Artists That Begin With C

Johnny Cash

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:56:00 GMT

Born Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Ark., Johnny Cash was born John R. Cash, one of seven children belonging to Ray and Carrie Rivers Cash. When John was 3 years old, his father took advantage of a new Roosevelt farm program and moved his young family to Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas. There the Cash family farmed 20 acres of cotton and other seasonal crops, and young John worked alongside his parents and siblings in the fields.

Music was an integral part of everyday life in the Cash household. John soaked up a variety of musical influences ranging from his mother's folk songs and hymns to the work songs from the fields and nearby railroad yards. He absorbed these sounds like sponge absorbs water. In later years Cash would draw from his life in Arkansas for inspiration: "Pickin' Time," "Five Feet High and
Rising" and "Look at Them Beans" are all reflections on Cash's early life.

Cash remained in Dyess Colony until his graduation from high school in 1950. As a young manhe set off for Detroit in search of work. He ended up in Pontiac, Mich., and took work in an automotive plant. His tenure in the North Country was short-lived and Cash soon enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. After basic training in Texas (where he met first wife Vivian Liberto), he was
shipped to Landsberg, Germany. While in the service Cash organized his first band, the Landsberg Barbarians.

After his discharge in 1954, Cash returned stateside and married Liberto. He and his new bride soon settled in Memphis where Cash worked a variety of jobs -- including that of appliance salesman -- while trying to break into the music business.

In 1954, Cash auditioned as solo artist for Sam Phillips' Sun Records. He entertained hopes of recording gospel music for the label, but Phillips immediately nixed that idea. By the following spring, though, Cash was in the Sun Studios to record with his band The Tennessee Three. The original group consisted of guitarist Luther Perkins, bass player Marshall Grant and Red Kernodle on pedal steel. Kernodle bailed out of the session and Cash's first release for the label, "Hey Porter" had a sparse, but highly effective instrumental accompaniment. Though an impressive single, the song failed to chart.

Cash's follow-up release for Sun, however, fared substantially better. "Cry, Cry, Cry" managed to crack Billboard's Top 20, peaking at No. 14. A long succession of chart singles followed. "So Doggone Lonesome" and "Folsom Prison Blues" both broke into the trade publication's Top 10. But Cash's fourth chart single proved to be his career song. "I Walk the Line" shot to Billboard's No. 1 position and remained on the record charts for an incredible 43 weeks, ultimately selling over 2 million copies.

In 1956, he realized a longtime dream when he was invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. By 1957 Cash had racked up an impressive string of hits and was working more than 200 dates a year. The following year he switched to Columbia Records in search of more artistic freedom. He still had aspirations of making gospel records and felt he had a better chance of accomplishing
this goal at another label.

Throughout the remainder of the 1950s and into the 1960s, Cash continued to produce remarkable records and charted consistently. "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," "I Got Stripes," "Ring of Fire," "Understand Your Man" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" all hit the upper registers of the record charts. Appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and other top-rated network programs followed. In the early 1960s, concept albums such as Bitter Tears and Ballads of the True West made him a favorite among the folk music crowd, culminating in an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival.

But all was not well. Cash was spinning out of control. His marriage was collapsing and divorce seemed inevitable. Too, his grueling tour schedule (which was now up to 300 shows a year) had taken its toll. Cash became dependent on narcotics to keep up the hectic pace. By the mid-1960s, Cash was a deeply addicted and it began to impact his career.

By 1967, though, Cash managed to overcome his addiction with the help of his singing partner June Carter and her family. In 1968, he and Carter were married and his career experienced a renaissance. Throughout the remainder of the decade and into the 1970s, Cash was at the top of his game. A pair of live recordings made at Folsom Prison and San Quentin both went gold and a
passel of awards followed including the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist awards in 1969.

The final payoff though, was a network television spot. Premiering in 1969, The Johnny Cash Show aired on ABC. Taped at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the show featured an eclectic mix of guests ranging from Bob Dylan and Neil Young to Louis Armstrong and Merle Haggard. Through his selection of guests, Cash helped bridge the generation gap and break down musical
barriers. He also used the show as a forum to discuss and raise the country's collective consciousness about social issues of the day such as the plight of the Native Americans, prison reform and the conflict in Vietnam. The show ceased production in 1971, but Cash continued to host numerous specials for several years.

