Sunday night after dinner at 4 Rivers, Sarah and I headed to Addition Financial Arena at UCF for K92.3’s 31st Annual All Star Jam — Orlando’s big country radio night. We have been four or five times over the last decade. First year of this thing featured Toby Keith. This year was not our best All Star Jam. It was not the worst either.
The format is the point: acoustic, not a full production tour stop. Artists come out in groups of two or three, trade songs, tell stories, and bounce off each other. Usually each act has a guitar or piano player. Cool when the chemistry works. Painful when the radio station fills the gaps.
Venue: 7.8. Addition Financial Arena is fine — big floor, solid sightlines if you pick them. We bought Section 107 side seats for about fifty bucks. Bad call for us. You are not looking at faces, and the screens do not help much from there. We usually want closer so we can see expressions. We regretted the seats — then we left them. Most of the night we stood and sat dead center at the back of the arena. View improved; the tickets we paid for did not.
Production: 5.9. The acoustic jam idea is good. The execution between sets is not. Thirty to forty minutes of DJ, interviews, and sponsor talk between sessions felt endless. Volume was crushing too — maybe we are getting old, but it was just loud, and when Chris Young’s mic and guitar spiked it hurt. Long breaks and promo padding are the biggest All Star Jam turn-off for us year after year.
Performance: 6.8. Three sessions — two, two, then three.
Set 1 — Zach John King + Kelsey Hart. Strong open. Zach John King (recent Morgan Wallen opener, a top-ten song already) was a standout: young, Jesus-following, and genuinely good. We will listen to more of his stuff. Kelsey Hart was solid too — a couple songs we knew, including one that hits our “doing life together” season. Those two vibed. Good pairing.
Set 2 — George Birge + Rodney Atkins. George Birge surprised us. Great voice, held the room, several number ones already (including one with Luke Bryan). Did not expect to like him this much. Rodney Atkins — oldest of the night, nineties-era staples, sing-along “Buckaroo” energy — was just okay. Average entertainer, a little hard to hear, mediocre by the standard of the better acts.
Set 3 — Chris Young + Dustin Lynch + Cole Swindell. Chris Young got a blank slate from us after a previous bad show (bad mic, brutal night). He did not earn redemption. Seemed like he did not want to be there, frustrated with gear, barely engaged when Dustin or Cole sang — no banter, barely a glance. Songs felt average. Loud and grating. Dustin Lynch was the clear favorite of the night and one of our top-ten country artists overall. Funny, Florida-aware, talks to the room, stacked the songs we wanted. Each artist got roughly four or five songs; Dustin used his. Cole Swindell — we have been underwhelmed before, and acoustic does him no favors. Voice exposed, energy flat, a few hits, mostly just there.
Value: 6.5. Fifty-dollar side seats were a miss for the view we want, but being able to move and watch from center helped. Lineup was thinner than years with a true headliner spike (Kane Brown last year). Worth it for Dustin, Zach John King, and George Birge. Not worth it for the gaps and Chris Young redux.
Knup 6.6 / 10. We will go again if we are still in Orlando and the lineup hits — especially for Dustin Lynch — but this was a mid All Star Jam. The radio padding and uneven third set kept a fun acoustic format from climbing higher.
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August 23, 2026
Section 107 side seats (~$50). Moved to dead-center standing room for most of the show. Lineup: Zach John King, Kelsey Hart, George Birge, Rodney Atkins, Chris Young, Dustin Lynch, Cole Swindell.