Country history back next weekend at CPAC

Katie Deal, the daughter of Gov. Nathan Deal, is back on the road touring with her signature voice and this time she’s stopping by the Cedartown Performing Arts Center as a duo.

She’ll be joined on stage by Jason Petty next weekend in a show that will bring alive the music of country legends who inspire the pair to recreate a Nashville sound from the past.

The night will include the music of Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline – which Deal is noted for her particular sound – along with Tammy Wynette, George Jones and many more.

Deal’s latest stop in Cedartown will differ from her previous show here, where she focused solely on Cline’s music and the stories from her life on how it impacted and inspired her stage career.

She didn’t start out life expecting to become a professional artist performing in the same style as the legendary country music artist, but opportunities after college gave her a chance to sing some of her favorite music.

Deal began her stage career as an understudy in the role of Patsy Cline in a Memphis theater, then eventually got to take on the

the leading role in national tours. That includes the hit Classic Nashville Roadshow, which she and Petty head up together.

The experience is meant to take people back in time, when with the description of the show puts it as “when June fell for Johnny and Loretta was just a coal miner’s daughter?”

With the journey down memory lane, Deal continues in her role as bringing country music’s past back to life, but more on the duet side of the Nashville sound instead. It’ll be her return trip to Cedartown’s stage after bringing her Cline-inspired

show to town in April 2017.

Petty is well versed in the country tradition all his own. He hails from Manchester, Tenn., just an hour away by car and spent his formative years on his grandparents’ farm in Hickman County following the tragic sudden passing of his mother at the age of 7.

Under his grandparent’s wings and in a church grounded in music with a membership of just 18, he learned the foundations of country and gospel that inspired his rise to where he is today. A member of his church inspired him to pursue a career in music by starting with an audition at Opryland, and got his chance to perform on the big stage at the Grand Ole Opry. He later read for a play about Hank Williams, and

took part in several shows at Opryland.

National tours then came calling, and he spent seven years on the road with a show called “Lost Highway” after executives hired him on the spot for the job.

Petty ended up writing his own show, which he continues today along with six others that promote the history of country music. He still calls Manchester home with his immediate family.

The show next Saturday is set to start at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are still on sale for the Saturday, Sept. 15 show and they start at $15.

Information can be found at facebook. com/cedartownshows, cedartownshows.com or by calling 770-748-4168.