Tanya Tucker, at Ryman and Grand Ole Opry, rides into another career revival

Tanya Tucker on Friday became the first artist in the Grand Ole Opry's near century-long history to ride a horse onstage -- during a weekend that saw her invite an eclectic group of artists including Brandi Carlile, Daley and Vincent, Jelly Roll and Gretchen Wilson to the stage at the Ryman Auditorium.

This is the same artist whose 1978 album "T.N.T" sold one million copies and, via a salacious advertising campaign, almost destroyed her Nashville career.

This occurred in country music, a genre where the canonization of the outlaw spirit occupies a thin line between legendary superstardom and being an also-ran cast into the abyss of a record store's cut-out CD bins.

Tanya Tucker rides again at the Opry and Ryman

Tucker took the stage astride world champion 12-year-old Black Friesan stallion Lauwe The Magnificent.

Upon dismounting and performing at the Opry, Tucker, 64, expressed gratitude at having a fanbase that still pays homage to hits like "Delta Dawn" and "Two Sparrows In A Hurricane" -- had keyed her continued stardom.

"God's sprinkling magic dust on these people or something, right? But it all comes back to Hank Williams. My father always told me that he was the best to ever do it and the songs always needed a little bit of him in the interpretation."

Lauwe was the same horse that, when Tucker was announced as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame's Class of 2023 two months ago, she rode amid a teeming crowd of onlookers to the intersection of 5th and Broadway next to the Bridgestone Arena to announce her June 3 and 4 dates at the Ryman.

The Sunday date was important, given that The Ryman is considered country music's hallowed "Mother Church."

"There's something about The Ryman. It's the one," she said. "It's my favorite place to play. I don't think there's better sound in any other room, anywhere in the world, plus I have so many important memories there."

Tucker recalled getting to see a recording of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman, where the show was put on before moving to its current Opry House location, in 1968. It was after a "miserably hot" day filled with the despair of her first childhood Nashville recording session gone wrong.

Tucker and her father had been on Music row, where he noticed his daughter was gazing down at the names of the hall-of-famers embedded in the Music Row sidewalk.

"Look down at all them stars right now because you'll never be down there."

'Sweet Western Sound'

Via Instagram, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Carlile -- who joined Tucker onstage for the entire second hour of her Sunday Ryman appearance -- stated the following about the soon hall of famer's latest album "Sweet Western Sound."

"[Tucker's 2020 release "While I'm Livin'"] was about Tanya's life, but many of these [new] songs are in Tanya Tucker's own words…which are colorful, to say the least."

Carlile -- wearing a black cowboy hat, black tuxedo with pink lapels, white shirt and black satin Western necktie -- strode onstage with an acoustic guitar to invoke the second half of Tucker's performance (after an excellent opening set from Tucker's Fantasy Records' signed daughter Layla, seconded by her father, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jerry Laseter).

The minute-long song she sang, "Tanya," is a caustic ode that plays well as a companion piece to her 2020 hit and Grammy Song of The Year, "Bring My Flowers Now."

Sent initially to Tucker as a voice memo by the song's legendary writer Billy Joe Shaver, before his October 2020 passing, it states that Tucker "looks like a heavenly angel," but in reality is "meaner than hell."

Tucker wasn't mean at all for her two hours onstage.

She's in her fourth return to a level of country music stardom that most artists barely see once, women even less.

While singing her 1987 hit "Love Me Like You Used To," she was surprised by an appearance from Gretchen Wilson, who followed with her 2004 classic "Redneck Woman."

Not only does Wilson, in her own words, still "know the words to every Tanya Tucker song," but Tucker was able to reciprocate the kindness to Wilson, joining in on the song's chorus.

A Hall of Famer impacts country's present and future

Yes, she's also still throwing back multiple shots of her own Cosa Salvaje tequila after singing 1978's "Texas ('Til I Die)." Plus, she's still capable of blowing away an audience's expectations by being joined by bluegrass stars Daley and Vincent and reviving her teenage-recorded classics "Blood Red and Going Down" and David Allan Coe-written"Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)."

But, it's when nervously diving into her recently recorded new album material like "When The Rodeo is Over Where Does The Cowboy Go" (and being joined onstage by her current boyfriend and the song's writer, Craig Dillingham and Carlile) that her greatest skill-set of the moment appears.

It's 2023 and Tanya Tucker is a Grammy-winning Country Music Hall of Famer-to-be currently in an album release run where she routinely rides stallions and celebrates herself as a relevant artist amidst 100 years of the genre's past, present and future.

Thus, it was notable when after a solid set of interpretations of "Ready As I'll Never Be," "Hard Luck" (during which she broke into a kung-fu dancing-style homage to her idol and mentor Elvis Presley) and "Two Sparrows In A Hurricane," she stopped and acknowledged a song outside of her mountainous catalog.

"There's a guy backstage right now and I want to bring him out," Tucker said. "He sings one helluva song right now and I want to hear him do it."

It was as if she were transposed in time a half-century ago and she were Ralph Emery hosting a night at the Grand Ole Opry and introducing an emerging star to the crowd.

Instead of seeing Charlie Rich, however, rapper-turned-singer Jelly Roll walked onstage.

He's been an emcee for over a decade. Still, even though he has a recent chart-topping country radio single, he humbly introduced himself as a "new" artist before belting out the 2022-released "Son of a Sinner."

The only thing missing was that he wore a baggy jacket, jeans and backward baseball cap instead of clad head-to-toe in a Western suit by Nudie Cohn.

The sentiment, though, like Tucker's concert, was timeless.

To the Tennessean, she makes the following honest assessment of her belief in the power of her art and the entertainment quality of her live performances.

"I never know what songs the people are gonna like. I've been guessing my whole life."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tanya Tucker, at Ryman and Grand Ole Opry, rides into another career revival