Can a bakery owner-turned-artist help transform Atlanta into a country music hub?
Cody Bolden believes in the future of Atlanta’s country music scene so much that, last fall, he sold the successful bakery he owned for a decade to focus on building the community full time.
By March, he scoured the city for a venue that’d serve as a hub for his vision.
By June, his quest blossomed into Roadhand Roundup, a country showcase at 529 in East Atlanta Village. The short-term goal is to host performances by local country acts each month. The long-term goal? Becoming an incubator and community — in a city devoid of such resources — for country artists to last a lifetime. The showcase’s third iteration will be at 8 p.m. on Aug. 12.
“As cheesy as it sounds, I wanted to be the change I wanted to see,” Bolden said.
‘Coolest of the cool’
Bolden’s relationship with country music started early, listening to artists like Newnan legend Alan Jackson as a child. But his deeper appreciation for the genre emerged nearly a decade ago, when he saw live country music performed at Woodstock’s MadLife Stage & Studios, not too far from his home. Bolden was infatuated by the storytelling element of the genre.
He began playing the acoustic guitar in 2017 and established his band, Cody Bolden and the Roadhands, the following year. At the same time, the 36-year-old was helping to run Pie Bar, the bakery he and his wife Lauren opened in 2015 after she found success selling her pies at local farmers markets.
Chasing his country music dream while running the store became a challenge for Bolden, especially with the birth of the couple’s now 3-year-old and 1-year-old children.
Then, last year, Bolden’s dad died unexpectedly. The death prompted him to re-evaluate his goals.
The Boldens subsequently sold Pie Bar, which still has locations in Woodstock, Marietta and West Midtown, last fall. In January, Bolden began pursuing music full time.
“It just kind of kicked off the second round of that same feeling we had 10 years prior, which was, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do something, let’s do something different,’” said Bolden, who didn’t disclose the amount the store sold for but noted it was enough to “give music a full go.”
Not long into his new chapter, Bolden encountered a harsh reality: There wasn’t a stable or wide community for local country acts in the metro Atlanta area.
He noticed the large volume of country music gigs for local acts in major cities like Nashville and Houston, and he wanted to replicate the same infrastructure in Atlanta.
“We have a really rich community where we’re at in Woodstock, but in Atlanta, there wasn’t necessarily what I would call a home for country music,” said Bolden, who now lives in Canton.
So far in 2026, country music has become a big driver in music consumption (thanks to artists like Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen), per a recent Luminate midyear report. As of this writing, country songs occupy the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.
Although Nashville is widely considered the apex of today’s country dominance, Atlanta has a special place in its history, said Tracey Laird, a music professor at Decatur’s Agnes Scott College. Laird, whose research focuses on regional identity in music (especially in the country genre), said before Nashville became a country hub in the 1950s, Atlanta hosted the Georgia Old-Time Fiddlers Convention. Established in 1913, the annual event was a major breeding ground for country music pioneers (like Fannin County’s Fiddlin’ John Carson, widely known for ushering commercial country music) who’d regularly perform there.
“In some ways, thinking about 529 hosting this live music showcase, I can almost imagine it having some kind of parallel with those early conventions, and that’s just kind of (the) face-to-face, people getting together to make music, outside of media,” Laird said.
Before this year, an event like Roadhand Roundup never existed at 529, a longtime music venue best known for its mix of rap, rock and heavy metal. Bolden, who previously performed there, became entranced by East Atlanta Village’s diversity and figured it would be the right spot to try something new.
529 owner Syd Howell agreed.
“East Atlanta Village is not necessarily known for country or even (anything) less than punk rock or the coolest of the cool kind of stuff,” Howell said. “There’s room for Cody and this whole event because it is the coolest of the cool in country.”
A country community
Each Roadhand Roundup features three acts, the last of which is Bolden’s band (although he wants the event to grow to a point where “I don’t necessarily need to be the face of it,” he said). Artists on the bill are those Bolden previously performed with or heard of throughout his career.
“We wanted to kind of create that environment where people could come and tell their own story, so it’s not just a listening room,” Bolden said of the showcase, which encourages artists to perform original music. “Country music also has a rich history of grooving, so we want people there moving and dancing, and feeling the music.”
Lauren handles logistics for the show, including everything from communicating with performers beforehand to greeting attendees at the door. Outside of a sponsorship with Georgia-based Fontis Water, the Boldens handle most of the production of each month’s show.
All proceeds from the $10 tickets sold at the door (online tickets are $15) are split among the bands.
For Lauren, who has no musical background, supporting her husband was an obvious choice since he did the same for her when she started Pie Bar. More importantly, Lauren said Cody’s foray into country was the first time she saw him really passionate about something (the couple met as teenagers and wed in 2013).
“It makes me want to tear up because it is genuine to see somebody really dive into something that they are so joyful about and are so driven by,” Lauren said about Cody, who rehearses every day. “It’s genuinely a huge privilege to get to see someone care so deeply about something.”
At the July Roadhand Roundup, Lauren’s bubbly personality permeated the small, dimly lit 529 as she served as the show’s emcee. As the night began, the 300-capacity room mainly featured an older crowd of a dozen people. Twenty more, mostly younger, attendees trickled in throughout the night. Some raucously danced in front of the room. A couple swayed along to the music.
“Every person (there) I was trying to talk to and ask them, not in an uncomfortable way, but how did you hear about this?” Lauren said. “Because it’s so important that if you want to create a community-driven event, you have to have the community show up.”
Carter Lloyd Horne of Marietta opened the July show with an acoustic set. In 2019, the 27-year-old was a semifinalist on Season 16 of “The Voice.”
Following his run on the series, Horne recalls people advising him to “play more than just country” upon returning home. Today, Horne has found luck securing a few shows in the metro area (“‘The Voice’ definitely helped a lot,” he said), but a challenge is finding venues that’ll book local country acts playing original music instead of covers of classics.
“It’s really difficult to just send an email to the place and try and book a show unless you were already on a bill up there and they liked you,” said Horne, who works in upholstery when he’s not performing. “It’s tough just doing the cold call, and you get a lot of no’s that way.”
He thinks a consistent showcase for local artists like Roadhand Roundup will help alleviate those woes: “This is a country event for original country music. There’s nothing else like that around here.” (The inaugural Braves Country Fest, which debuted at Truist Park in June, featured several acts at a pre-show before a main concert headlined by Cody Johnson and Ella Langley).
Bolden has booked Roadhand Roundup acts through December and aims to continue hosting it next year. At the July show, acts and attendees noted the fledgling event’s cultural weight — and potential.
“I have a full new appreciation for country now,” said Acworth resident and former Pie Bar employee Vivian Gamel, amazed at the variety of styles played throughout the night — from country to Americana to blues.
Later in the show, a performer made an overt expression of his own appreciation for the event.
“Atlanta is a southern city, and we don’t have a lot of country music, but this is a damn good start,” yelled Newnan artist Tavis Lance Mapp at the top of his set.
IF YOU GO
Roadhand Roundup
8 p.m. Wednesday. $10-15. 529. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. SE, Atlanta. 404-228-6769. 529atlanta.com.