Haley Mae Campbell said she is excited to be returning to Dalton’s Burr Performing Arts Park on Sunday, Sept. 3, to perform.
Campbell performed at the Dalton Civitan Club’s music festival in May.
“That was my first time coming down there,” said Campbell, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee. “It’s such a beautiful city, and Burr Park is such a great venue. It’s going to be a great show.”
Campbell will be one of the openers for country music artist Corey Smith. Smith, who headlined the 2022 Dalton Civitan Club music festival, is another familiar face in Dalton.
Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, Campbell started her musical career in musical theater.
“I started in elementary school,” she said. “One of my favorite shows that we did was am abbreviated version of the musical ‘Aladdin,’ which was super fun.”
She was also listening to “country adjacent” music such as folk, rockabilly and bluegrass.
“My parents were really into Alison Krauss and the Old 97s,” she said. “One thing that is unique to my perspective on country music is that I didn’t start listening to country music, mainstream country, until I was in high school. But I grew up on the surrounding genres. I really love fiddle and mandolin and country instrumentation.”
She said she describes her music as pop country.
“I love to combine pop with country, but if you hear it, it’s definitely country,” she said.
Campbell, who has more than 20 million streams on Spotify and whose 2021 single “Never Been in Love” debuted at No. 1 on both the All Genre and Country iTunes charts, has opened for acts such as Lauren Alaina, Luke Combs and Billy Currington.
“Live performing is the part of my career that I love the most,” she said.
Campbell said she has opened for Smith before and is looking forward to the opportunity to be on the same bill with him again.
“I opened for Corey Smith in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina,” she said. “It was 2016, maybe 2017, just before I moved to Nashville. He’s an amazing performer, so I’m looking to see his act now.”
The concert is the first of what is planned to be a series by Dalton-based Indie South Entertainment.
Lakemont, Georgia, native Jeb Gipson will open the concert at 6:30 p.m. Campbell will take the stage at 7:30 and Smith will perform at 8:30.
“This will be our first show,” said Heath Patterson, one of the co-founders of Indie South Entertainment. “We are trying to give a voice to independent artists.”
Patterson promoted the Dalton Civitan Club concert in 2022 that Smith headlined.
“It was a heck of a show,” Patterson said. “He got a really good reaction. He wanted to come back, and we had people asking us (the Civitan Club) to bring him back this year, but we couldn’t make the date work out.”
He said Campbell went over well at the Civitan concert earlier this year.
“It was raining that day,” he said. “But she was such a great performer. She went out there and really impressed everyone.”
Food from vendors as well as beer and wine will be available. Tickets are $30, and VIP tickets, which include a T-shirt, VIP seating and vouchers for food and drink, are $100. Children under 10 will be admitted free.
For more information and to purchase tickets, go to the Indie South Entertainment website, www.indiesouth.live.