Gilroy Garlic Festival 2018: 'Hot Country Sunday' Artist Lineup

GILROY, CA — Live music has been as much a part of the Gilroy Garlic Festival as the garlicky gourmet food— and this year’s 40th annual celebration is no exception, organizers say. The festival is once again partnering with KRTY 95.3 to welcome up-and-coming country stars to the amphitheater stage July 29 for "Hot Country Sunday." This year’s artist lineup includes Nashville native Mitchell Tenpenny and Georgia boys Travis Denning and Cale Dodds.

Mitchell Tenpenny is both an industry insider and outlier — someone who has a local’s appreciation for the origins of Nashville as well as a keen focus on what happens outside of Music City. A Nashville native, Tenpenny’s grandmother was industry legend Donna Hilley, who shaped the musical landscape of country music as CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Where he comes from was fertile ground with musical influences as disparate as Michael Jackson, John Mayer, the Oak Ridge Boys and R. Kelly. The resulting sound on his Riser House/Columbia Nashville self-titled debut EP is current, edgy and grounded in themes intrinsic to the South. His current single, “Drunk Me” made streaming chart history for a new country artist with over 1.5 million streams.

A native of Warner Robins, Georgia, Travis Denning vividly remembers the moment he realized he wanted to pursue music for a living. He was 7 years old sitting in his dad’s truck and heard AC/DC for the first time. From then on, he was hooked and devoured all types of music from country and heavy metal to pop and rock. Denning started playing local bars at the age of 16 and built a solid following from his distinctive songs and raucous guitar licks. He moved to Nashville in 2014 and within a year signed a publishing deal with Jeremy Stover’s RED Creative Group. After securing outside cuts by Jason Aldean, Justin Moore and Chase Rice, he caught the attention of Universal Music Group, where he eventually signed a record deal in 2017. Denning recently opened shows for Lanco and will hit the road with Chace Rice and Justin Moore later this year. His debut single, “David Ashley Parker from Powder Springs,” is an upbeat coming-of-age song that has quickly gained many fans on country radio.

Cale Dodds is an artist from Columbus, Georgia who has already established his talent as both a singer and songwriter. A Thousand Horses featured his co-written track “(This Ain’t No) Drunk Dial” as their second single, and his own, independently-released People Watching EP has racked up over 8 million streams on Spotify. His debut single with Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville is “Take You Back,” and Dodds recently released an acoustic remix of the song (with accompanying video) called “Take You Back (to Basics).” Dodds has toured with Sam Hunt, Brett Eldredge, Billy Currington and Canaan Smith.

— Photos and text via Gilroy Garlic Festival news release