Island Hopper Songwriter Fest kicks off its sixth year with an impressive lineup of talented singer-songwriters.
Headliners include country music hit singer-songwriters Rodney Atkins and Jerrod Niemann; Gone West, a new rock-country quartet featuring Colbie Caillat, in a show with special guest Ryan Hurd.
Atkins and Niemann will perform on the final night of the festival, Sept. 29, at Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Fort Myers Beach.
His fifth studio album, Caught Up in the Country, shows off what Atkins calls the most daring collection of his career. This follows six No. 1 singles, eight top five singles and more than 13 million units sold. Country Aircheck calls his 2006 single, “Watching You,” the No. 1 song of the decade.
After almost a decade as a major-label artist, prolific Nashville hitmaker Jerrod Niemann has put his heart on his sleeve like never before with the patriotic anthem, “Old Glory.” Describing the resolute ballad as “100 percent heart, zero percent politics,” the singer-songwriter wrote the track in honor of U.S. soldiers following the 2017 Tongo Tongo ambush in Niger.
Known for clever wordplay and attention-grabbing lyrics, Niemann topped country charts with his platinum-certified anthem “Drink to That All Night.” Niemann first burst onto the scene in 2010 with his #1 major-label debut, Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury, which skyrocketed on the strength of his platinum-certified #1 smash “Lover, Lover” and gold-certified Top 5 “What Do You Want.”
Gone West and Ryan Hurd will perform at Pinchers at The Marina at Edison Ford in downtown Fort Myers on Sept. 25. Caillat, a two-time Grammy Award winner, has sold more than six million albums worldwide and more than 10 million singles. Hurd has written songs for Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw and others. He has also penned songs for his wife, Maren Morris, who headlined Island Hopper in 2016.
Nashville-based Gone West consists of two couples, Caillat and her fiancé and singer-songwriter Justin Young, and married songwriters, multi-platinum, singer-songwriter Jason Reeves and ACM and CMT nominated Nelly Joy.
While most of the fest performances are free, ticketed shows are available on the Island Hopper app.
