Richie teams up with country musicians for concert

The CBS special “Lionel and Friends” brought together the best of Lionel Richie and the best of country music in a celebration of Richie’s music from over the years.
Richie, formally of The Commodores, released “Tuskegee,” his 10th solo-album on March 5, putting Richie with some of the country music industry’s top acts to recreate some of Richie’s popular songs.
The album has been a successful venture for Richie as it opened as the number one album on the Billboard Country chart.
Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, Little Big Town, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Tim McGraw, Shania Twain, Billy Currington, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett joined Richie on his album, and many of those same artists joined in on the fun in April 13’s CBS special.
Richie opened the night with “All Night Long.” Richie did many duets during the night, but also did solo performances of “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady.”
Richie’s performance of “Easy” was without a doubt his best solo performance of the night.
While Richie was apart of most of the night’s performances, he was a spectator for a few.
Martina McBride was the first on the stage, performing a beautiful rendition of “Still,” a single released by The Commodores in 1979.
Others who performed some of Richie’s popular tunes were: Aldean performing “Say You, Say Me,” The Band Perry performing “Penny Lover,” Lady Antebellum performing “Truly,” Luke Bryan performing “Running with the Night” and Marc Anthony and Sara Evans performing “My Endless Love.”
The artists were well aware of the legend watching them from the front row while performing.
Aldean admitted to being “nervous and star struck” when meeting Richie, after being asked to be a part of the “Tuskegee” album.
Richie performed duets with Rascal Flatts, Chesney, Darius Rucker, Nettles, McGraw, Shelton, Rogers and Big & Rich.
Richie’s “Hello” duet with Nettles was definitely one of the better performances of the evening.
Their voices blended well together and the outstanding vocals of Nettles were definitely a bright spot of the performance.
It was also great as a music fan to see two living legends in Richie and Rogers on stage together to perform “Lady,” a song Richie wrote for Rogers, which became one of Rogers’ most popular songs.
While Rogers is not the performer he once was, it was still great to see the two in action together.
Another great duet performance came from Shelton and Richie, who performed “You Are.” The two sounded well together and showed great on-stage chemistry throughout the performance.
The night in whole was a treat for all music fans. It’s not often that artists from different genres are brought together on one stage, so when it happens, it is often something to see, as was Richie’s TV special.
It seemed to be a night that the artists enjoyed as well. Richie enjoyed being on stage with the variety of artists and when he was not performing, sang along in the front row.
Just as the TV special, Richie’s “Tuskegee” album is a treat that music fans should buy.
The duets on the album are not something you see everyday and those who buy the album will not be disappointed with the quality.