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Miss Americanas bring Swift sounds to Eastwood Field

Swifties will be seeing triple on Friday at Eastwood Field.

Miss Americanas uses a trio of singers to perform the different eras of Taylor Swift’s music, and the group will perform Friday at the home of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

The show was created by Castle on a Cloud Entertainment, which regularly partners with the Draft League franchise on Princess and Superhero nights at the ballpark.

“We really wanted to find our own unique spin in honoring her and her music and the community she’s created and what makes her show so special, but without directly impersonating her,” said Makayla McIntosh, founder and co-owner of Castle on a Cloud.

“We decided that three Taylors made a lot more sense to cover the eras and make it feel more like a communal show than one person trying to replicate her.”

Swift has been selling out stadiums worldwide on her “Eras” tour, which chronicles her evolution from teen country singer to multi-genre superstar.

For the Eastwood Field show, McIntosh will be joined by Lauren Jones and Angela Cole, but the Miss Americanas don’t mimic the “Eras” setlist.

“I know some tours are kind of replicating that, following the order of the eras, kind of like she does in her show, going from start to finish,” McIntosh said. “We really wanted to mix it up, just for one the surprise of it, that moment when everyone’s waiting to see what the next song is, and they have no idea, and then they hear those first few notes of the next song, and they just go crazy. We realized that we love that format, because nobody knows what to expect.

“We’ve created some of our own mashups as a result too. Like, we have our own medleys and some that are ones that she’s done on past tours.”

They also draw from ideas posted by Swifties on social media about cool mashups they’d like to hear.

“We can do that, because we have the power to change that and maybe reflect some of the things that fans want to see,” she said.

Having three singers also allows them to recreate the multi-tracked vocals Swift uses in the recording studio. Cole has a country music background and handles many of Swift’s earlier hits. Jones focuses on Swift’s initial pop / rock crossover phase while McIntosh is most comfortable with the more recent indie pop sounds, but the Misses often blur those lines.

“We’ve got a couple surprises of where things are going to overlap in some fun ways that we just couldn’t do if we only had one person,” McIntosh said. “We can only do it because there’s three of us.”

They will be backed by a four-piece band led by music director and guitarist Rob Walters along with bass player Sean Williams, keyboard player Jeremiah Polite and drummer Kenny Orf. Opening the show will be the Riley Burke Band.

“He (Walters) really helps us bring the visions of the mash ups to life,” McIntosh said. “There’s some songs that we take some liberties with to kind of make them our own, that he’s done an awesome job with that.”

With tickets to see the real Taylor Swift difficult to get, even for those who can afford the four-figure price tag they fetch on the secondary market, McIntosh said she believes a show like Miss Americanas does fill a niche in the marketplace.

“It’s just so uplifting. Watching everyone make new friends and the friendship bracelets and exchanging them that is a part of it, I think it’s why we decided to do more than one show. We didn’t know if we were going to keep doing it, but after the first show and experiencing that, we were like, ‘We have to keep doing this.’ There’s just no other place that people feel like they get to be a part of something in that way.”

If you go …

WHAT: Miss Americanas (Taylor Swift tribute) and the Riley Burke Band

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday

WHERE :Eastwood Field, 111 Eastwood Mall Complex, Niles

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $15 to $29 and are available online at www.mvscrappers.com and by calling 330-505-0000.

Have an interesting story? Contact Andy Gray by email at agray@tribtoday.com. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @TribToday.

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