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CMA Music Fest: On opening day, stars and fans make personal connections

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CMA Music Festival fans

Click to see a gallery of photos from Thursday at the CMA Music Festival (this image: Karen Kraft/The Tennessean).

Thursday afternoon, Keith Burns of duo Burns & Poe pondered a CMA Festival that was packed with what appeared to be an unprecedented amount of fans (many of whom were experiencing an unprecedented amount of sunburn).

Burns broke into the music business with trio Trick Pony, a group that first played the CMA fest in 2001.

“I love it,” he said. “We played this morning, we’re playing outside on the Bud Light Stage, and we’re playing the Whiskey Bent Saloon Saturday at 6 p.m., and in between it’s kissing babies and shaking hands and meeting the fans. And that’s what it’s all about. Now, by day four ask me again and I might feel differently. But we’re the only genre of music in the world that has this kind of thing. All these acts show up, never get paid, play for free, and love it.”

The play-for-free part winds up benefiting Nashville through the CMA’s annual donation of half the proceeds to public school music education (last year, the organization gave the other half to flood relief), and the kissing babies/shaking hands part benefits artists who have the chance to make personal connections with the people who listen to and purchase the music.

Burns and partner Michelle Poe aren’t playing the big stage at LP Field this year, but Thursday afternoon was a sweaty reminder that the stadium show is one glittering facet of a festival that offers much more.

Grand Ole Opry great Jeannie Seely braved the heat to play mid-afternoon on a shade-free stage alongside Lynn Anderson and Gene Watson (whose powerful “Farewell Party” may have been the day’s vocal highlight). Dozens of artists signed autographs at the Fan Fair autograph hall. And the Durango Acoustic Stage offered stirring sets from the bluegrass-meets-swing Quebe Sisters Band and from hard country vocalist (and songwriter of tunes including George Jones’ “Choices”) Billy Yates.

Thursday night’s stadium show, then, has a tough act to follow. The setting of the sun will help.

The CMA Music Festival runs through Sunday, June 12 in Nashville. Keep up with more on the festival: www.Tennessean.com/CMAFest or on Twitter @tuneinmusiccity.

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