In 1980, at the age of 48, Johnny Cash became the youngest living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bestowed its honor on him in 1995, thus making him one of a handful of country artists in both organizations.

In 1985, Cash joined friends Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson to form The Highwaymen. The supergroup released three albums between 1985 and 1995, scoring a No. 1 hit with the single "Highwayman" from their first album, The Highwaymen. Although battling serious health problems in the late 1990s, Cash entered a professional renaissance after signing
with rap producer Rick Rubin's American record label. American Recordings, released in 1994, won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. The follow-up, 1996's Unchained, earned the Grammy for best country album in 1997. His 2000 release American III: Solitary Man, included a cover of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man," which won Cash a Grammy for best male country vocal performance in 2001.

In 2002, Cash released American IV: The Man Comes Around which included the Nine Inch Nails single "Hurt." Cash earned three CMA awards in 2003, and the acclaimed video for "Hurt" won an MTV award and a Grammy.

After losing his wife June Carter Cash unexpectedly in May 2003, Johnny Cash passed away Sept. 12, 2003 at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. from complications from diabetes. In 2005, a film version of his early romance with Carter, titled Walk the Line, was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture. A single-disc compilation titled The Legend of Johnny Cash was also released in 2005 and went on to sell more than two million copies. The following year, Lost Highway released another of his American recordings, American V: A Hundred Highways, featuring his some of his last sessions with Rubin.

Johnny Cash and June Carter had seven children between them; Carlene Carter, Rosanne Cash, Rosey Carter, Kathleen Cash, Cindy Cash, Tara Cash and John Carter Cash.

Cash remains one of the only artists to sell over 90 million records.

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Easton Corbin

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:09:00 GMT

Easton Corbin knew he wanted to be a country singer well before he learned how to play guitar.

“One of my earliest memories is from when I was three or four,” he remembers. “I was sitting between my parents in the car and a song came on the radio—it was Mel McDaniel’s ‘Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On’. I began using the gearshift as my microphone. The desire has always been there.”

Born and raised in rural Gilchrist County, Fla., Easton spent much of his time on his grandparent’s cattle farm after his parents divorced when he was young. “I lived a mile from the Suwannee River,” he says. “I grew up fishing on it and I loved to work on the farm. Every weekend, that’s where I’d be.”

A member of FFA and 4-H, Easton showed cattle at the local livestock fair. Growing up the smallest county in the state on farmland nestled between two small towns had its advantages. “It’s a close community,” he says. “Everybody knows everybody.

“There’s no Walmart there,” he says. “There was a Hardee’s, but it closed. That was the only franchise fast food place in the county. Trenton has a red light; Bell has a blinking light. It’s a great place.”

While no one in his family played a musical instrument, music was a big part of his upbringing. “My grandparents liked to watch the Opry,” Easton remembers. “We’d start Saturday night off with ‘Hee Haw’ and then ‘Opry Backstage’ and then ‘Opry Live’.”

It was also at his grandparent’s house that he discovered a record player and his father and aunts’ left-behind records in a front room. “I’d go in there and play those records for hours,” he says.

When Easton was 15 years old he began taking guitar lessons from Pee Wee Melton, a local musician who had at one time played on sessions in Nashville. “He was a great mentor,” Easton says. “He was a great player and a great teacher. He was a really big influence on me.”

Every day when he got home from school, Easton would practice guitar for hours, sometimes until his fingers were raw, then help his grandfather around the farm.

Encouraged by Melton, Easton began playing lead guitar in a local band. “I’d always wanted to play and sing, but up until that time I never really did do it in public,” he says. “We’d play school functions and parties. We were too young to play bars, but we played everything else.”

An impromptu audition at a local music store led to a slot on the Suwannee River Jam, a nearby festival that attracts thousands of people and national touring acts. “It was just me and a guitar in front of a 40-acre field full of people,” Easton remembers. “It was great.”

Soon he was opening for other national acts when they played the area, including Janie Fricke and Mel McDaniel, the man whose song Easton had performed in the car years earlier.

