Frantz, Cold Hearts take stage Thursday

Live classic country music is coming to Jay County.

The Cold Hearts, a band featuring Portland native Andy Frantz, will be performing Thursday at the Jay County Fair.

Their set list include covers from classics of the 1950s and ’60s, from artists like Hank Williams and Ray Price. Some of their featured songs for Thursday include Price’s “Crazy Arms,” Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and George Strait’s “The Fireman.”

“We are a honky-tonk band by definition –– we are rooted in classic country music,” lead singer and band manager Jarod Stillwell said. “The music is rural at its core.

“A lot of the purists of country music use the term ‘bring back the fiddle and the steel guitar,’” he continued, noting their performance includes a few key instruments –– an upright bass played by Billy Pemberton and a pedal steel guitar played by Cory Brown.

Some band members have come and gone through the years. Stillwell and Pemberton found Frantz on a website for musicians, and he started performing on guitar with them in 2018. Since then, they’ve played more than 120 gigs.

All five band members also balance full-time careers, with Frantz working as a software designer for Software Engineering Professionals.

“We do too much for guys that just do it as a hobby, but we love it,” Stillwell said.

The band has been playing classic country since 2015. One day, Stillwell walked by coworker Pemberton’s office –– they both worked at an Indianapolis restaurant sales equipment company –– and heard him listening to country singer Merle Haggard songs. They learned of a shared passion for country and soon after started their own group.

“We thought nobody would want to hear it,” Stillwell said of their music. “It’s not mainstream, (we thought) people want to hear Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, even Garth Brooks… we found out we were wrong, there’s definitely an audience for it.”

They’re currently in the process of writing new music. The Cold Hearts plan to play “Lonely Cowboys,” a song written by Frantz and Stillwell, and “Rings.” Frantz, who now lives in Westfield, noted they also have a few secrets up their sleeve for Thursday.

“There might be some surprises,” Frantz said.

The Cold Hearts played at the fair last year’s slimmed down in the Farmer’s Building. This year, they’re looking forward to performing on the big stage. Pemberton noted the grandstand at the fairgrounds is one of their biggest venues.