Time For Some Wine And Great Music

On July 18th, 2014 KRTY hosted another songwriter's series at the Clos La Chance winery in San Martin, CA. This was a beautiful night for some amazing country music featuring artists Will Hoge, Mallary Hope, Katie Arminger and Doug Johnson. These are personally my favorite kind of shows because not only do you get to hear the songs but you get to hear the stories behind them.

Will Hoge started off the first round of songs for the group and I don't believe I've ever seen him in concert before!

Will sang a really funny song about married life called "No Man's Land" which I thought was hysterical! 

It was a real treat to be able to see the same song performed twice in one week. Will Hoge penned "Even If It Breaks Your Heart" that was recorded by the Eli Young Band. I saw the Eli Young Band sing this earlier this week and was so happy to hear it again via the songwriter himself! 

Mallary Hope was second in the round of performers and as usual she was cracking jokes about her songs along with her friend right next to her Katie Arminger. Mallary is one of my favorite songwriters and in my opinion has one of the best voices out of Nashville. 

Mallary recently put a bunch of new songs on her Soundcloud page and it was great to hear a live performance of one of them called "Closure"

Katie Arminger and Mallary joked most of the night about having mostly songs about their "douchebag" ex-boyfriends. They came to agreement that the only song that they could sing together (that wasn't about douchebags) was Katie's latest radio single called "Safe"

Katie Arminger

I was blown away with the major hits that Doug Johnson had written! He co-penned 'Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis, "Sarabeth" by Rascal Flatts and "Love Like Crazy" by Lee Brice! He was definitely one of those artists that I went "Holy crap he wrote that?!?!". 

  

In the last round of the evening, Mallary Hope and Katie Arminger performed an amazing cover of "Does He Love You" that was originally sung by Reba and Linda Davis. I can't get over how amazing they sound together! 

What a spectacular songwriter's show and hope I can make it to the next one! 

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!