After earning a business degree through the College of Agriculture at the University of Florida, Easton took two important steps. “My wife, Brinn, and I got married on September 2, 2006, and on October 14 we moved to Nashville,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to move up here. There was never any question about it. I didn’t want to wake up one day and wish I would have tried it, but I had to get my education first so I had something to fall back on.”

Easton, who had been making regular trips to Nashville to perform at writer’s nights, took a day job at a local Ace Hardware and his wife found a job at a doctor’s office.

When a distant cousin, also a professor of music management at the University of Montana, heard Easton’s music, he asked if he could send it to some of his Nashville contacts. Among those who were impressed by Easton’s music was booking agent James Yelich, who asked if he could hear him play in person. Easton, eager for a shot to pursue his dream, quickly agreed.

Also at the meeting was Joe Fisher, who had recently joined Universal Music Group Nashville as Senior Director of A&R. The two men were blown away and Fisher quickly signed him to the label.

Easton, whose musical influences include George Jones, Merle Haggard, George Strait and Keith Whitley, found a kindred spirit in producer Carson Chamberlain, who years earlier had toured with Whitley as his steel guitar player and bandleader. “We really hit it off,” Easton says. “I love traditional music and he does too. I knew he was the producer for me.”

The two men began working in earnest. “We worked our butts off trying to find the right songs,” Easton says. The result is an over-the-top album that includes cuts from Nashville’s top songwriters, including Mark D. Sanders, Wynn Varble, Tony Lane and David Lee, among others.

First single, “A Little More Country Than That,” which was written by Rory Feek, Don Poythress and Varble, paints a picture of rural life that speaks to Easton’s small town sensibilities. “Even though I didn’t write it, this song identifies who I am,” he says. “It shows character and that’s important where I’m from. You learn to say ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, sir,’ and to open the door for the ladies.”

Among the songs included on the album are three Easton co-wrote with Chamberlain and Sanders during a trip to Colorado. “When I came to Nashville I realized how important it was to write songs,” Easton says. “The opportunity to sit in a room with experienced songwriters and learn their craft has helped me become a better writer.

“I’m still working and developing as a writer, but I was fortunate enough to get some songs on the album,” Easton says, perhaps more humble than he needs to be.

“The Way Love Looks,” which Easton co-wrote with Chamberlain and Sanders, is a love song pure and simple. “It’s just a fun upbeat song,” Easton says. “I love the line ‘when you beg and plead to go fishing with me and I have to bait your hook,’ because that’s what happens when I take my wife fishing.”

Tony Lane, David Lee and Johnny Park wrote “Roll With It,” which speaks to the important things in life like sunsets and pick-up trucks. “I love that one,” Easton says. “I can imagine listening to it just floatin’ down the river on the boat on a Saturday.”

The tender “I Can’t Love You Back,” written by Chamberlain, Clint Daniels and Jeff Hyde, has a universal message of loss. “It can mean different things for different people,” Easton says. “She could have died, she could have left him—people can interpret it the way they feel.”

Now that his life long dream is upon him, Easton says he’s ready. “I just want to make great country music,” he says. “Just the opportunity to play music for a living is a great thing. I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to do what I’m doing now.”

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Craig Campbell

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:33:00 GMT

The voice is straight-forward and powerful. The songs are down-to-earth portraits of real people from the American heartland. The sound is traditional, unapologetic country.

Craig Campbell is a proud reminder of one of country’s strongest creative periods, building on the early-‘90s legacy established by some of the genre’s most successful figures: Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black and Travis Tritt.

The Georgia-bred Campbell was introduced with a five-song EP that landed in the Top 20 on iTunes. His self-titled debut album expands on the central themes of his life—family, friends, purpose and self-determination—with a bundle of self-written songs, all delivered with the force and conviction of someone who’s lived every sentiment in every word.

“I have to believe every one of my songs,” Campbell says matter-of-factly.

It’s a simple premise learned through years of touring at the club level, writing songs in Nashville and playing the bars on Lower Broadway in Music City. Campbell honed his craft in bands backing Luke Bryan and Tracy Byrd, on stages where he covered Alabama and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and at an annual hometown talent contest where he won twice and eventually became the leader of the house band for other contestants.

