Photo: Third Man Records/Angelina Castillo

In the ever-changing world that is Nashville, many things define our evolving culture: Maybe it's the old soul of Lower Broadway, split between the ghosts of honky-tonk heroes and the exposed navels of Honky Tonk Central, or maybe it's winning the battle to preserve RCA Studio A. Perhaps it's just a well-kept Victorian in East Nashville, or a modern spin on meat-and-three, where a haute ingredient trumps a simple fish fry. Surely, Wednesday night's lineup at Bridgestone Arena — where Jack White, Loretta Lynn and William Tyler will take the stage — is about as indicative of our past, present and future as they come. Combined, the trio of White, Lynn and Tyler — who spins guitar-centric instrumental records that have more in common with Sex Mob and Smog than Johnny Cash or George Jones — takes defining Nashville's signature sounds one step further. Which is about meshing genres all the way from the stage of $2 Tuesdays at The 5 Spot to our 18,000-plus-capacity hockey arena.

In a town gripped by growing-pain panic, here's a reminder of the good side of all this evolution.

"It's great that the city is growing so, so much," White's Third Man Records co-founder Ben Swank tells the Scene. "But it's also great that you can still have what people could describe as a 'Nashville moment.' That's what it feels like to me, despite none of us at Third Man being Nashville natives. The city has really taken us to heart and looked after us and treated us as such."

It's difficult to imagine Nashville's current culture without White, who moved to town in 2006, or Third Man's downtown record store, live venue and label headquarters, which opened its doors in 2009. Third Man's two-toned black-and-yellow motif is now nearly as iconic as the Predators blue and gold painted throughout Bridgestone. Jack White and Third Man changed Nashville, setting off a chain of dominoes that let the world in on a dirty little secret: that Country Music City, USA, is also a rock 'n' roll hub.

"I think Jack moving to Nashville had a lot to do with changing the attitude that this city is a nexus of rock 'n' roll," Tyler tells the Scene. "I grew up here, and no one took our rock 'n' roll seriously until Jack came here. That, coinciding with [local punk label Infinity Cat Records], is when it all changed. And suddenly people realized it's actually a really rad place to live if you're a band that doesn't play [country music]."

And White and his label have played an active role in making Nashville a rad place for local rockers to live.

"William is the perfect person to open [the Bridgestone show] because, to me, he's a lot of what the good side of Nashville is," Swank says of Tyler, who, in addition to his acclaimed solo albums, did time as a sideman in Tennessee bands from Superdrag to Lambchop and currently co-owns and operates Nations neighborhood haunt The Stone Fox. "He has his own business, he's a local musician who has a lot to say and approaches his craft from a well-thought-out place, but is also very instinctual. He's very Nashville, as much as Loretta is."

White's relationship with Nashville began two years before he moved here. April will mark a decade since the release of Lynn's White-produced comeback album Van Lear Rose, and the Bridgestone show is a tribute of sorts to a partnership that not only spurred a Grammy-winning record, but also set a new blueprint for what a country-rock partnership can look and feel like. It also served as a precursor to the rest of the now former White Stripe's career.

White morphed from a Detroit poster boy to a musical ambassador when he moved to Music City, establishing himself in the spirit of what Nashville desperately needs from their new inhabitants: people who are reverential of the past without being retro, who are innovative without ringing as throwback. On Wednesday, flanked by a living legend and an arbiter of youthful indie avant-garde, White will show exactly how well that balance can be executed.

"It's all about finding a way of growing and developing that's still retaining character and honesty," says Swank. Third Man does this by preserving lost ghosts, like the release of The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, while tapping into our progressive cultural core: showcasing vital artists like Shabazz Palaces and PUJOL on vinyl and onstage. Of course, Lynn was also doing her part in 1975, slipping the world a "Pill" with a glass of Tennessee whiskey.

"I think any growth is good," Swank adds. "But I also think any growth is going to have growing pains, and I think that's what everyone is experiencing. Rather than trying to be overly negative about things or having knee-jerk reactions, I think the best way to combat that is going out and putting your own positivity into things and creating your own kind of world. That's when beautiful things happen. If you don't like the 40-story building that's going up, go out and create your own art collective."

It certainly worked for White — and for Tyler, who's seen the city change in front of his eyes, from the slow-chugged place of his birth to the rash of two-in-one condos. But he'll take the bad with the good. "Nashville used to be a little more relaxed," he says. "But it also used to be a lot less interesting."