Opening night of Cole Swindell’s “Down To Earth Tour” kicks off at Stranahan Theater in Toledo, OH with fellow singer/songwriters Hardy and Trea Landon.
Thursday night kicks off the opening night of the Down To Earth Tour in Toledo, OH for Cole Swindell as he embarks on a 14 city tour. The tour is scheduled for theaters, auditoriums and mid-sized arenas across the country, wrapping up in Jacksonville, FLA on April 17th.
The show is made up of three songwriters, Cole, Hardy and Trea Landon that have become successful on their own different paths before making it to the stage here in Toledo.
After moving to Nashville, Cole joined Luke Bryan on the road and sold merchandise for him. While there, Cole stayed on as his songwriting skills were being noticed by Luke Bryan and other Nashville executives. Now a days, Cole is headlining his own shows, and bringing fellow singer/songwriter’s Hardy and Trea Landon as part of the show.
The show begins in darkness with a track from space control calling a space rig home. When the lights come up, Cole starts right in with the title track of the tour, “Down To Earth.” With the excited crowd standing in front of the stage, Cole swiftly passes by each of them leaning forward to shake hands and acknowledge them all.
The stage configuration is rather simple compared to what one may imagine. There are no multi-level lighted platforms that fill the whole stage and cause the crowd to become distracted away from Cole and his performance. The lead and rhythm guitarists are out front on each side of Cole, while the bass guitarist and piano/keyboard players are directly behind them on small risers. The drummer is located in the back on a larger riser behind Cole at center stage. Hanging high above and behind the band is a large image of Earth on the left and the moon on the right to help you fantasize and make you believe you are in space floating amongst the stars.
While the band is faint in the darkness and dimly lit from the stage lighting, Cole is brightly shined upon with the spotlights and wearing a green NASA pilot’s jacket to go along with the theme of the tour.
Cole continues on with “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” and “Sounded Good Last Night,” before hollering out to the excited crowd to get drunk and do karaoke with “Shut Up And Dance.”
Thanking the crowd for coming tonight, Cole sees some familiar faces in the crowd who have stuck beside him from the beginning and acknowledges some of them throughout the show with small shout outs.
Cole originally moved to Nashville to become a songwriter. After writing this song and holding a spot on Cole’s heart, he decided to keep the song and perform it himself. After winning a Grammy for “Break Up In The End,” the song is only that more special to Cole now.
As he has been waiting a long time for this tour to kick off, he is glad he is able to include friends (Hardy and Trea Landon) to join him out on the road. Trea reminds Cole of the 90s traditional country sound. Staying on that route, Cole begins to sing “Sold (The Grundy Country Auction Incident)” before being joined on stage by Trea to help sing the John Michael Montgomery cover.
The band joins Cole at center stage while sitting on stools for an acoustic set of songs. First up is Cole’s first song “I’m Hungover” ever recorded that ended up on one of Luke Bryan’s Spring Break EP’s.
Later this summer, Cole will be joining Thomas Rhett on tour and he will be singing the hit “Get Me Some Of That” that became Cole’s first #1 single as a songwriter.
“Getting’ Forgotten” is a favorite of Cole’s that was never released from his 2016 studio album You Should Be Here. As Cole describes, there are many great songs that never get released as singles but need to be heard to appreciate. That is why artists make albums with 10 – 12 songs on them…to be heard.
In between his three studio albums, Cole Swindell, You Should Be Here and All Of It, Cole has recorded five separate EPs Down Home Sessions I – V to keep his fans happy. Cole adds “Right Where I Left It” and “Ready” from them EPs to his acoustic set.
With a piano playing in the background, Cole talks about earlier in the week when Nashville was hit with the most devastating tornado to hit North America. As Cole explains, “You see it all the time on TV but never really able to take it to heart until you are put in the middle of it and experience it first hand.” At tonight’s show, Cole is donating all monies collected at the merchandise table back to Nashville to help in the disaster relief. “Country fans are the greatest. We have heard from people all over wanting to know how to order a t-shirt and contribute to relief funds. We are NASHVILLE STRONG and can rebuild, but it takes country music fans to make us strong.”
As a songwriter, Cole never imagined that he would ever have to write a song that would touch as many people as with “You Should Be Here.” Cole performs the song in a stripped down version with only a piano to accompany him.
After performing “Middle Of A Memory” and a medley of unreleased songs, “A Dozen Roses And A Six-Pack” and “Brokedown,” Cole has had enough of the break-up songs. Although country music is real regardless of what you are going thru, there are also songs about drinking beer and having fun. Cole is now ready to pick it up and sing some drinking songs like “Brought To You By Beer,” “No Can Left Behind” and “Reason To Drink.”
Cole is joined on stage by singer/songwriter Hardy who performs his own set earlier in the evening to sing the duet “Boys From The South” that appears on Hardy’s first full length album.
Next, Cole performs his debut single “Chillin’ It” before getting rowdy with the Lil Nas X cover of “Old Town Road” and finishing with his penned Florida Georgia Line hit “This Is How We Roll.”
As Cole and the band drift into darkness, the crowd chants Cole’s name and calls him back for an encore.
On Cole’s return, he sings “Love You Too Late” before concluding with “Ain’t Worth The Whiskey” and dedicating the final verse of the song to the Armed Forces and all the First Responders helping those who are in need.
