Dalton Dover plays Steel Hands Brewing in Cayce on Nov. 20

The Georgia country singer behind 'Bury Me In This Bar' brings a Friday-night show to the Cayce brewery, with tickets starting at $7.

Steel Hands Brewing has taught the Midlands to think of Friday night as country night. The Cayce brewery's free summer series has spent years putting rising Nashville singers on its beer-garden stage. On the Friday before Thanksgiving week, it books one with a major-label record deal and a hometown song people in small Southern towns tend to take personally.

Dalton Dover plays Steel Hands Brewing on Friday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. Tickets run $7 to $45 through Eventbrite. The show was announced Oct. 26, and at that bottom price it is one of the cheapest ways to see a label-signed country act in the area this fall.

Dover records for UMG Nashville and Mercury Records, which released his single "Bury Me In This Bar," according to MCA Nashville. His catalog leans hard on where he comes from. "Here's The Deal" is his tribute to Aragon, Georgia, as the label put it, the kind of small-town portrait that plays well in a room full of people from towns just like it.

He has been building steadily. In 2023 he released *Never Giving Up On That*, an eight-song collection with two new tracks, per MCA. In February 2024 he followed with *Take Me Home: Covers*, led by his version of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," the label announced. That same year he set out on his first headlining club tour, the Never Giving Up On That Tour, which kicked off Feb. 9 in Birmingham and ran through the Southeast into spring, according to MCA. He has also been named a Pandora Artist to Watch, an Amazon Music Breakthrough Artist to Watch and a member of CMT's Listen Up class, all in 2023, per uDiscover Music.

What comes next is a fair question. In a local TV interview, Dover said he had a lot of new music "sitting in my back pocket" and was waiting for the right time to put it out, WDEF reported. A Friday in Cayce is the kind of night where a singer road-tests songs like that.

The room makes sense for him. Steel Hands, at 2350 Foreman St., has built its reputation with its Nashville Nights series, free Friday concerts that feature a country singer-songwriter or band on the outdoor beer-garden stage and move indoors when the weather turns, WACH reported. The Lexington Chronicle described the series as a way to bring future country stars to Lexington County. This is a ticketed show, not part of that free series, but it comes out of the same idea: catch them here before they are playing the big rooms.

For Columbia-area fans, it is a short hop across the river and a good excuse to start the holiday week early.

Grab a pint, find a spot near the stage, and wait for "Here's The Deal." If you grew up anywhere with one stoplight, you will know the words by the second chorus.

Sources: Eventbrite: Dalton Dover at Steel Hands Brewing (eventbrite.com); Dalton Dover delivers new single Bury Me In This Bar (MCA Nashville) (mca.com); Dalton Dover pays tribute to Aragon, Georgia with Here's The Deal (MCA Nashville) (mca.com); Dalton Dover releases Never Giving Up On That collection (MCA Nashville) (mca.com); Dalton Dover readies new collection Take Me Home: Covers (MCA Nashville) (mca.com); Dalton Dover plots headlining Never Giving Up On That Tour for 2024 (MCA Nashville) (mca.com); Dalton Dover (uDiscover Music) (udiscovermusic.com); Dalton Dover returns to North Georgia for Country Music Fest (WDEF) (wdef.com); Steel Hands Brewery releases lineup for Nashville Nights concert series (WACH) (wach.com); Nashville Nights concert series brings future country stars to Lexington (Lexington Chronicle) (lexingtonchronicle.com)