By Arden Berry | Arts & Life Editor
From the familiar frequencies of Foster Pavilion to the bumping beats of the new Baylor Backyard Live series, the fall semester is packed with concerts.
With genres ranging from Old Dominion’s country to Mt. Joy’s indie rock, Jason Cook, vice president of marketing and communications, said this fall concert schedule has something for everyone.
“Music is so personal, so subjective that there may be an artist that’s not on your playlist regularly, but we still want to get artists in our facilities where you can have a great time and a great experience,” Cook said.
For students and their visiting family, Old Dominion will offer A-list country music this Family Weekend on Sept. 18 at Foster Pavilion. Rising country artist McCoy Moore will open the show.
Cook said Old Dominion is a “big coup” for Baylor and Waco overall.
“Old Dominion is a great example of Waco now being on the map for A-list country entertainers because Old Dominion had a streak,” Cook said. “They are big time in Nashville, they’re big time around the country.”
Carter Faith
Despite the cancellation of her last trip to Waco as opener for Post Malone and Jelly Roll, country artist Carter Faith is coming to Pi Beta Phi’s Howdy at the Hurd on Sept. 25.
Howdy starts at 7 p.m. The free concert will start at 8:30 p.m. at the stage on Dutton Avenue outside the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center.
Faith’s debut album, “Cherry Valley,” was a finalist for the Academy of Country Music Awards album of the year, an accomplishment Cook said is “practically unheard of.”
“I still don’t know how we got her for Howdy at the Hurd,” Cook said. “She’s an incredible writer, but an incredible musician as well.”
Cook said Howdy is a key part in welcoming incoming students to Texas, something Faith’s country background will reflect.
“She’s just going to be perfect for that Howdy environment,” Cook said. “And we’re excited to have a female country headliner on our campus too.”
Amarillo senior Taylor Held, vice president of community relations for Pi Beta Phi, said Baylor is very hands-on when it comes to recruiting artists for Howdy. She said the artist announcement stirred a lot of excitement.
“It means that Howdy is pretty close to coming,” Held said. “And so we’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback and a lot of people are really excited, which makes us even more excited.”
Baylor Backyard Live
Football and free live music will come together to bring a variety of beats across the six home games this season. Each artist will start about 1 hour and 45 minutes before kickoff outside McLane Stadium at Touchdown Alley.
Baylor Backyard Live is part of Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Doug McNamee’s Fan First Era.
“Our university marketing team has been working with the athletics marketing team hand-in-hand on this whole effort for this upcoming football season,” Cook said. “When we started looking at tailgating, what else could we bring to the tailgating environment to bring some excitement together?”
Baylor had already experimented with combining the concert and tailgate experience last September, when the Graham St. Clair Band, made up of Baylor alumni, played before the Big 12 Conference Fall Tour.
“It brought some energy to the tailgating environment,” Cook said. “What if we did a concert every game? And the conversation just kept growing.”
Cook said each week will bring a different flavor of artist, from Waco band Suede’s mix of R&B, funk, rock and jazz on Sept. 12, to Wynn Williams’ neotraditional country music on Oct. 17.
Each week was strategically planned based on the football opponent, potential audience, game theme or point in the season. For example, The Members Only Band will play Sept. 19 during Family Weekend.
“I’m really excited for one, Members Only Band, which is an 80s band,” Cook said. “Most of our parents of our current students grew up in the 80s. So an 80s tribute band would just be perfect related to that.”
For Baylor’s first Big 12 game of the season on Sept. 26, Pat Green will take the stage.
“We wanted a signature artist, a name artist that people would be familiar with to kick off the Big 12 schedule with Colorado,” Cook said. “Being from Waco, he’s a name that everyone knows in the Texas country scene. He tours quite a bit around the state.”
In a homecoming of their own, Graham St. Clair Band will return to Touchdown Alley for the Homecoming game on Nov. 7.
“We’re excited for Homecoming to be able to bring back Graham St. Clair Band,” Cook said. “I mean, it’s a great story. Here’s alums who are in the music business trying to make a run at it in country-folk-Americana music, to give them a stage to support our own. That’s pretty exciting, too. So I think there’s a lot of excitement within their connection groups when they were students here at Baylor, which is pretty neat.”
Baylor Backyard Live will conclude its inaugural season with The Sloppy Joe Band’s classic rock ‘n’ roll on Nov. 21.
