03/24/23
The energy of Patrick Murphy’s performance is felt thru the soul and emotion that he emotes thru his performance. There’s no feeling of pop country rock in his sound, from Lifestyle to Blue Jeans, one could feel him singing with his heart as he slowly pulled the audience into his set. He moved back and forth between standing and playing piano, rarely seen these days from a country music artist. The set closed with him retrieving a Coors Light and covering Trains “Drops of Jupiter”. Admittedly, while I am not a fan of country music, there’s never any doubt when it comes to the energy and stage presence that an artist brings with them. It will be interesting seeing where Patrick’s career goes from here. He has the ability to capture his audience and guide them gently thru their musical journey with him. One could hope that he’ll grow to be more known on a national scale soon. His tour with Maddie and Tae certainly helps him get eyes and ears to his sound.
Pop-Country duo Maddie and Tae took to the stage in Hays at a little smaller venue than the one they were at several years back when they played at Wild West Fest. They were lesser known then, still fresh on the scene, but they returned to Hays after 12 years together with a fuller sound, a bigger catalog and unfortunately to this writer, without the memorable cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” this go around. But their All Song, No Static Tour continued thru the Fox Theater with another sold out show, with an audience full of country music fans of all ages. The duos sound impressed, bouncing from country ballads to energetic Pop-Country that attending fans knew by heart. Their base is strong and the quality of their show left no one disappointed.
