By BRANDON LaCHANCE

Staff writer

SUBLETTE – Drew Parker and Shane Profitt have been busy.

Parker has four songs in rotation on country radio and he's written Top 5 chart songs for Luke Combs and Jake Owen.

Profitt is on the radio also as his song “How it Oughta Be” is currently on the charts. On Friday, Sept. 1 he was on stage in Atlanta, Ga., opening for Coe Wetzel.

However, both country music stars, Parker and Profitt, inked the event, Hops and Harmony, on their schedules for Saturday, Sept. 2 in Sublette.

“This has been a lot of fun. I'm coming off a flight from Atlanta where I sang in front of 8,000-10,000 people,” said Profitt, who is 23 and was born and raised in Columbia, Tenn. “I grew up in a small town about the same size as Sublette so performing in a town like this brings me back home.

“Music brings everyone together. There doesn't have to be 10,000 people for someone to sing and for people to come together and have a good time. It's crazy, 16 months ago I was sitting in Columbia, Tenn. Now I'm No. 14 on the charts with my song.”

Hops and Harmony was hosted by Sublette 365 on the grounds of the Ellice Dinges Center.

The event opened at 6 p.m. with a two-hour beer tasting featuring beverages from numerous breweries.

A duo from Byron, Mike and Adam, played tunes for the tasters as approximately 700 people were in attendance.

“We had 400 pre-sold tickets. We're excited about the sales and we expected somewhere between 500-800 people to be here,” said Nick Dinges, president of Sublette 365. “This was an exciting event. We decided to have it 21 and over this year because of the beer tasting.

“We had Shane Profitt who is on country radio today. Drew Parker is the headliner and it was announced last week that he is going on tour with Luke Combs in 2024. It was awesome to see these guys here in Sublette.”

Dinges was excited about the turnout, the support given to the vendors, breweries and food trucks, and the overall positive, fun environment that was Hops and Harmony.

“What's exciting about events like this is that our town is only 450 people, but if we can create and provide opportunity for a lot of people to not have to travel into Chicago, Milwaukee, or the Quad Cities and bring that talent to us, it gives us a little more diversity and exposes us to the arts,” Dinges said. “That's pretty cool.”