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PHOTO STORY: Country Showcase Throws a Hoedown in the Fisher Center

Writer's picture: Braden SimmonsBraden Simmons

Aniston Pate playing with her guitarist on stage at the Fisher Center, Braden Simmons
Aniston Pate playing with her guitarist on stage at the Fisher Center, Braden Simmons

Flowing mullets, some twanging pedal steel guitars and cowboy boots turned the Fisher Center for Performing Arts into a display of country music on Saturday. 

 

Country Showcase this year featured a lineup of Ella Gibson, Gabriella Pasqua, Emmy Moyen and Anniston Pate. The artists and their bands came dressed in bright denim and cowboy hats to show Belmont University a rootin’ tootin’ good time. 


Holding a Gibson guitar, Ella Gibson opened the show donned in bellbottom jeans and a matching denim jacket.  


Gibson on stage opening Country Showcase as she strums on her guitar, Braden Simmons
Gibson on stage opening Country Showcase as she strums on her guitar, Braden Simmons

The rest of her band, clad in cowboy and baseball hats, leather boots and bell-bottom jeans, twanged along with Gibson through her set. 

 

The fiddle slides were complemented by the hum of electric guitars and a bass. 

  

The band left it all on the stage including even the remnants of destroyed instruments. 


Gibson and her bandmate meet center stage while strumming their guitars at each other, Braden Simmons
Gibson and her bandmate meet center stage while strumming their guitars at each other, Braden Simmons

“A broken tambourine that’s something I haven’t seen at a showcase before,” emcee Carter Guse said between sets. 

 

Guse kept the crowd entertained before teeing up Emmy Moyen to take the stage. 

Emmy Moyen and her back up vocalist harmonize together center stage, Braden Simmons
Emmy Moyen and her back up vocalist harmonize together center stage, Braden Simmons

She appeared center stage, while the rest of her band remained in the dark before once again bringing the Fisher to life. 

 

Moyen in white boots and a similar denim outfit to Gibson, emulated the energy from the first set. 

 

As she began to close her first song, three stools were brought out for her, her guitarist and fiddle player to perform a slower song and bring a hush over the crowd. 

 

The slow melodic fiddle accentuated the light strumming of the guitar and had the entire crowd focused centerstage. 


Moyen and her bandmates slow down for an emotional ballad, Braden Simmons
Moyen and her bandmates slow down for an emotional ballad, Braden Simmons

As the final notes strummed on the guitar, the crowd broke the silence and applauded. 

 

They would keep that energy going as Moyen would describe her final song called “Prayer Requests,” which was a comical play on the way gossip can spread through small towns disguised as concerns for others. 

 

She skipped around between band members spreading different requests for prayer as the crowd clapped along to the tune. 


Gabriella Pasqua would come up next dawned in a red dress and matching scarlet guitar. 

 

She performed her songs as wheat fields and cowboys sped past on the screens behind her. 

 

She crooned out through her first song about someone missing their one and only love. 


Pasqua singing out to the crowd during her set, Braden Simmons
Pasqua singing out to the crowd during her set, Braden Simmons

Her band was smaller than the prior bands, giving her performance a more personal and intimate feeling. 

 

Her final song, “Soldier Song,” brought the audience to tears as she described the difficulties and longing that can come from having a family member in the armed forces. 

 

An American flag waved on the screen in the background against a light blue sky while she sang out to the crowd. 


Pate singing out to the crowd while graphics flash across the screen on stage, Braden Simmons
Pate singing out to the crowd while graphics flash across the screen on stage, Braden Simmons

Closing out the lineup of performances, Aniston Pate strutted center stage as the drums slowly built up a beat like thunder signaling her arrival. 

 

Donning a leopard print jacket, a black cowboy hat and matching boots she rocked the stage. 

 

She closed out the individual performances with her newest song “Honky Tonk Without a Woman,” an ode to how much friends can impact a night out, or more specifically at the honky tonk. 


Pate dancing across stage while strumming on her guitar, Braden Simmons
Pate dancing across stage while strumming on her guitar, Braden Simmons

While the judges deliberated, the country showcase quartet would come out one final time to the fisher stage but this time to perform together. 

 

They played country favorites such as “Any Man of Mine,” “Suds in the Bucket” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” 

 

As they made the final transition off-stage, Guse would come out along with the producers to announce the judge’s decision. 

 

Pate was crowned the winner of the Country Showcase and will also be performing at CMA Fest this June. 

 




Pate hugging her band as she is announced as the winner of country showcase, Braden Simmons
Pate hugging her band as she is announced as the winner of country showcase, Braden Simmons

She will return with Meredith Aguirre, RAWHONEY. and Izzy Potter for the Best of the Best Showcase later this semester. 


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This article was written by Braden Simmons  

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