. Additionally, Rice, Parmalee and McCreery each did two songs between headliner sets. It kept the show varied and moving, but also contributed to the evening’s “we’re all in this together” feel.

Most people take pride in the state they are from (hopefully), but Tar Heels are an especially proud lot whether it comes to the natural beauty of the state from the Outer Banks to the Smokey Mountains and to the prowess of the college sports teams and, of course, the barbeque.  A highlight of the evening was that every artist from North Carolina performed a song they had written about their love for their (and my) home state. Both Church and Parmalee played their same-named tunes “Carolina,” Rice sang “Carolina Can,” Taylor performed “Carolina in My Mind” and McCreery drew huge cheers with “Carolina to Me” with its memorable line, “Everything that’s heaven to you is Carolina to me.” The show ended with Combs and Church playing Church’s version of “Carolina,” where they were joined by the artists who had stuck around, including Rice, Parmalee, McCreery, Avett Brothers and Zimmerman.

Even when she’s not in the building, Dolly Parton still manages to sprinkle her angel dust. Following Church’s set, co-hosts Caleb Pressley and Marty Smith announced that Parton had pledged $1 million to “my neighbors in North Carolina” through the $100 million Bezos Courage and Civility Award that Jeff Bezos awarded her in 2022 to distribute as she sees fit. This is on top of  the $1 million she already donated to relief efforts three weeks ago. Parton wasn’t there, but another legend was. The stadium exploded in thunderous applause when Randy Travis,  accompanied by his wife, Mary, appeared on stage. His 2013 stroke left him largely unable to talk, so she delivered a moving speech about his road from hometown of Marshville, N.C. to Nashville, but how N.C. was always home.

Nothing exemplified the spirit of the night so much as when Combs brought up Wesko, a little known singer-songwriter from North Carolina whose song “Helene”  Combs discovered on TikTok as he heard it soundtracking clip after clip showing the destruction  and desperation brought by the hurricane. Combs ceded the stage (and his guitar) to Wesko to perform the gut-punch of a song that starkly described the devastation through such lines as “I’ve seen a mother standing on top of her house, a  baby in her arms as they floated on down/I’ve watched my brother hanging on that limb like a crucified Peter with a will to live/ The smell of death lingers on the mountainside ain’t nothing left but the tears I’ve left to cry/ We’ll sit here waiting on the coming of the lord until we run out of water and meet him for sure.” A moment of brutal and necessary truth in an otherwise feel-good night.

Whereas his co-organizer Church played a stripped-down solo set full of hits and covers, Combs put on a full-scale show complete with full band and a wildly high-octane set. Combs, the two-time CMA entertainer of the year, barreled through hit after hit, thrilling the audience with such tunes as the sexy, pulsating “The Kind of Love We Make,” rollicking “Loving on You,” biting “Beer Never Broke My Heart” and his latest No. 1, “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” from the movie Twisters. His and Church’s hour-plus sets were the perfect complements to each other. Church joined Combs for their first-ever live performance of their 2020 No. 1, “Does to Me” (the pair had planned to perform it at the 2020 CMA Awards but couldn’t because of COVID) and the grins on both their faces as they played together and realized they had pulled off a tremendous evening full of great music and good will were pure joy.