The tone got set fast. Fall 2010 opened at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown on September 17 with two West Virginia bustouts — "Chunk Of Coal" back after 193 shows and "Four Cornered Room" after 146 — and from there it played like a band with a deep bench and something to prove. It was the first full tour behind Dirty Side Down, the eleventh studio record, cut in Athens with John Keane back in the producer's chair. Keane himself sat in down in Alpharetta on the 25th, the same night "This Cruel Thing" got its first airing.

The centerpiece was three nights at the Ryman in Nashville (October 4–6). Night two folded a "Folsom Prison Blues" into a "Let It Rock" bustout — same key, most of Cash's lyrics smuggled in — and night three brought the guests: Charlie Daniels opened the final set with a wild "Ain't Life Grand," shredded the hair off his bow over a twenty-minute sit-in, and dueled Jimmy Herring into "Who Do You Belong To?", with Jon Randall on mandolin for "Are You Ready For The Country."

Then the band drove it into the swamp. The tour closed over Halloween weekend at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans — Dumpstaphunk, The New Mastersounds, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band opening across the run — and the 31st itself opened a costume box of first-timers: "Lola," "Strange Times," "Bring It On Home," and "You're Gonna Miss Me." Twenty-nine shows, fourteen songs hauled back across the fifty-show line, and a Most Played board with five different songs tied at eight apiece. A massive Fall Tour, exactly like the man said.