When Kendell Marvel took the stage at Nashville’s EXIT/IN on Tuesday night, he made a simple proclamation: “We’re going to play some country music.”

Boy, did they ever, The 20th installment of Kendell Marvel’s Honky Tonk Experience celebrated the first night of Americanafest 2019 with a brilliant lineup of some of country’s best players, and even saw Marvel inducted into rarified air: the EXIT/IN Wall of Fame.

Marvel, who just released a new single in advance of his forthcoming album, Solid Gold Sounds, was joined onstage by luminaries including Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters), Charlie Worsham, Marcus King, Al Anderson, Paul Cauthen, Daniel Donato, The Vegabonds, and Hailey Whitters throughout a two-hour set. This was Americana in its purest form: raw performances hallmarked by honest storytelling and crafty musicianship, bound together by a free-wheeling rock and roll spirit that showed up in the form of blistering guitar work and palpable onstage energy through the night.

Opening for this edition of the Honky Tonk Experience was Ben Jarrell’s Roadside Revival, whose rootsy half-hour set served as a stirring and enjoyable modern adaptation of country’s traditional sensibilities.

View the gallery below, and be on the lookout for more Americanafest fun throughout the week!