By Arden Berry | Arts & Life Editor
Carter Faith headlined Howdy at the Hurd Friday night with boot-tapping and hand-clapping hits.
Music played as Faith waved as she danced her way onto the stage in a sheer dress and stiletto cowboy boots. She walked up to her mic, which had white flowers and leaves surrounding its stand.
As she opened with “Betty,” the crowd in the pit inched closer to the stage.
“Y’all are fun,” Faith said after a riff at the end of the song.
Her second song, “Grudge,” brought some audience participation, as Faith started clapping and asking the audience remind her of a lyric, which listeners did.
“I’m sorry if I offended anyone, but at least I got it out of the way,” Faith said.
Faith followed the song with “Pearl Handled Pistol,” in which she compares herself to the handgun referenced, “Smoke,” which is about a boyfriend who mailed her a letter detailing all the things he did not like about her and “Man.”
“This is a man’s world / But women hold it up,” Faith sang.
Faith sang other audience favorites, including “I’m Sorry But I love You” and “Greener Pasture.” Her clear and soulful sounds filled the area.
“How old are you guys?” Faith said. “I feel like I’m still in college, then I come here.”
Faith also sang two covers: “Oops!…I Did It Again” by Britney Spears with a country spin and “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton.
“I love Dolly and I’m very sad about her passing,” Faith said. “It’s nine-two-five today so you guys have to sing with me. Do you promise?”
Faith played her favorite song from her “Cherry Valley” album, “Six String,” alone on stage with teal lights and a red guitar. The song was angry and intense, and Faith’s full belt cut through the night and hung in the air as she sang,
“You left me right here high and dry / And wonder why I’m crying / If you don’t love me I might die / I think I might be dying.”
Before she sang “Bar Star,” a very country tune, she introduced her band members and their favorite bar drinks.
“We’ve got a couple bar stars up here with us,” Faith said.
Faith said her drummer, Andrew Edmonds, is from Waco. Edmonds wore a Baylor shirt and contributed intense beats to “Lasso.” Taylor Macres and Stefan Guy played guitar, with Guy often jumping around the stage. At one point in “Bar Star,” the two walked left and right in sync with Faith.
The show ended with “Burn My Memory,” which went from slow during the verse to intense during the chorus.
“Thank you, I love you,” Faith said as she left stage.
Faith is currently nominated for new artist of the year by the CMA awards, and her album, “Cherry Valley,” was a finalist for the Academy of Country Music Awards album of the year.
Mabletown, Georgia, graduate student Elizabeth Guttenberg and Dalhart senior Chloe Haaland said they had not heard of Faith before hearing about the concert, but they enjoyed the performance.
“I feel like she was new for a lot of people, so that’s always fun to experience someone before they get big,” Haaland said.
Haaland said it was fun to be near the front of the pit, and Guttenberg said the audience was connecting with each other.
“People we didn’t even know, we were all just rocking to the beat together, so it was fun,” Guttenberg said.
Jason Cook, vice president of marketing and communications, said Faith would be “perfect for that Howdy environment.”
“We’re excited to have a female country headliner on our campus too,” Cook said. “And we want to make sure that we support her well. And I know that our partnership with Pi Phi, Howdy is just going to continue to grow and grow and grow into one of those big ‘T’ traditions that we have here at Baylor.”
As for that environment, Howdy at the Hurd featured a variety of food trucks and attractions including cornhole, a Ferris wheel, country line dancing and armadillo racing.
Pearland freshman Molly DeLuca was a “jockey” pulled from the crowd to race an armadillo, and she won.
“It was awesome,” DeLuca said. “I’ve never done anything like this at all.”
Amarillo senior Taylor Held, vice president of community relations for Pi Beta Phi, said proceeds from the event are donated to Read>Lead>Achieve.
“That’s our heart behind it,” Held said. “And so, yes, it is such a fun event, but it’s way bigger than ourselves. And so our heart behind it is to create a fun environment, but also to make as much money as possible to give to the Pi Phi Foundation.”
