Riley Green Leads a Night Honoring the ACM’s Lifting Lives With Lauren Alaina, Randy Houser & More: 5 Highlights

Newly announced new female artist of the year winner Avery Anna kicked off the evening with a too short set that leaned way more heavily on rock than country, but what do you expect when she and her tight band opened with a heavy and totally respectable cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears?”  She followed with her vitriolic song “Man Downstairs” about an abuser and his ultimate fate. Things didn’t lighten up with “Indigo,” her emotional ballad with Sam Barber. She closed her set with the heavy viral hit “Blood Runs Thicker,” which is about her dad. In just the short set, she showed she has a lot to say that is far beyond radio’s often light fare.

Atkins had a few sound issues that plagued the start of his set on his opener, the 2011 No. 1. “Take a Backroad,” but they were resolved by his 2010 hit “Farmer’s Daughter.” He prefaced his next tune, “Watching You,” with saying he only intended for one person to hear it, his then four-year old son, after his boy got in trouble in Pre-K for singing one of Atkins’ songs with a curse word. He, of course, then had to close with said song and perhaps his biggest hit, 2006’s “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows).”

In her four-song set, Alaina relied heavily on some of her chart-topping collaborations, performing both “One Beer,” HARDY’s 2020 hit featuring Alaina and Devin Dawson, as well as 2017’s “What Ifs,” her massive hit with her longtime friend Kane Brown that helped introduce Brown to a country audience.  Alaina took no prisoners before her closing number, going into a passionate speech about how as a 16-year-old on American Idol 15 years ago, she was overwhelmed by people weighing in on everything from her hair to her body. Now the mother of a baby girl, she forcefully added, “If someone ever talks about my daughter like that, I will go to their yard and fight them” — to rousing applause. She then closed with her first No. 1, “Road Less Traveled,” which she co-wrote with Jesse Frasure and Meghan Trainor about learning to “not care what people say about me.”  The crowd was all in, waving their arms back and forth, mimicking her stage motions.

As the penultimate act on the bill, Houser showed why he’s considered to have one of the best voices in country and is Wynonna’s preferred live duet partner (check out their duet on Clint Black’s “A Bad Goodbye” from 2025). He opened with his 2012 No. 1 “How Country Feels” before segueing into his most recent release, “Back in the Bottle,” a song full of regret over the previous night’s drunken escapades, but also the admission that he’d do it all over again. He rounded out his set with his 2014 hit ballad “Like a Cowboy” before closing with 2013’s chart-topper, the rousing “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight.” It’s been a while since Houser has been a regular on the radio and it would be nice for that to change.  

Green closed the evening with a crowd-pleasing set of all hits, no filler, starting with “Different ‘Round Here.” But it was his breakthrough hit, “There Was This Girl,” that got fans holding their phone cameras up in the air. Even with Alaina and Avery Anna around, he chose to do “You Look Like You Love Me” solo, which brings a whole different vibe to the song. He instead reserved a duet for “Don’t Mind If I Do,” with Avery Anna ably singing Ella Langley’s part. Next time he’s looking for a duet partner, he should look in her direction. Following “Change My Mind,” he dismissed the band for a solo “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” accompanying himself on the guitar, before launching into “Worst Way.” Though he started the tune solo, his band came back out to build into a muscular take on the sultry song. He finished his 35-minute set with a salute to Toby Keith. As with his regular full shows, he dived into “Should Have Been a Cowboy” before segueing into a rousing “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.”