Lainey Wilson packs Pittsburgh for Country's Cool Again tour stop

Lainey Wilson is holding up her end of the bargain in making country music cool again.

The country star packed Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, filling the arena with cowboy hats and bell-bottom pants. The Country’s Cool Again tour, which also featured support acts Ian Munsick and Zach Top, showed why Wilson is the reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year.

From the moment Wilson hit the stage atop a red pickup truck for a rocking “Hang Tight Honey, she took control of the audience with a natural stage presence, Southern charm and a Louisiana twang. She wore a black cowboy hat and black pants, coordinated with a black and yellow vest and jacket — in a nod to her boyfriend, former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges. (At least one Hodges jersey was seen amid the crowd.)

Amid a desert-like set, the rotating pickup and large video screens behind her, Wilson strolled the stage, dropping to her knees to accentuate the ending of “Smell Like Smoke” or the guitar solo in “Dirty Looks.”

The truck played a big role, with Wilson singing from the hood, the bed and the cab over a variety of songs. A dashboard camera and the video screen gave the appearance of Wilson driving during “Heart Like a Truck,” one of her biggest hits.

The opening acts joined Wilson on a pair of songs, with Munsick taking on some of Miranda Lambert’s parts on “Good Horses” and Top joining to duet and guitar solo on a spirited “Keep Up With Jones.”

Wilson, who opened for Luke Combs last year at Acrisure Stadium, wasn’t afraid to show off her voice, belting an extended “know” near the end of her breakout single “Things A Man Oughta Know” and a big “heart” in “Heart Like a Truck.”

Showing off her playful side, Wilson cracked a can of Coors Light and took a big swig at the end of “Bar in Baton Rouge,” which transitioned into a quick cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” The funky “Ring Finger,” which had Wilson singing through a distorted walkie talkie, came with a story:

“When we were writing that song, at first I thought I was stepping into the shoes of another character and writing from that perspective,” Wilson said. “And then I realized about halfway through the song, I was like, I think this is me. I am her. She is me. We are us. It is what it is. At least I know it, right? She crazy. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s a lot better if you just swallow it.”

She was also able to get serious, detailing the struggles that led to the writing of “Middle of It.”

“There’s so many different types of heartbreaks. I mean, you could have just lost somebody or maybe you’re going through a divorce. Maybe school is hard,” she said. “But I want you to know if you are smack dab in the middle of it, we gonna lay it down at His feet tonight, OK? I’m here for you. We’re here for you. We’re going to just let it be, y’all, just let it be, leave it right here.”

The band showed off their chops all night, with a rocking outro and extended guitar solo on “Whirlwind,” the title track from her latest album, one of the night’s musical highlights.

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“Atta Girl” saw Wilson go into the crowd to crown her “cowgirl of the night,” while “Watermelon Moonshine” featured a display of phone lights. Appropriately, she closed her main set with “Country’s Cool Again,” tipping her hat to the crowd near the end of the song.

Returning for her encore, Wilson announced “wardrobe change!” as strolled on the stage in a custom Steelers jersey with No. 6 and “Duck” on the back — packed by Hodges.

“I’m like, what are you, my wardrobe guy now?” she joked.

From the bed of the truck, Wilson played a stirring acoustic medley of songs she featured on — Cole Swindell’s “Never Say Never,” Hardy’s “Wait in the Truck” and Jelly Roll’s “Save Me” — punctuated by stories about each of the songs.

She then closed with the newer “4 x 4 x U,” which had a rollicking fiddle finale, and “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” from her Grammy-winning “Bell Bottom Country” album.

Munsick delivered 50 minutes of western-tinged country. Having arrived in Nashville via Wyoming, Munsick evoked Rocky Mountain country with songs like “Horses Are Faster,” “Long Live Cowgirls” and “Cow(expletive) in the Morning.”

Early on, Munsick unveiled his belt buckle shuffle dance move during “Cowboy Killer.” And although he joked about his backing band — “They make me sound good. I make them look good” — the trio known as Rocky Mountain Fever strongly complemented Munsick with fiddle and the occasional banjo.

Opening with “Barn Burner,” Munsick visited tracks from his two major-label studio albums, “Coyote Cry” and “White Buffalo.” He also played a new song, “Fixin’ Me,” which was just released Friday.

Top, a Washington native, opened the show with an act heavily inspired by 1980s and ‘90s country music.

Top, who has been nominated for new artist of the year at the Country Music Association Awards in the fall, kicked off his set with his breakout single, “Sounds Like The Radio,” before drawing heavily on his studio debut album, “Cold Beer and Country Music.”

The only departure from the album was his latest single, “Beer For Breakfast.” As the crowd cheered after Top, who played a free show at Aldeans on the North Shore earlier this year, asked if anybody had beer for breakfast, he joked “that seems problematic, but you seem like my kind of people.”