Shania Twain surprises Nashville with Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd at first Geodis Park concert

Modern mainstream country music will be guided by its growing matriarchal influence.

There were many takeaways from Shania Twain's headlining set as her 2023 "Queen of Me" tour christened year-old Major League Soccer franchise Nashville SC's Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood-based stadium, Geodis Park, as a venue able also to host live musical performances.

However, before the seller of over 100 million records with 30 years in mainstream music closed out her well-attended concert, she paused and addressed the crowd.

Then, the evening’s most significant takeaway -- that a trio of women with a combined 150 years of experience are among many women currently at the genre’s guiding forefront -- occurred.

While clad in the exact black top-hat, overcoat and minidress she wore in the video shoot for her 25-year-old single "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (which she noted she had asked to be returned -- alongside the leopard-print wardrobe for "That Don't Impress Me Much" -- from its then-current home at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, to be explicitly worn on this tour) she welcomed one of her musical heroes, Tanya Tucker, to the stage.

Tucker, clad in a rhinestone-adorned take on the same outfit Twain was wearing, stunned the capacity crowd with her appearance. Then, after Twain acknowledged that the songs she wrote are better as three-part harmonies, out sauntered Wynonna Judd, clad in a trademark all-black outfit. However, she had three massive Western-style belts on, too.

Then, the trio sang, "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!"

Or rather, Twain sang it; Tucker harmonized while Judd belted her part with a ferocity loud enough to shake the storm-threatening heavens above.

The performance -- as did many songs during Twain's two-hour set -- received a frenzied ovation.

Before taking the stage, Twain told The Tennessean that the song had grown from "not being welcomed" by country music to be one where the fans superseded industry desires to make it a hit well within the genre's standards.

Now she notes the song is a "pure country anthem."

Humbly, after the show, Judd, after performing the song at Twain's behest, merely stated, "You show up for your friends when they call on you."

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Then, she and her husband, Cactus Moser -- in a manner not dissimilar to Elvis Presley -- left the building.

The moment's power was profound.

Currently, Twain has her February-released album "Queen of Me" out, during a season when she received the Poet's Award from the Academy of Country Music. Tucker's just-released "Sweet Western Sound" will also arrive before her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year.

Moreover, Judd existed at the intersection of "hell and hallelujah" in the past year. She survived the death of her mother, Naomi, a day before their 2022 induction into the same Hall of Fame where Tucker is set to be inducted.

This preceded a two-dozen date tour that saw Judd nearly bowled over, physically on multiple occasions, by the stress of the moment, and depending upon the strength and skill of a laundry list of modern stars (including Shania opener Kelsea Ballerini, alongside Martina McBride, Ashley McBryde, Trisha Yearwood and Brandi Carlile, among many) to get her through an arduous year.

2022 also included a moment at the Country Music Association Festival where, while onstage with Carly Pearce at Nissan Stadium, she closed a version of Judds' hit "Mama He's Crazy" by exalting "I am country music."

Add into this moment Dolly Parton completing a cycle where she is a 2022 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a November-arriving, 30-track album, "Rockstar," involving pretty much every iconic-voiced and living rock and country superstar.

If faith, family and fun guide the men involved in country music's pop-culture-defining ascendance, then its women are responsible for bringing redemption, (pop music) relevance and rock 'n roll to this moment.

"We're in a diverse era in Nashville where independence and creativity are on the rise again," Twain said of the Music City she performed in on June 7.

"Though Nashville's late to the music industry's ability to sustain diverse growth -- and many great artists have fallen to the wayside while [Nashville hadn't evolved] -- those of us who can exist in this town, currently are in the midst of slowly learning how to embrace each other. Landmark artists like myself, Dolly, Tanya and Wynonna, we're glad to be active amid these times."

Alongside a century of female country legends and Ballerini, she was joined by 27-year-old African-American country chart-topper Breland, plus emerging, Atlanta-based Black female quartet The Boykinz (as she had promised them when they shared a moment during a recent appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show), onstage at Geodis Park.

"I'm proud to be involved, even after my body of work did the work to welcome many members of this generation of artists into country music," Twain continued. She's nearly 58 years old, but due to a six-year pause in her career after contracting Lyme disease, her recovery from open-throat surgery in 2018, plus overcoming the perils of a COVID-19 diagnosis, she's a decade younger (and wiser) in her artistry now.

That wisdom has allowed her unique perspectives on the pop crossover her country roots developed.

"My tour allows so many of my openers (who include Ballerini and Breland, plus Priscilla Block, Lindsay Ell, Mickey Guyton, Robyn Ottolini and Hailey Whitters) to experience getting to be country stars learning how to bridge communities by appealing to my crowd, who are also here for more popular-appealing music."

"For country music being headed into the pop lane, I can only advise that it requires tirelessly wanting to elevate the genre to the highest global standard possible. It's hard work, but it's worth it. Country music has so many capable, creative artists who can achieve pop stardom, which they deserve," Twain adds.

"I'm reimagining being aesthetically pleasing and vocally entertaining in a manner never done before. Every show's a challenge of creating a new, unseen style of who I am, reimagining my career. I'm having a blast building a new lane for a special time in country and popular music."

Regarding how that style is being received in the current country-to-pop crossover environment, Twain offers a genuinely impassioned statement.

"I'm just sharing in a moment defined by heightened excitement and love. And the fans just want to enjoy the excitement and love they're receiving from the stage."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Shania Twain brings on Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd for Nashville concert