“Cowboys and Angels” will gather in MemAud for country music star Dustin Lynch.
Lynch, with special guest Tyler Rich, will perform in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on Friday at 8 p.m. Admission is $45 for the first 10 rows, $35 for the remainder of the floor and $25 for balcony seats.
Lynch previously performed in MemAud in 2013 when he opened for Easton Corbin. At that time, Lynch only had one major hit, Andrew Holzaepfel, the senior associate director of student activities, said.
“He’s kind of a developed, full-out headliner kind of artist,” Holzaepfel said.
Lynch has five top-10 hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart — “Mind Reader,” “Hell of a Night” and “Where It’s At” reached the top of the chart. His most-recent single, “Seein’ Red,” is now ranked No. 3 on the same chart, up four spots from the previous week.
Lynch’s recent top 10 is affecting ticket sales, Holzaepfel said. He expects a “nice full house” for the performance and said tickets have sold really well.
The musician, Holzaepfel said, appeals to students and Athens residents. He thinks Lynch steps out of the “bro-country” genre with his more traditional tone. Bro-country is influenced by hip-hop, rock and R&B tones. Some notable artists in the subgenre include Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Cole Swindell.
“While he’s kind of young and has those hits, he also is a little bit traditional when it comes to country music,” Holzaepfel said. “He will appeal to the larger, regional area of the Athens community, but he is young and he does have hits so the students are coming out and buying tickets too.”
Kylie Harper, a sophomore studying exercise physiology, will be attending the concert. Harper saw Lynch at a rodeo in Columbus and said she likes his songs “Seein’ Red” and “Hell of a Night,” and that “Cowboys and Angels” is an “oldie but goodie.”
“I love country music,” Harper said. “Me and my friends go to any country concert we get our hands on and pay for.”
The country musician has more than one million monthly listeners on Spotify. His 2012 hit “Cowboys and Angels” has more than 16 million listens on Spotify, but “Where It’s At” tops his list of most streamed songs with more than 30 million.
Eleanor Copp, a senior studying child and family studies, likes country music and said it's all she listens to.
“Everytime I think of OU, I think of the fests and the pop artists they bring,” Copp said. “I like how they bring country artists.”
