Miranda Lambert brought a crowd of musical friends — including Little Big Town, Dan+Shay, Lukas Nelson and HARDY — to the Music For Mutts benefit concert held at the Ascend Amphitheater on Saturday (October 5) in Nashville.

The concert, presented by Tractor Supply, is Lambert’s latest attempt to support a cause she has long championed: taking in animals that are too often forgotten and helping shelters in need of supplies.

“I’m so happy to be here,” Lambert told the audience at the start of her performance. “We sing for the dogs – all the dogs!”

The concert helped continue the work of the MuttNation Foundation, which Lambert and her mother Bev started 15 years ago, and has raised more than $10 million to promote adoption, support animal shelters, transport Helping animals during natural disasters and more. Prior to the show, a public dog adoption event was held at Ascend Park with animal shelters participating including Crossroads Campus, Nashville Humane, Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary and Wags and Walks.

The concert began with a double-shot of Texas country as Jake Worthington served as the opening act, followed by Miranda’s headlining set. Worthington grew up in La Porte, Texas, just over an hour from George Jones’ hometown, and his sound is largely infused with the same honky-tonk-inflected, deep Texas twang, evident in his effortless vocal delivery of songs like “proves” Next New Thing” or the serious ballad in “The State You Left Me In”. Of course, there were plenty of references to sawdust floors, neon lights and the Lone Star State in songs like “Honkytonk Crowd” and “Honkytonks in Texas.”

From there, with a glittering saddle hanging over the stage, Lambert launched her “Miranda and Friends” portion of the show with a double load of high-octane songs, “Fastest Girl in Town” and “Kerosene.”

She welcomed a number of guests as the show alternated between Lambert solo performances and collaborations with her musical cohorts, including Worthington, HARDY, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Riley Green, Dan + Shay and Little Big Town.

“I work and then I get a concert,” Lambert joked as she watched her fellow musicians perform.

Lambert called him “land as a cookie” and invited Worthington back to the stage. Worthington, who recently moved from Big Loud Records to Lambert’s Big Loud Texas label, accompanied her on the pointed ballad “Hello S—ty Day.”

She sang many of her favorite songs throughout the evening, including “If I Was a Cowboy,” “Mama’s Broken Heart,” “Gunpowder and Lead,” “The House That Built Me,” and “Automatic” (several of which were on the screens). see). Lambert’s childhood photos and at the same time document the beginnings of her musical journey).

Lambert wore a sparkly black and neon pink outfit that Lambert told the crowd was hand-embroidered and appropriately featured pictures of each of her dogs on the outfit. Throughout the evening, the screens behind her filled with images of fiery racing horses, cacti, and star-studded skies over desert horizons.

Lambert also offered songs from her new album Postcards from Texasincluding “maintenance.” Lambert acknowledged MuttNation’s work helping dog shelters and dogs in need before introducing another song from her new album, “Dammit Randy.” “Speaking of dogs, I wrote this song for my new album about a guy named Randy. So if you have a Randy in your life and you have someone you just need to flip the bird to, this is for you.”

She welcomed Lukas Nelson to honor late singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson by singing a Mere Haggard classic, “Silver Wings,” with Lambert noting, “Because we know Kris loved Merle…we love you, Kris.”

Back in June, Nelson and his band The Promise of the Real announced that they would be taking a break while many of the band members pursued various creative endeavors. During the Music For Mutts show, Nelson gave a wild solo take on the group’s “Find Yourself,” led by Nelson’s pulsating guitar riffs and dark, soul-wrenching voice.

From there, Lambert greeted another guest, Riley Green. Lambert noted that Green called to ask if he could help with the “Music For Mutts” show after one of his recent concerts near the East Coast was canceled due to Hurricane Helene. Green, riding on the success of his collaboration with Ella Langley, “You Look Like You Love Me,” performed his 2019 release “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” and the majority female audience took notice and stood. waved and filmed the performance with their cell phones.

Lambert welcomed her frequent co-writer and Pistol Annies bandmate Ashley Monroe, who was on “Heart Like Mine.” Another of her frequent co-writers, Nashville songwriting luminary Natalie Hemby, joined in on a song they co-wrote, “Bluebird,” as well as a rendition of the Lambert/Jack Ingram/Jon Randall co-write “Geraldene “.

From there, Lambert welcomed Dan+Shay to the stage as they performed their hits “Tequila” and “Speechless,” led by Shay Mooney’s pitch-perfect vocals. Meanwhile, his bandmate Dan Smyers spoke of how proud they were to take part in the evening given their shared passion for helping animals. Smyers and his wife, Abby, helped open a Nashville branch of the animal rescue group Wags & Walks.

One of the most powerful moments came from HARDY, who performed the exquisitely crafted, unreleased song “Dog Years,” which is sung from the perspective of looking back on the life of a senior dog and expressing gratitude for the “Dog Years.” He noted that the song helped him secure a music publishing deal early in his career, and considering how the song moved some in the audience to tears, one wonders why it was never released.

The vocal power and camaraderie on stage continued to reach new heights thanks to vocal group Little Big Town (with whom Lambert previously toured on the Bandwagon Tour in 2022), who teamed up with Lambert to collaborate on a number of songs, including Little Big Town’s “Bondocks” and “Little White Church” and Lambert’s “White Liar” and “Little Red Wagon”. The evening ended with an “all-sing” as the entire cast returned to the stage to perform “(Drunk) And I Don’t Wanna Go Home.”

“Thank you for spending your hard-earned money on country music and helping dogs,” Lambert said, waving to the crowd.