Top 10 NYCountry Swag Moments of 2019

We just celebrated our 4th Birthday! That’s right, four years we’ve been building a community of country music fans in New York City! Let’s take a look back at 2019 and the top 10 moments that our company cherished most. 

10. CRS (Country Radio Seminar) – Nashville, TN

For the second year in a row, Christina and Stephanie flew down to Nashville for the annual CRS or Country Radio Seminar,  an annual three-day convention where country music and the radio industry gather to exchange ideas, set trends, introduce brands, launch artists and make decisions that affect every aspect of the genre’s future. Covering the week as media, we took part in some incredible moments as the seminar celebrated its 50th year. We watched some of the genre’s biggest stars like Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks as well as some of our favorite rising artists at New Faces including Russell Dickerson and Jimmie Allen. It was an incredible 3 days of making musical memories. For the entire recap click here and for some of the best moments and the most exclusive shots, check out our highlight reel on Instagram here.

 

9. 53rd Annual CMA Awards – Nashville, TN

 

Just a few short weeks prior to the CMA Awards in Nashville, we decided that this would be the year we would fly down and experience the epic awards week for the first time. We flew down to cover all of the events surrounding the show including CMT Next Women of Country, the Broken Bow Records/BMG preparty, and after-party celebrating one of our Women of the Month, and songwriter of the year, Nicolle Galyon and of course, the awards show. For more on our incredible week check out our full recap here.

 

8. Taste of Country Festival – Hunter Mountain, New York

 

Another staple for our company each year is attending the Taste of Country Music Festival. This past year was our biggest yet, our merchandise booth featured the best country music gear and of course, our Hero Collection. We did a giveaway for Luke Bryan tickets and we hosted a ton of artist interviews. The weekend was a blast and we were particularly so excited to find out that both Adam Doleac and Tyler Rich rocked our gear during their sets.

Each day artists stopped by our booth to chat about their new music, playing a festival in New York and more. Check out our interviews with Walker Hayes, Adam Doleac, Runaway June, Brett Eldredge, Lindsay Ell, Ross Ellis, Tyler Rich, LANCO, Michael Ray, Ryan Hurd, Josh Turner, and Brandon Lay. For the entire recap of the festival click here.

We are so looking forward to the festival next year, be on the lookout for TrailBlazer 2020 announcements coming soon!

 

7. Exclusive Swag Sessions and Swag Spotlights

Since 2017, we have loved featuring rising artists two ways, with our weekly Swag Spotlight interviews and our exclusive performances and interviews during our Swag Sessions. In 2019, we continued to highlight a new rising artist each Monday including artists like Kylie Morgan, Hailey Whitters, Jon Langston, Niko Moon, and 48 others. We have found this is a great way to learn about artist’s pasts, where they grew up, why they chose to pursue music and it’s awesome to introduce new music to our followers.

In 2019 we hosted artists like Cody Johnson, LOCASH, Runaway June, Tyler Rich, HARDY, Gone West, Mitchell Tenpenny, and many more in our exclusive Swag Sessions. During our time with each artist we got to hear stories about how they wrote or recorded their biggest songs, we heard brand new, unreleased music and we got to experience some of their first times in the Big Apple.

We are looking forward to working with even more rising and established artists in 2020.

 

6. NYCountry Swag Events – King Calaway Showcase, ‘Babes, Booze, & Brunch’, Manhattan By Sail, Country Brunch

In 2019 we brought back exclusive special events, something that our company’s foundation is based on. Kicking things off early in the year, NYCountry Swag hosted an exclusive showcase at Bowery Electric for a brand new band that hadn’t released any music. King Calaway, a group of 6 men hailing from all over the world are for sure the next big thing in country music and we gave NYC fans a chance to hear them first. We packed the venue, our followers trusting us that this was a night they would want to be a part of and joining us for the special introduction of the band, before they even had any music out! For more about the night click here.

 

In March we hosted our 2nd Annual Babes, Booze & Brunch event where we celebrated International Women’s Day with mimosas, a photo booth, hair and nail stations, and great performances from Lauren Davidson and Stephanie Quayle. For more about that event click here.

We spent the summer on the water with Manhattan By Sail. Four times between August and October we hosted a Country Edition and sailed the open seas with artists like Rob Bellamy, Carter Winter, Baker Grissom, and Kalie Shorr. New Yorkers joined us aboard the Clipper City sailboat as we took in the views and danced along to great country music.

Finally, we brought our Country Music and Mimosas Brunch back, with one of our favorite rising artists, Teddy Robb. Guests joined us at The Boogie Room, located inside the Mondrian Park Avenue Hotel for drinks, a great set by Teddy Robb, and to dance along to DJ Mouse. The memorable afternoon showed us that there is a reason this was the first event we ever hosted and that we will definitely continue to host more events like this in the future.

 

5. Our Team of Writers, Brand Ambassadors, and Volunteers for Taste of Country Festival 2019

Being able to grow our team, even more, this past year has been a huge accomplishment for our company. We love including country fans in our community, giving an opportunity to learn more about the music business and what it takes to run a small company. We are so grateful for the passion, dedication and true love that our team expresses and we hope to work and help cultivate our team even more in 2020.

 

4. The Hero Collection – Giving Back

 

Each month we are proud to donate to a different cause, supporting our heroes that risk everything to keep us safe and those unsung heroes fighting battles like Leukemia. This year we introduced our Orange Line in support of Leukemia Awareness and during the month of September donated proceeds to Cohen Children’s Medical Hospital. For more about our Hero Collection and to shop click here. 

 

3. Russell Dickerson Shouts Out NYCountry Swag at Madison Square Garden

 

During his opening set for Thomas Rhett on the Very Hot Summer Tour back in September, Russell Dickerson, the very first artist that we ever worked with recalled playing for NYCountry Swag back in 2016. The remarkable validating moment for our company is above, being able to say we worked with such a superstar before he landed a record deal, before his debut album, and his three number one hits, is something we will always cherish.

 

2. NYCountry Swag Are Guests on Four Podcasts