The Old Friends Acoustic Tour


The Old Friends Acoustic Tour is a 2020, 2023, and 2024 concert tour from American singer-songwriter Ben Rector. The original tour, featuring Cody Fry, was slated to perform throughout the first half of 2020, but enforced lockdowns amidst the growing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States saw the tour cancelled after 4 performances, compromising 12 concerts. The tour was later revived in 2023 featuring Jordy Searcy and Stephen Day, performing an additional 27 concerts. Two additional dates were performed in October 2024. The concert is named after Rector's single "Old Friends".
Having missed his acoustic performances from his college years, Rector headlined the Old Friends Acoustic Tour to perform laid-back, stripped versions of his music. The concert would feature music mainly from his two albums prior, Magic and Brand New. Following enforced national lockdowns and the cancellation of the tour, he would find the open schedule relieving and would rework his upcoming album The Joy of Music in the meantime, among other releases. Some of his new music he released since 2020 would be featured in the 2023 revival.

Background

When Ben Rector was in college, he would tour with just an acoustic guitar, an experience he missed. Rector announced the tour in November 2019; the tour was designed to perform stripped versions of his songs, mainly those from 2018's Magic and 2015's Brand New, with a more relaxed atmosphere. The tour featured Cody Fry. In January 2020 he recorded the songs for his upcoming album following Magic, and began touring for the concert the following late February. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading in the United States, and national lockdowns started to take effect, enforcing stay-at-home orders. Most entertainment fields were impacted around the same time. Rector had just flown to Dallas, Texas to perform at the Majestic Theatre that night, but was forced to return home in Nashville, Tennessee. Attempts to postpone dates failed, and he ultimately cancelled the tour in August 2020. The following September, he held a pay-per-view livestream of the concert.
Although he was disappointed about the tour being cancelled he found the lack of a schedule to be liberating for him creatively. The day after flying home he immediately wrote "It Would Be You" via voice memos during quarantine with record producer John Fields. With the free time, he would re-write and re-record most his next album from scratch, as well as release A Ben Rector Christmas among other singles. Meanwhile, Fry returned to production work; shortly afterward his song "I Hear a Symphony" from the 2017 album Flying became a viral hit on the social media platform TikTok, helping advance his career.
The tour was revived in 2023, with musicians Jordy Searcy Stephen Day, and Austin Goodloe. The new tour received a new set, updated to include songs from The Joy of Music and Rector's single "Range Rover". He cites The Old Friends Acoustic Tour as his favorite tour to perform.

Setlist

2020 tour

The following setlist was obtained from the concert held on February 28, 2020, at The Magnolia in El Cajon, California. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
  1. "You've Got a Friend in Me"
  2. "Crazy"
  3. "Never Gonna Let You Go" / "My Girl"
  4. "When a Heart Breaks"
  5. "Let the Good Times Roll"
  6. "When I'm With You"
  7. "Loving You is Easy"
  8. "Note to Self"
  9. "Paris"
  10. "The Men That Drive Me Places"
  11. "Duo"
  12. "Old Friends"
  13. "Brand New"
  14. "Sailboat"

2023 tour

The following setlist was obtained from the concert held on March 29, 2023, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
  1. "When I'm With You"
  2. "Sunday"
  3. "Living My Best Life"
  4. "When a Heart Breaks"
  5. "Forever Like That"
  6. "Let the Good Times Roll"
  7. "It's a Great Day to Be Alive"

  1. "30,000 Feet"
  2. "Old Friends" / "Forever Young"

  1. "Love Like This"
  2. "The Men That Drive Me Places"
  3. "Kiss the Girl" / "Under the Sea" / "Part of Your World"

  1. "Brand New"
  2. "Range Rover"