Sam Hunt with Michael Ray - Stegman Coliseum - Athens, Georgia - 10 April 2015
The University of Georgia is truly a place like no other.
Who else could bring one of country’s next big artist to their college
basketball stadium for one of the coolest concerts I’ve seen in a long time.
Athens, Georgia has a great music scene attracting all different genres to
their city.
The opening band was Michael Ray who has his single KissYou in the Morning out on the radio. Even though I didn’t know any of his
other songs, I was very impressed and I’ll be checking him out for sure. The coolest part was when they had two UGA
football payers come up on stage and lead the crowd in calling the dawgs.
Sam Hunt was amazing! You can really tell that he was
enjoying himself up on stage and the energy in the room was palpable. He played
all of the songs off his debut album Montevallo and did some classic
covers.
He’s a new kind of country; he has some heavy rock and rap
influences that really speak to this generation. He does have some stripped
back songs, but his sound is definitely something new and a trend I’m sure will
continue for country music.
His two guitarists were also very impressive. They were high
energy and immensely talented. They each got little guitar solos during a few
different songs and it was nice to see that Sam valued their talent and wanted
them to show it off.
About halfway through the concert they brought out some
stools and Sam and his two guitarists all grabbed acoustic guitars. Then they
did something really cool. Sam said that the three of them lived in Nashville
together as roommates and used to get out their guitars and just hang out and
play songs together. He’d been opening up for a lot of country bands, only
getting about a 30 minute set, so he was excited that he had more time to do a
few different things. The three of them sat there and played some classic
country songs, a few random pop ones and even a Whitney Houston song. Saying it
was cool doesn’t sound that impressive, but that’s what it was, cool. Just to
feel like you were sitting in a living room hanging out and singing along to
your favorite songs.
It really was a great concert, different from any I’ve been
to before because of the intimate setting, the audience full of UGA students
and the fact that he is so new that he can do just about anything he wants up
on that stage. You can see that there’s a kind of freedom for musicians during
this stage of their career.
I know Sam Hunt is destined for a great career and he’s only
going to get bigger. I can’t wait to see more of him in the years to come and
to catch him in concert again.
xx Kristen
Listen to Sam:
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