Campbell’s abilities stood out, as Nashville decision-makers discovered. In fact, he became the subject of a moderate competition. He received an offer from one of Nashville’s major labels, but he was more intrigued by interest from songwriter-producer Keith Stegall—known for his work with Alan Jackson and Zac Brown Band. Introduced to Stegall through radio promotion executive Michael Powers, Campbell turned down the other offer to wait while Stegall and several other industry veterans developed Bigger Picture Group, an innovative artist-development company.

Once Bigger Picture was in place, Campbell headed into the studio to work on his first project, founded on his big, commanding voice and centrist-country songwriting. “When I Get It” puts a defiant spin on a tough economy, “I Bought It” revolves around sweet revenge and “My Little Cowboy” incorporates a multi-generational storyline and a Haggard-esque instrumental hook into a Southern-rock framework. “Fish” puts a bawdy spin on romance, but—in sensitive-daddy fashion, does so in a manner that’s safe for the kids to hear.

“Family Man,” set up by a sonic comma in its first reference—“It’s family, man”—brought Campbell quickly onto the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Still, the singer and his associates plan to go way past one single or album.

“The one word Keith has used a lot with me is iconic,” Campbell notes. “He says, ‘We don’t want to do a one-song project, we’re gonna shoot for 20 years.’”

Campbell’s assault on a two-decade career was in development for years before he made the conscious decision to pursue it. He was born and raised in Lyons, Ga., a town of about 4,000 people half-way between Macon and Savannah, a geographical hot spot that’s produced such peers as Jason Aldean, Billy Currington and Lady Antebellum.

Campbell grew up one of five children in a blended family. His parents divorced when he was extremely young, leaving his oldest sister—11 years his elder—to tend to the siblings while his mom worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table. He saw his biological father every other weekend until his dad died, when Craig was 11 years old, leaving little impact on his son’s memory.

“The older I get,” Campbell says, “the more I realize didn’t know him.”

The man Campbell called dad married his mom when Craig was six. He provided structure, a sense of right and wrong, and a daily model of what an adult man could be.

“In all honesty,” Craig says, “my life began when my mama married my stepdad.”

The family studiously attended the Baptist church—twice on Sundays and again on Wednesday nights—which became an important training ground for Craig’s musical education. He played piano for the congregation from age 10 until he turned 18, and Campbell learned harmony from listening to his mom sing from the hymn book.

“I’d stand beside her and try to mimic what she was doing,” he recalls. “In a Baptist church, you have to learn how to sing harmony because the song was not always in your key, so you gotta find somewhere to go with it.”

The house was filled with the sound of gospel groups—the Cathedrals, the Inspirations, the Kingsmen, the McKameys—and the from-the-gut approach of those acts resonates in Campbell’s delivery today.

But he gravitated even more to country music, magnetized by the quality of performers during one of the genre’s golden radio eras. He’s drawn comparisons to Alan Jackson—understandable since they’re both Georgian singers with a similar range and accent. But it was Travis Tritt, embodied with a fierce vocal style similarly informed by gospel singers, who most influenced Campbell.

He put that influence to work at age 15 when his sister Lynn, nine years his senior, pushed him to enter the Jimmy Dean/True Value Country Showdown. She served as an unpaid manager and A&R person, enrolling him in the competition, helping him decide on his stagewear and picking out two then-current songs that would show off his skills well: Tritt’s “Foolish Pride” and John Michael Montgomery’s “Be My Baby Tonight.” Campbell finished first among the 22 contestants at Kerrigan’s bar, got his picture in the local paper—The Vidalia Advance—and was instantly hooked on performing.

“I wanted to be on stage for sure,” Campbell recalls. “The crowd response is what drove it. Nothin’ better than to hear somebody applaud.”

It gave him a vocational direction, though his sense of purpose was tested just months later when Lynn died from injuries in a car accident.

“It was rough,” he reflects. “We were pretty good buddies, you know, and she had a 6-year-old little girl, too, which was the worst part about it. I don’t think I cried up until we told her daughter her mommy wasn’t comin’ home.”

It took months for Craig to regain his footing emotionally—with the encouragement Lynn had planted in his psyche, he used music as a grounding mechanism. And he continued to enroll in the Showdown. He won one more year, and—after a two-year stint as a corrections officer in the Georgia State prison system—he put together Out Of The Blue, the house band at Kerrigan’s.

