Chris Malpass’s address may be in North Carolina, but part of his heart is in Georgia.
“We love Georgia. I’ve always said that if I could live anywhere else besides North Carolina, it would be Georgia,” said Malpass, who along with his brother, Taylor, make the country music duo The Malpass Brothers.
He said it’s the people and the terrain that make the state a place he loves to visit
Augusta Amusements will bring the brothers to the Hardin Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 for a night of traditional country music. For ticket information, go here.
The brothers draw their inspiration from the sounds of country music legends such as Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, the Louvin Brothers and Waylon Jennings.
Chris Malpass’s favorite country singer is Merle Haggard.
“He was a great songwriter, singer and musician. He was top notch,” Malpass said.
The duo sings songs of the country greats, but the brothers also write their own songs. And when Malpass writes, he thinks a lot about Haggard’s style and often wonders how “Merle might do it.”
It’s been a couple of years since they released some new music, but in 2026, they have two projects coming out. One will be a gospel recording, and the other will be a live recording.
While modern country music has a flair of its own, Malpass said he doesn’t have a problem with its sound.
“I don’t think about new country and old country, I just think about good music,” he said.
They’ve made 35 Grand Ole Opry appearances and played with a variety of performers who are great musicians and great people, but don’t all play traditional country music.
However, he does feel that country radio station don’t play enough of the traditional brand of country.
“I think we should all have equal time on the radio,” he said. “There’s a big audience of middle age and older that still love traditional country music that don’t get to hear it. And there’s a lot of very young people who don’t know if they don’t like it ‘cause they hadn’t got to hear it.”
At Saturday’s show, Malpass said people will get to hear plenty of traditional country songs, but it’s not just music, the audience will be sampling. The brothers throw stories in and mix it with comedy.
“We’re like the Smothers’ Brothers; he’s the dumb one,” Chris Malpass said of his brother, Taylor. “We do a lot of comedy. If somebody hollers out a request, we’ll try to include it too.”
Malpass said he finds that fans of traditional country music are more like family than friends, and they showed that after Hurricane Helene.
The duo sold T-shirts to raise money to help people rebuild, and he was blown away by the response.
“What was amazing to me – the country music fans how they bonded together. They bought the fool out of those T-shirts,” he said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
