Over ten years ago, Maren Morris hit the scene with her record breaking debut album, Hero, an album that kickstarted her career into the stratosphere. On August 15th, she celebrated the album’s ten year anniversary at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It was a night full of surprises, tears, and memories that will last a lifetime.
Morris hit the stage around 8:10 p.m. to kick off a near 90-minute set. She didn’t have an opener, which seems rare for concerts nowadays, but it felt right for this specific show. The first half of the night was Morris playing the album Hero from top to bottom in the exact order it is when you normally listen to the record.
“It’s good to be home. Thank you for being here tonight. We’re celebrating ten whole years of the album that changed my life.” The crowd then roared into applause. At this point, we’re about to start the third song, and I’m already crying.
When this album came out, I was just about to turn 19, and now here I am writing about the record’s anniversary show at age 29. I grew up with this record. I’ve been listening to it nonstop for the past ten years. It just felt surreal to be there in that room with fans, industry peers, and her family all celebrating this milestone.
“My Church” was the third song she played that night, which, if you’ve ever been to a Maren Morris show, you know this is usually one of her encore songs. “I know it feels early in the set. I’ve never done this song quite early, but I wanted to go in order!” Morris said to the crowd. Before starting the song, Morris dedicated the show to busbee, the album’s producer who passed away in 2019. “Let’s go to church!” Morris screamed, which led the entire crowd to lose their minds.
As the night went on, she played more of the record, including some of my favorites like “How It’s Done,” “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Once.” She even revealed that some of these songs on the record hadn’t been played live since her Hero Tour. Looking out into the crowd during the album play, everyone was singing every single word, dancing, and holding onto their friends and family. It was undeniable that every single person in the Ryman had a connection to Hero. It was really beautiful to see.
“We have entered into bonus track territory,” Morris stated. You thought she was just going to play the standard edition of the album? Nope! She did the bonus tracks too, which included “Company You Keep,” “Bummin’ Cigarettes,” and “Space” from the original deluxe edition, along with two new unreleased tracks from the ten year anniversary edition: “We Can’t Be Friends” and “Hard Liquor and Soft Rock.” In my opinion, I still think “Company You Keep” should’ve been on the main tracklist, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Once the album run through was complete, Morris went to the microphone and said, “We’re not done!” The crowd then went ballistic as her hit “The Middle” started playing over the speakers. Immediately after that, we had our first surprise guest of the night. “Nashville, y’all give it up for Michelle Branch!” Morris yelled as the crowd went crazy. They played Branch’s hit song “Goodbye to You,” which Morris hinted they may have recorded their version of the track for Branch’s upcoming project.
Before performing the final song of the evening, Morris gave a speech to the crowd. Here’s a little excerpt of it: “Before we close this out, I would like to say something to two people. First, my son and second is the kid version of me. I would like to say that you are going to grow so much in very uncomfortable ways. You’re not always going to do it gracefully, but you know your heart and you matter. You don’t have to be productive to matter. You don’t have to have output to matter. Whatever you end up doing, your worth is not what you do. I’m proud of you. You’re gonna go so far.”
It was the perfect way to end a show and had a lot of people tearing up, myself included. Morris ended the show with her hit song “The Bones,” but that wasn’t exactly the end. The second and final surprise guest of the night, singer-songwriter Cassadee Pope, ran out onto the stage as the song was ending to perform a little bit of the emo rock version of “The Bones” with Morris, which had the crowd going nuts.
Walking out of the Ryman that night, I couldn’t help but think about how crazy it is that an album I listened to at 18 is still such a huge part of my life at 29. Hero has been with me through so many different parts of my life, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop having a connection to this record. Getting to hear these songs live again, in the same city where so much of Morris’ career began, was something I’ll never forget. I’m really glad I got to be there to celebrate ten years of an album that has meant so much to me. It was definitely a night I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
