Country music singer Bailey Zimmerman’s rise has been swift.

Just four years after the release of his debut single, “Fall in Love,” which went six-times-platinum and topped the Country chart, Zimmerman has had 16 gold and platinum hits that collectively sold more than 35 million copies.

He’s already on his first headline tour of arena-sized venues.

Zimmerman’s nearly sold-out show Aug. 6, headlining Musikfest’s main Wind Creek Steel Stage, showed those songs continue to resonate and have won him devoted fans.

It also showed that perhaps that quick rise has left his live performance skills still needing some experience.

In a 14-song set, backed by a three-man band, Bailey played 11 of those gold and platinum songs. He jumped, ran, spun and sat around the stage. He enlisted the crowd to sing along and even coached them on the words.

His show employed stage smoke, sparks and pyrotechnics fit for an arena.

Despite all that, and some extended padding, the concert barely crossed 70 minutes.

It opened with some of those flames as Zimmerman appeared atop the stage riser in a Fly High football jersey and worn, cutoff jean shorts to sing “Backup Plan,” his 2024 platinum hit with Luke Combs.

He skipped around the stage throughout the song, which ended with showers of sparks and real lightning flashes. A few raindrops later in the show helped cool an oppressively hot day.

There was more smoke for the 2021 platinum hit “Never Comin’ Home.”

The slower, more engaging, 2023 gold hit “You Don’t Want That Smoke” was better, as he had the crowd wave its arms and changed the lyrics to “Won’t be the last/Time that I show up here in Bethlehem, baby” before ending on a big note.

That showed Zimmerman can sing, though, as Zimmerman embraced his incorrigible slacker personality, that kind of attention to his singing seemed less important through the night.

He introduced his six-times-platinum 2022 debut hit “Fall in Love” as his “first No. 1” hit (as if the crowd didn’t know) and swung his arms and kicked for emphasis as he sang. It didn’t matter to the crowd, who clearly had already bought in and sang loudly along.

Zimmerman came to the end of the walkway that jutted into the standing-pit area in front of the stage with two guitarists to sing the end of the song.

Before the 2025 single “Comin’ in Cold,” he took three minutes to talk to the crowd, telling them, “I couldn’t ask for much more. This is unbelievable,” then telling them his favorite Bible verse is Mark 9:23, which states, “Anything is possible for one who believes.”

He then started the song on the front of the walkway, playing acoustic guitar.

Another story before the 2022 gold hit “Get to Gettin’ Gone” told of how it was the “fifth or sixth” song he wrote after arriving in Nashville.

And in a four-minute introduction of the 2023 gold hit “Fixin’ to Break,” Zimmerman brought opening act Chandler Walker – “one of my best buds in the world” and with whom he wrote the song – on stage to perform with him, then “taught” the crowd the words to sing along.

“I got another story to tell,” Zimmerman said, and took two more minutes before the 2025 single “Chevy Silverado,” as the amount of the show without music seemed to be adding up.

The 2024 platinum hit “Holy Smokes” was much better, as Zimmerman sat on the stage steps to sing. It’s a good song, and Zimmerman again seemed invested in his singing as the crowd sang the “Oh, oh, oh” chorus.

“Yo! You sound so good,” he told them.

For another of the night’s best, he introduced “All The Way,” his recent double-platinum hit with rapper BigXthaPlug (whose image rapped along on the large overhead screen), by asking the crowd, “I know this is a country concert, but would you all mind if we turn this place into a club one time?”

The song topped not only the Rap chart, but the Country chart, as well, and is nominated for two American Music Awards – and clearly the audience didn’t mind, and sang loudly along.

It, too, was stretched with a long closing guitar solo.

After just 10 songs and 50 minutes onstage, Zimmerman then told the crowd, “They told me ya’ll want to go home. Is that right?”

Luckily, he instead opened his 2024 gold hit “New To Country” with another flame blast and jumped around at the edge of the stage and spun on one leg as he sang.

Then, he wound down with three of his biggest hits.

First was his four-times-platinum 2023 hit “Religiously,” with him singing while sitting on stage (it closed with fireworks), then the 2023 triple-platinum, chart-topping “Where It Ends,” with the crowd again singing loudly along and streams of smoke (twice!).

And then a long intro before his biggest hit, 2022’s eight-times platinum “Rock and a Hard Place.”

Despite the show’s brevity, Zimmerman skipped several significant songs: the gold hits “Change,” “Never Leave,” “Chase Her” and “House on Fire,” and perhaps most puzzling, his most recent single, “Just Believe.”

Zimmerman ended the concert with several minutes of talking about the power of believing in yourself.

“We’ve been talking about making memories,” he said. “I think we made a lot of them tonight.”

The crowd wouldn’t have minded if Zimmerman had made a few more.

Supporting act Walters, who has written hits not only for Zimmerman, but for Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, played a very good nine-song, 30-minute set of mostly classic country, honky-tonk hits.

Backed by a three-man band, Walters was loose and fun, swinging his hips and pumping his leg, with his long hair under a camouflage hat.

He asked the crowd, “You ready for some country music?” then delivered.

Perhaps his best was his “All You Need is Love,” which was very country. “Worth the Trouble,” a rollicking girlfriend-trouble song, also was good, as was “Break Your Heart” and his upbeat upcoming single “Paper Tiger.”

As if to show how country he could be, Walters played a great version of Brooks and Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”

Gillian Smith, a native of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, opened the show with a seven-song, 25-minute set that started with a short, rock version of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

But she quickly settled into her classic-country style on songs such as her “Something ‘Bout You” and her upcoming single “I’m Gonna Look Real Good Tonight,” and a cover of Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas.”

Perhaps her best was “Lucky,” a song she said she wrote for the father-bride dance at her wedding. She’s getting married in October.