Cole Swindell elevates his game to a higher level at a sold-out Ryman Auditorium

While performing his twelfth -- and most current -- multi-week No. 1 country radio single " "She Had Me at Heads Carolina," a heart-warming thing happened for Cole Swindell at the Ryman Auditorium. His eyes smiled.

Ten years into his time in Music City, Swindell's so much of a veteran that the baseball cap-wearing South Georgian looks like Greg Maddux on the mound for the 1995 Atlanta Braves -- a hard-charging competitor armed with a mastery of the art of the craft, tirelessly looking for ways to improve his work. To extend the baseball metaphor, the first of his two nights at country music's mother church was far from a perfect game. However, as many things are of late for Swindell, it was a career-redefining victory.

Swindell's face was smiling throughout the rest of the show. However, since the September 2021 passing of his mother, Carol Rainey Swindell, coupled with the fact that he's endured a four-year pause of sorts between his albums "All of It" and 2022-released "Stereotype," the veteran country star's face has arguably been more of a mask than an accurate gauge of his emotional state.

Smiling at The Ryman because Dierks Bentley joined you in a hyper-charged sprint onstage to open your 90-minute set with 2017's "Flatliner" is understandable. Moreover, having a toothy grin because Lauren Alaina made a surprise appearance as a fill-in for Lainey Wilson on your year-old chart-topper "Never Say Never" makes sense, too. However, the eyes don't lie. Swindell was a man on a mission on Wednesday evening. Audaciously, he ran through 27 songs on "Back Down To The Bar Tour"'s high-end dive bar set, which featured an actual pool table and the appearance of a working tap and bar with a trio of stools. The goal? To prove that he'd returned, re-energized more than arrived as a superstar.

Yes, playing The Ryman was a goal of his career. However, between a slowing of his new material blended with COVID-19's quarantine, Swindell appeared to be more an artist stuck in suspended animation than an establishing A-list Music City act. The streaming and TikTok-driven game in modern-era Nashville benefits stars who rise like supernovas. Slow-rising bar band vocalists becoming songwriters who establish themselves as songwriters who bring their lunch pail to work daily feel slightly out of favor of late. The idea of building a career forged via the amount of rubber the soles of your shoes leave on Music Row's roads seems antiquated.

However, Swindell's early opener Dylan Marlowe co-wrote Jon Pardi's August 2022 No. 1 single "Last Night Lonely" and played a very well-received set of radio and streaming-ready material. Alongside Big Loud Records-signed Ashley Cooke performing a Lower Broadway-ready acoustic cover of T-Pain's "Buy You A Drank" alongside her new tracks, it was a comforting return to the genre's classic star-making form.

Swindell could be one of the best of a crop of artists now emerging as wisened fathers of this now timeless form of country music stardom. The great trick of 90s icon Jo Dee Messina's "Heads Carolina, Tails California" being sampled for Swindell's biggest hit is that his wheelhouse is in evolving a particular era of country hit from 1995-2005 into a current smash.

"She Had Me At Heads Carolina" is powered by a country-to-rock radio-ready power vocal that, when lifted by a certain level of muscle-laden guitar riff, makes it sound more than ready to soundtrack any number of teen-to-college age comedies. A six-song medley of 90's covers of Brooks and Dunn's "Neon Moon," George Strait's "Carrying Your Love," Joe Diffie's "Pickup Man," Toby Keith's "Should've Been a Cowboy," John Michael Montgomery's "Be My Baby Tonight" and Garth Brooks' "Ain't Goin' Down ('til the Sun Comes Up)" were all delivered with the convincing tenor of someone who believes that country music cures all ills.

There's a certain level of believability in the work of all six of those previously-mentioned acts that is frequently joyously cosplayed in the work of acts like Swindell's longtime friend Luke Bryan (he sold his tour merchandise when he moved to Nashville) and Thomas Rhett (with whom he wrote "She Had Me At Heads Carolina").