While the band plays on, Cole takes a trip across the front of the stage to greet fans with a hand shake, autograph or a selfie before leaving the stage and heading out into the darkness.
Cole’s new show is an arrangement of songs written and performed by himself and others who have made them big hits. He also takes songs from the b-side of albums that haven’t been released as singles to show the spectrum of his songwriting and although not every song on an album becomes a top single, they are all plenty capable of such.
With the excitement of the room between the stage and crowd, the band felt the vibe and kept the energy growing and made for a great show for all, regardless of whether it was your first show or have seen him multiple times in the past.
Earlier in the evening before Cole takes the stage, singer/songwriter Hardy performs a rocking set to get the crowd pumped up and rowdy.
With Kid Rock’s “Cowboy” playing throughout the theater, Hardy and his band enter the stage and open with “He Went To Jared.”
The singer/songwriter originates from Philadelphia, Mississippi and grew up on rock and roll music which shows in the strong demanding vocals found in a rock and roll song. When he came to Nashville, he came as a songwriter and has written big songs for artists Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Chris Lane and Morgan Wallen. Not being serious as a singer, he was later coerced by Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard convincing Hardy that there was room for him as an artist to perform his own material.
Since then, Hardy has produced two EPs, This Old Boy and Where To Find Me along with a collaboration album Hixtape, Vol. I.
During his show at Stranahan Theater, Hardy performs “Nothing Out Here” and “Turn You Down” from the album before introducing a new song “Boots” that hasn’t even been recorded yet to the crowd.
Being out on tour for almost a year now, Hardy doesn’t get much chance to get out and get crazy anymore. So he asks the crowd that the next time they are taking a slow drive down a back country road drinking a beer, that you think of him and drink one for him. He has written a song of his days when he could still do that and it is his favorite song every written, called “My Kinda Livin’.”
Stating that many people will likely go home drunk tonight, they will either go home with someone or go home alone. Two things can happen when you go home alone, you either go to sleep or get out your phone and call an ex. He wrote this song to help those who may try to call an ex, called “Signed, Sober You.”
Joined by Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson on the studio version, “One Beer” is the latest work of Hardy’s to be headed to country music airplay as his current single.
He thanks Blake Shelton for taking “God’s Country” and turning it into a single that sat at the top of radio for two consecutive weeks at #1. With that song, Hardy was finally able to buy his first brand new vehicle, an F-150 four wheel drive pick-up. With the new truck, Hardy wrote the next song, “4×4.”
Ending his 11 songs, 45 minute set, Hardy hollers out into the crowd, “Toledo, do we have any Rednecks in the crowd?” The crowd erupts into approval as they cheer and sing to the anthem song “Rednecker.”
Another Georgia singer/songwriter Trea Landon, opens the early show on Friday evening with songs from his debut EP Dirt Road Dancin’, including the title track.
The 26 year old brings a traditional country sound with modern lyrical to the stage that reaches out to country music fans of all ages, including all the Ohio girls in the crowd with “Get The Girl.”
Impressive and ready to take on the world, Trea performs his first single to country radio “Loved By A Country Boy.”
Early indications from the first show are positive and appear to be a great starting point for the tour to continue on only to get bigger and better as it rolls across the country.
Stay up to date with news and tour stops from Cole Swindell, Hardy and Trea Landon or even catch a future show at the Stranahan Theater by clicking on the links below.
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Cole Swindell
Website | Facebook | Twitter
Hardy
Website | Facebook | Twitter
Trea Landon
Website | Facebook | Twitter
Stranahan Theater
Cole Swindell setlist:
1. Down To Earth 2. Hope You Get Lonely Tonight 3. Sounded Good Last Night 4. Shut Up And Dance (Walk The Moon cover) 5. Let Me See Ya Girl 6. 20 In A Chevy 7. Break Up In The End 8. Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incedent) w/Trea Landon (John Michael Montgomery cover) 9. Flatliner Acoustic – 10. I’m Hungover. (Luke Bryan) Acoustic – 11. Get Me Some Of That (Thomas Rhett) Acoustic – 12. Gettin’ Forgotten Acoustic – 13. Right Where I Left It Acoustic – 14. Ready 15. You Should Be Here 16. Middle Of A Memory 17. A Dozen Roses And A Six Pack / Broke Down 18. Brought To You By Beer 19. No Can Left Behind 20. Reason To Drink 21. Last Single Saturday Night 22. Boy From The South w/Hardy 23. Chillin’ It 24. Old Town Road (Lil Nas X cover) 25. This Is How We Roll (Florida Georgia Line cover) Encore – 26. Love You Too Late 27. Ain’t Worth The Whiskey
Hardy setlist:
1. He Went To Jared 2. All She Left Was Me 3. Nothing Out Here 4. Turn You Down 5. Boots 6. My Kinda Livin’ 7. Signed, Sober You 8. One Beer 9. God’s Country 10. 4×4 11. Rednecker
Trea Landon setlist:
1. Dirt Road Dancin’ 2. There’s That Smile 3. Wrong Truck 4. A Little Bit 5. Chattahoochie (Alan Jackson cover) 6. Get The Girl 7. When I Get There 8. Loved By A Country Boy
Event Date: 05-MAR-2020