On Thursday night, Rascal Flatts stepped out onto the carpeted ice at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to sing the National Anthem for the first hockey game of the playoffs for the Predators. The trio waited until the line "And the rockets' red glare" to bring their voices together, and the impact was powerful. It's hard not to get goosebumps while listening to their harmonies.
HI THERE @rascalflatts! What an anthem!!! #Preds pic.twitter.com/t3279s908e
— Bally Sports: Preds (@PredsOnBally) April 13, 2018
Our National Anthem is notoriously difficult to sing. Like the Department of Music and director of vocal studies at UCLA, Michael Dean, told ABC, "[The song] goes from the lowest extreme of the voice to the highest extreme of the voice. The thing people forget to do is start the piece low enough so that high notes are not too high for them at the end...One hopes and prays that they start it correctly because in the end they're going to be in a lot of trouble." Rascal Flatts seemed to do so effortlessly.
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While the Predators have been after the Stanley Cup, "The Star-Spangled Banner" has been sung by many country stars like Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley. Rascal Flatt's wonderful performance perfectly set the stage for the Nashville Predators' first playoff game — they took the win over the Colorado Avalanche.