“Last game of the season is right before Thanksgiving, the Texas Tech game,” Cook said. “There’s going to be a lot of families in town. Sloppy Joe Band has been around for 30 years. So just strategy, trying to match the rhythm of the season.”
Overall, Cook said that working with Baylor Athletics to plan Baylor Backyard Live has been exciting.
“It’s just another great example of a partnership, and really how live music can bring fans together, but it also brings organizations to work together as well,” Cook said.
Rising country artist Braxton Keith is riding into Foster Pavilion on Oct. 2.
Following Hudson Westbrook’s concert in April, Steve Richo, a co-founder of Noise New Media, said Keith was an obvious choice.
“I think both he and Hudson have kind of found their stars this year, not only in Texas regional country music, but throughout the country,” Richo said. “And I think that that was just great timing to bring him in there to build upon the great young country music base we built with Hudson Westbrook.”
Mt. Joy
Baylor and Magnolia will team up to host Mt. Joy and Ax and the Hatchetmen at the Silobration kickoff concert at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 22 at Foster Pavilion.
Cook said Mt. Joy’s indie rock music stands apart from Foster Pavilion’s previous artists.
“We’ve done a lot of work so far with our entertainment program through the three C’s, which is a Christian country and comedy,” Cook said. “So this whole indie, adult, alternative genre is different for us.”
Deer Park junior Jolie Bridy said she enjoys Mt. Joy’s indie genre.
“They have a very easy-to-listen-to, good vibes kind of music,” Bridy said. “I’m always hopping around different genres and stuff, but every time they do come on, I am very pleased with the songs.”
Silobration will continue with three concerts Oct. 23-25 at the Silos.
“This year’s concert lineup offers something for everyone, from the nostalgic sound of The Fray on Friday night at the Silos, to Texas-born Americana artist Dylan Gossett on Saturday night, to a singer-songwriter style Sunday morning concert experience with Cory Asbury,” Dawn Hall, director of brand experience at Magnolia, said in an email. “Mt. Joy brings a different energy to the lineup with their upbeat, crowd-connecting sound, making them the perfect way to launch the weekend and get the celebration started.”
Looking forward
After a delay due to originally being scheduled the same night as the World Cup Final, La Fiera de Ojinaga and Los Pescadores del Río Conchos will bring their saxophone sounds to Foster Pavilion on April 11, 2027.
Additionally, Third Day’s 30th Anniversary Tour, featuring Zach Williams and Scout and the Saints, will stop at Foster on April 22, 2027.
Cook said his team was working to find a big Christian performer to follow up previous big names, including Forrest Frank and Lauren Daigle.
“Word was out that we were looking, and [Third Day’s] touring company reached out to us and said, ‘Look, ending the tour 30th anniversary, we would love to come at Baylor,’” Cook said.
He said Waco’s history with contemporary Christian music make it an important stop.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that Waco was really the birthplace of contemporary Christian music back in the late 70s and early 80s,” Cook said. “And one of the initial Christian labels, Word Music, was founded here in Waco. And so we want to make sure that we honor that legacy.”
Cook said Foster’s intimate venue, theater-like feel and great acoustics will make it a unique concert experience.
“I think that they’ll be able to come to Foster for Third Day and have just a top-notch concert experience that would rival what you would see in Dallas or Austin or Nashville, and with a full production component to that,” Cook said. “And then, top it off, just to be an incredible night of worship as well with one of the quintessential Christian bands of the last several decades, I mean, it’s going to be one of those events you don’t want to miss.”
As for future announcements, Cook said his team is in talks with another major Christian entertainer for the spring.
“To make sure that we’re not only feeding our university community, but also bringing in artists that could bring in the Waco community, the regional community,” Cook said. “And there’s just a lot of alignment with country and Christian right now. But then even Mt. Joy, they’re not a Christian group, but they’ve got a lot of positive Christian themes in their music as well. So Third Day is just part of our relationships.”
Cook also said his team has also been in discussions for about eight months with a major R&B group for Foster Pavilion.
“We’re just trying to get the tour to line up with our availabilities,” Cook said. “So to make sure that we can serve the African American community here as well. But looking to bring different types of experiences, to expose people to different artists, and then to make sure they have a good time related to that.”
Tickets are currently available at the Baylor ticket website for Old Dominion, Braxton Keith, Mt. Joy, La Fiera de Ojinaga and Los Pescadores del Río Concho and Third Day.
