Country Meets City at Jasper Days

New York City seems like an unlikely place for a country music concert, but this past weekend, Draddy gymnasium was the spot to be for country music fans. With performances from Brynn Marie, Craig Campbell and Kellie Pickler, the Jasper Days concert was a welcome break from the stress of the ending semester.

Craig Campbell performed a set before Kellie Pickler came onstage. Photo by James O'Connor.
Craig Campbell performed a set before Kellie Pickler came onstage. Photo by James O’Connor.

Starting much earlier than last years nighttime concert by Alesso, Brynn Marie took the stage at 11:30. Marie was energetic, and engaged the crowd with the story of her journey. Marie was from a small town in Pennsylvania and as she said, “got the guts to go to Nashville,” to fulfill her dreams of making music.

Marie impressed the crowd with her talent, and welcomed Jaspers to join in the energy of her performance. She played her own released music as well as new songs she has been working on. She capped off her performance with a cover of Katy Perry’s “Roar” which received applause and excitement from the crowd.

Craig Campbell followed up with an energetic performance of his own music, as well as trying out his own new music on the college crowd. Campbell was excited to perform for the college crowd, telling The Quadrangle, “college audiences are the ones that usually validate what you’re doing.”

Campbell’s performance included a cover of Lorde’s Grammy award winning song “Royals,” that Campbell joked his country version helped to win the award. Campbell also joked with a crowd member who mistakenly called him Chris, saying that his name was on his guitar.

The headliner, Kellie Pickler, followed Campbell’s act and closed the show out for the day. Pickler performed her current songs as well as songs that will be on her new album, which she is currently working on.

Pickler’s performance was relaxed, she sat throughout sipping from a red solo cup, joking with the

Opener Brynn Marie takes the stage. Photo by Sean Sonnemann
Opener Brynn Marie takes the stage. Photo by Sean Sonnemann

audience members about her drink and her stories. Members of Pickler’s band showed up late to the performance and she joked that it would be their “last show.”

The concert, though very different from the Alesso performance of last year’s SpringFest, was met with excitement from some members of the Jasper community, Cindy McCallister was very excited at the opportunity to meet Campbell, “I love Craig Campbell and I am very excited [for his performance]. We met him and got his autograph,” she said.

With the changes of this years spring weekend celebration many student were hesitant to attend the Jasper Days concert, however the students that did attend found fun performances from the country artists that headlined.