Orville Peck Takes Ascend Higher

Putting aside skyrocketing COVID numbers, it’s exceedingly ironic — if not surprising — to get yelled at by a passing motorist for masking on my way to an Orville Peck show. Despite more than a bit of worry about having such a dizzyingly queer event as Peck’s Sixth Annual Rodeo in the sometimes unpredictable streets of downtown’s tourist district, the vibe felt secure. If nothing else, queer fans were spending money, meaning even the most shamelessly hateful members of the state legislature would have to approve of our presence.

There’s always been an intersection between queer spaces and country music. If you don’t believe me, ask those who thankfully are still with us from the plague generations how even the New Waviest of early-’80s places would raise the roof for Shelley West’s “José Cuervo (You Are a Friend of Mine).” The walk to Ascend Amphitheater from the downtown library garage crossed paths with Margaritaville’s sound system bumping Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” which when encountered in the wild is like a Super Mario invincibility star for queer folks.

The 2024 installment of Peck’s Rodeo was a three-night extravaganza spanning three different venues and bills. On a hot but not unmanageable Saturday afternoon and evening, it took over Ascend — “Ass End,” as Tanya Mother Tucker herself would later call it — for the second of the three engagements. Host John Waters (!) was the perfect emcee for the five-act, six-hour show. He was nimble on his feet and gave each of the artists all the respect and gentle ribbing they merited, and he let the crowd know where the aesthetic sensibility for the day was oriented. His welcome was comprehensive, proclaiming that we all had one pronoun, “y’all,” and we better see that on a bumper sticker posthaste.

I knew some of first act Goldie Boutilier’s work from a previous incarnation in the EDM world. It’s always a joy when a dance diva explores a new path, taking her exceptional voice (capable of Stevie Nicks’ midrange and the rhythmic and tonal variety we rely on from Robyn) into whole new genres. I also love when a dance diva rocks out, because they understand the key that arrangements play — a strong bass line spans every style, and there’s no doubt Boutilier can find myriad ways to get her songs across to any kind of crowd. Especially with something that hits like “The Angel and the Saint,” which entwines itself in your cerebral cortex and stays there.

Next up was Mickey Guyton, fresh from a triumphant turn at the Democratic National Convention and giving the crowd so much joy and love for the medium. Her voice was a beacon, kicking the vibe up a notch with several bangers (including her take on Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy”). And you know what? “Better Than You Left Me” is still an all-timer, and she brought the energy that my shins needed.

You could see the magic on Nick Carpenter’s face when Waters called him “hot-ish” while introducing his project Medium Build. You want to leave some room for surprises, and sometimes unfamiliarity with an artist lets them make an impression on you that you carry into the future. (See: Muse during The Cure’s traveling Curiosa Festival in 2004, or Mansionair opening for Carly Rae Jepsen at the Ryman in 2019.) But if you had never heard what Carpenter and his band do before (I sheepishly raised my hand), you rightfully had your ass’s soul promptly kicked.

Ever since Michael Penn dropped “No Myth” in 1989, dudes with guitars and drum machines have combined forces, yielding some incredible results. Medium Build delivers everything you could want, with lyrics as pensive and real and fiery as Maria McKee — Medium Build’s “Rage” is evidence that Carpenter is the only male voice I ever want to hear tackle “I Forgive You” as performed by McKee and later Sam Brown — and a sound that finds the field where pedal steel and programmed percussion play nice with one another. And Carpenter’s voice has that David Gray rich tone but with Sadie Flood passion, pushing the limits and pulling the whole crowd in, bringing the intimacy of a carpeted conversation-pit performance to an outdoor festival crowd that by this time had reached thousands strong. Real talk: “Knowing U Exist” is the first country song since The Chicks’ “Easy Silence” to reduce me to a weepy mess the first time I heard it, and “In My Room” was so real I had to sit back and figure out who I was for a bit.

I hope every musician, drag artist and teacher in attendance took mental notes from living legend Tanya Tucker’s set. Not only was it a transcendent experience, but it was also a master class in the many different kinds of drama that live performance can offer, and exactly how much space to give each variety. There was the slight delay at the beginning of her set, the immaculate eye shadow that perfectly matched the turquoise piping on her suit and a couple of lineup shifts and song changes (sometimes within the song itself). 

Her wardrobe evolved with help from a befringed hat provided by the audience, and she was presented with an award for helping bring awareness to and fundraising for breast cancer research. There were a couple of unexpected guests, including national treasure Waylon Payne and Tucker’s current beau and fellow musician Craig Dillingham, who joined her on “When the Rodeo Is Over (Where Does the Cowboy Go),” a song he co-wrote for Tucker’s 2023 LP Sweet Western Sound. There was a tequila shoutout, as well as an improvised Communion with the audience using said tequila. When Tucker closed with “Delta Dawn,” she brought every individual in earshot into the same mental and emotional space, and it felt holy.

If there were ever a doubt as to the glorious energy at play, John Waters proclaimed his type to be “male Lucinda Williams groupies.” Give that man the key to the city.

The thing about Orville Peck’s live presence that is very hard to capture precisely in words is that voice. He’s always had the kind of baritone that you notice, even with the captivating visual aesthetic of his 2019 debut Pony with its early Treasure Island Media campfire ghost vibes. He’s reshaped his look and iconography with each successive record. But like Pat Benatar’s, his voice has such power that it can’t even be fully registered on tape, let alone a compressed data stream: It’s a little Orbisonian, sensual and witty like Twitty, and with those resonant bass frequencies that soothe the soul and make subwoofers tremble like a DJ Magic Mike cassette.

He’s a country artist, with no asterisk or subsequent elaboration needed. He doesn’t have to play the concealing game as to who his songs are about. He doesn’t have to provide an indie or rock context for his work. And you could tell from the way the sweat started taking up more and more of the physical space of his mask that he was putting his ankles into this performance. Willie Nelson duets with Peck on “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” on Peck’s new album Stampede. Performing the song onstage without a duet partner, Peck took all the energy from the neutron explosion of “Delta Dawn” and went even higher.

As with the Stampede album and the curation of artists throughout the Rodeo weekend, Peck’s guest list selections were impeccable. Noah Cyrus popped up early on for “How Far Will We Take It?” and Guyton returned later on in a stunning outfit for “Where Are We Now?” Both women have a gift for meshing with Peck’s voice in a way that yields texture and heightened emotional impact. For the encore, he gathered three-quarters of the album’s queer male quartet (minus TJ Osborne) for “Rhinestone Cowboy,” deadpanning that they call themselves The Highgaymen. It was fun, a tad subversive, and the kind of enjoyable cover that spans many eras and gets everyone on the same page.

Saturday’s portion of the 2024 Rodeo was like a six-hour shift at a job where your duties included soaking in queer-positive vibes and feeling safe and spry. Word on the street is that there were some fantastic covers during Friday’s show at The Basement East. Here’s hoping that some of them pop up in the future — “How B-sides are missed!” said the ancient critic — and that Peck brings this kind of extravaganza back Nashville way in the future.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated that parking in the downtown library garage directly benefits the library. The garage is owned and managed via Nashville Downtown Partnership. We regret the error.

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