"90s country is the best," said Swindell. Nobody in attendance at The Ryman disagreed with his belief. Instead, they were too busy cheering and singing along, their throats burning with the fact that they'd been doing so -- with occasional breaks - for nearly an hour.

The most fascinating portion of Swindell's show was when he premiered unreleased material. "Sad Ass Country Song" and "Heads Up Heaven" are the best songs he's ever made. Yes, "Ain't Worth The Whiskey" and "Single Saturday Night" are driven by massive hooks that worm into a listener's ear. And yes, he's the writer of Bryan's 2013 Florida Georgia Line collaboration "This Is How We Roll" and 2014 Bryan single "Roller Coaster."

These are all hits.

But again, so much of Swindell's labor-intensive process leaves so much of himself on the floor and so much of country music's fans and their live experience -- and the expectations of the artists he's writing for -- being elevated. Instead, listen to his delivery of "Sad Ass Country Song"'s hooky chorus of "walking, talking, honky-tonking sad ass country song." It's a familiar cadence -- think Luke Combs' "Beer Never Broke My Heart." But dig into the song and Swindell's voice, and between his mastery of country's three decades of being a pop-radio crossover staple, plus confidence in where his career is currently headed and it's a song all his own. The rock-ready country banger deserves greater visibility.

Also, "Heads Up Heaven" finds Swindell finally unpacking his mother's death. As expected, it's not a heart-string tugger; it's a full-on heart-string un-loosener. "Heads up, heaven, there's a good one headed your way," he sings. "I think I went through the things I went through so I could write songs that help others. I get to say, 'hey, I'm just like you, and as much as this song helps me, it helps you, too,'" Swindell told the Tennessean in an April 2022 interview. Similar to 2015's "You Should Be Here," which honored his then-passed father, it's an earnest track that celebrates how much he truly admired and leaned upon his parents -- as many do -- for guidance and solace.

For a song that has no airplay, renown, or visibility, Swindell received a standing ovation.

It -- alongside the acapella "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" singalong that closed the evening (complete with giving a newborn baby in the front row held up high a high five) -- was a highlight of the event.

Cole Swindell is an inherently relatable man as much as he is an aspiring country industry-leading superstar. He did precisely that when presented with the opportunity to leave it all on the stage at country music's "mother church" with so much more potential success in the offing.

"[Stereotype] is doing exactly what we want it to," stated Swindell. "I have a new, different perspective on everything. These songs are powerful, and I'm excited to see what they can do," stated Swindell seven months ago.

The eyes are the window to the soul. Cole Swindell's art is evolving as his soul heals in equal measure. Seven months later, and as the pressure to succeed has slowly dissipated, his eyes are smiling as much as his face.

Cole Swindell, Back Down To The Bar Tour, 11/2/22, SETLIST

• Flatliner (featuring Dierks Bentley)

• Chillin' It

• Love You Too Late

• Single Saturday Night

• Hope You Get Lonely Tonight

• How Is She

• Stereotype

• Iris (Goo Goo Dolls cover)

• Middle of a Memory

• Brought To You By A Beer

• Reason To Drink

• Get Me Some Of That

• Roller Coaster

• This Is How We Roll

• Break Up In The End

• Sad Ass Country Song (unreleased)

• Heads Up Heaven (unreleased)

• You Should Be Here

• Never Say Never (featuring Lauren Alaina

• Ain't Worth The Whiskey

• See Ya Girl

90s Cover Medley

• Neon Moon (Brooks & Dunn cover)

• Carrying Your Love (George Strait cover)

• Pickup Man (Joe Diffie cover)

• Should've Been A Cowboy (Toby Keith cover)

• Be My Baby Tonight (John Michael Montgomery cover)

• Ain't Goin' Down ('til the Sun Comes Up) (Garth Brooks cover)

• She Had Me At Heads Carolina

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Cole Swindell elevates his game to a higher level at a sold-out Ryman Auditorium