Walking into the Hansen Agricultural Center you are immediately greeted by a sea of flannel in front of the stage. You may not know it yet, but you are going to walk out a changed person. Brett Young performed Sunday night, and he left everyone in the room, flannel-clad or not, feeling like family.

The crowd was singing before the first act event walked onto stage. Tyler Richton & the High Bank Boys, all Iowa locals, opened up the show on a high note of classic country. The band jammed together on stage, and their familial energy was infectious. The steel guitar and the fiddle only added to the band’s unique sound. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was a particular hit with its killer fiddle solos.

There was a long and expectant pause before the second opener came on stage. It took a while for the crowd to warm back up again when Jordan Davis walked on stage. At first, only patches of people danced, but soon Davis breathed life into the whole crowd with originals such as “Leaving New Orleans” and “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot.”

Davis pulled out the classics. As a product of 90s country music himself, he felt it fit to treat the crowd to “When You Say Nothing At All.” Together the crowd swayed, sang and danced to the song they all seemed to know by heart.

Another long pause and a larger crowd preceded Brett Young’s entrance. He walked on stage and seamlessly jumped into his music. He kicked off with “Here Tonight,” a song that he later said would be on his next album to be released in December.

Young worked the crowd through his next few songs. He posed for pictures, touched hands and made sure the whole crowd was singing along to the nonstop tunes. The audience didn’t hesitate to sing and dance to every song this Southern California native belted out.

Young paused the show for a bit to tell us about his life, then he jumped into a classic Garth Brooks song, “Not Over You.” He promised his whole band the audience would know the song. His band was not disappointed.

“The dance portion of the evening,” as Young called it, was up next. The country singer brought the tone down a few notches with a slow song perfect for dancing. He made a point to point out the three degrees of “does she want to dance?”

One thing in common with all of the bands that night was their point to introduce all of the members and where they are from. Tyler Richton introduced his band as Iowa natives. Jordan Davis introduced his members, and Young did the same. Every member of Young’s band showed their talent when their name was called.

Young took a moment to talk to the audience. He thanked Country Radio for giving him a chance to perform his music. He thanked the audience for keeping him where he is in his career.

“If my song comes on and you don’t change the station, thank you,” Young said before he delivered a heartfelt rendition of his song “In Case You Didn’t Know.”

Young brought out an acoustic song next. After only a few notes the whole audience knew the song. His cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was striped down and simple, yet it touched everyone in the audience just like the song should.

If you expected the tone to stay low and slow, you were wrong. Young immediately jumped into his country pop after the acoustic departure. Young knew how to work the crowd’s hearts and minds as he transitioned between music styles.

Young tried out another song from his upcoming album. The song was only played four or five times before, but the audience was on board from the first note. A few songs later, and Young left the stage.

If you thought that was the end of the show, you had another thing coming. The crowd chanted until the singer came back on stage a few moments later. He brought the encore home with two songs, including one of his most famous singles, “Mercy.”

With country music, there seems to be this instant connection. Every band that played that night made it a point to let the audience know who they really were. If you left that concert that night, you left connected to the artists and to the people you shared the night with.