One "Helluva" Show!

On March 19th, 2014 Frankie Ballard played the Rodeo Club in San Jose, CA joined by opening act Joel Crouse. Both of these up and coming country artists were fantastic at entertaining the crowd.

The opening act, Joel Crouse, has had a few singles to country radio. He played his first single "If You Want Some" along with his current single "Why God Made Love Songs". In his short five to six song set, he played most of his original songs along with a cover medley. I was pretty impressed by Joel and hope to see him again sometime soon!

Videos of "Why God Made Love Songs" and "If You Want Some"

We've seen the main act Frankie Ballard a few times within the last year and it was great to see him back in the San Jose area! He performed with a full band and it was interesting for me to see since I've only seen him acoustically before. Frankie just put a new album out so he played a lot of songs off the new album including the title track (which I LOVE) called "Sunshine and Whiskey". 

In about the middle of the show, Frankie had a moment where he got distracted by a female fan in the front row that was exposing some cleavage....I would like to call these kind of moments "Frankie Moments" because it seems like at every show he says or does something totally random that is pretty hilarious. Of course he commented on how nice her cleavage was, then proceeded to try to throw a guitar pick and make it in. He unfortunately missed and it ended up in her purse on the stage. I just thought I would share that because I was doubled over in laughter at this point! Too funny Frankie! 

Frankie just recently topped the country charts this week with his song "Helluva Life". This was the second time in KRTY history that they could personally give back the condiment bottle he signed about four years ago when he played the rodeo club for the first time. Congrats Frankie! 

The Swon Brothers and Mallary Hope

On the night of March 5th, 2014 we saw Mallary Hope and The Swon Brothers both perform at the Rodeo Club in San Jose, CA! It was an amazing night of music and an amazing night to see both of these up and coming artists.

Dave and I mostly bought tickets to this show to see the opening act, Mallary Hope. We have seen Mallary many times but this was a first seeing her at the Rodeo Club. She opened her show singing one of the many songs she's written called Daughter Of The South. She then continued with a song she wrote called Georgia Peaches that was recorded by Lauren Alaina. Mallary then sang a song that was released to radio back in 2009 called Love Lives On. She had not played it in years and played it for us last night because KRTY has been playing it on the radio here. Mallary then got the crowd singing along with her to a bunch of cover songs that she called "Mallary Hope Karaoke". I got a pretty long video of that but she kept going after I stopped taping. You can probably hear me singing in the background and I apologize for how awful I sound! haha! 

Mallary closed her showing singing a Dixie Chicks song called Travelin' Soldier. Her sister and brother-in-law both serve in the US military and this song was a tribute to them and anyone else serving this country. 

Her set seemed way too short still for me and I hope to see her back in California soon! Just on a personal note, I really hope that Mallary gets the recognition she deserves in the years coming. She is currently an unsigned artist that is opening for the likes of Clint Black, Darius Rucker and Charlie Daniels just to name a few. She's played on the Grand Ole Opry numerous times. I'm still scratching my head wondering why she's not all over country radio at this moment. She has an amazing voice and songs that country radio desperately NEEDS. If you need a sampling of her music just to see that I'm not making this stuff up, she has many songs on her Soundcloud account. Go listen here: Mallary Hope's Soundcloud

Next up was The Swon Brothers! I actually watched them a little bit when they were on The Voice and thought they were great! The Swon Brothers did not win The Voice but did just recently sign a recording contract with Arista Records Nashville. They have not been around that long but I could tell that they have been performing in front of live audiences for quite some time. Colton and Zach had this undeniable stage presence that got the audience singing and dancing to many songs. They sang a lot of cover songs and a few from their album coming out sometime this year. They also announced that they were going to play the Grand Ole Opry for the first time on April 12th. 

They were greatly influenced by classic country and classic rock, doing covers of the late George Jones to a cover medley of Eagles songs. They also did a cover of  Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" that I really enjoyed.

They played a song called "Songs That Said It All" that they wrote with Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood from Lady Antebellum.

The next to last song they played called "Later On" is currently a new single to country radio. Check it out! 

The Swon Brothers closed the show by bringing Mallary Hope back on stage to sing the song that got Blake Shelton to turn his chair around on The Voice. Here they are singing American Girl by Tom Petty:

Here's a picture of my boyfriend Dave and I with The Swon Brothers and Mallary Hope after the show! 

What a great night at the Rodeo Club and hope to see both of these artists back in the San Francisco bay area again soon!