With assistance from the club owner, he made some connections with a couple of booking agents and the band started touring small venues five and six nights a week with the travel extending as far as Wyoming and Elko, Nevada. The band once drove itself the entire 1,800-mile trip from Florida to North Dakota, stopping only to change drivers or fill the tank. It was a grueling schedule, but it also gave Campbell first-hand knowledge of how to fill out a setlist and win over an audience.

“You can go anywhere and play Lynyrd Skynyrd, you can go anywhere and play Hank Williams Jr.,” he shrugs. “There’s certain songs—‘Friends In Low Places,’ ‘Dixieland Delight,’ ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ ‘Margaritaville,’ ‘Brown Eyed Girl’—it don’t matter where you are. You’ll get a response.”

In 2002, one of his friends called from Nashville. The friend was getting divorced and wanted to know if Campbell would move up and share an apartment.

“Shoot, yeah,” Craig responded. “If you can get me a job, I’m there.”

In short order, Campbell had an interview for a maintenance position at the Belle Valley Apartments in the Bellevue neighborhood. Within a week, he’d moved all his belongings to Tennessee, where he was within reaching distance of a music career.

Campbell wasted no time. He ingrained himself in the club scene and picked up a gig when he met another musician at Douglas Corner, the same venue where Trisha Yearwood had once secured her first recording deal. When Campbell told the musician that he played piano, he got an offer to fill in on a Saturday night at The Stage, one of the largest clubs on historic Lower Broadway. Not only did Campbell accept the job, he aced it.

“Halfway through the gig, he asked me do I want the gig fulltime?” Campbell remembers. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’ So I started working five and six nights a week then. On top of my job. I was bankin’!”

He quickly became ingrained in the Nashville music community, meeting fellow Georgian Luke Bryan. Bryan, in turn, introduced Campbell to songwriter Jon Mabe (“The Climb”), who brought Craig in to sing on a demo session for his wife, songwriter Connie Harrington (“Girls Lie Too”). That led to a ton of work as Campbell became one of the in-demand singers on Nashville’s underground demo circuit.

Bryan, who hadn’t yet signed with Capitol Records, also advised Campbell to write his own songs. If he could sing and write, he’d be more valuable. And he’d have an identity of his own.

“At first it was a job,” Campbell admits. “I wasn’t used to it, but then I started writing songs that I thought were kind of cool and I’d play ‘em live and people would applaud, and then it started getting to where people were requestin’ ‘em. It takes on a completely different meaning whenever you can stand up and say, ‘Here’s a song I wrote.’ As opposed to, ‘Here’s a song I like.’”

In the middle of it all, Campbell started seeing a singer, Mindy Ellis, he’d known even before he moved to Nashville. There’d always been chemistry between them, but she was already seeing someone else. Months after she broke off a relationship, he got a call from Mindy while waiting at the Country Music Hall of Fame to audition for Nashville Star. She wanted to hang out; he couldn’t leave.

“She said, ‘Well, I have a van that has a TV and a VCR. I’ll just come to you and we’ll watch a movie.’ So she came down and we plugged in Face/Off, with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and we watched it. We’ve been together ever since.”

He started playing piano in her band, and that led to another valuable gig: One of her friends got him a job for 15 months touring with Tracy Byrd’s band, giving Campbell his first opportunity to play mid-sized venues.

During his tenure with Byrd, Campbell married Mindy and started a family, which now includes two daughters, Preslee and Kinni.

He eventually scored a weekly performance slot at The Stage, where his band consisted of musicians who also played with Big & Rich, Chris Young, Mark Chesnutt and Joe Diffie. One of the bartenders, Kim Trosdahl, talked Campbell up to her significant other, Bigger Picture Group’s Michael Powers, who was won over by the singer’s obvious skills.

Powers brought Keith Stegall down to the club in August 2008, and from there, it was simply a waiting game before Bigger Picture had everything in place to get Campbell recorded and bring him to a wider audience.

The company introduced him with the 2010 single “Family Man,” a song that incorporates the centerpiece of his life, the source of his emotional strength and the reason he wakes up in the morning.

Now his debut album blends Campbell’s masculine, no-nonsense vocal style with solid, salt-of-the-earth songs about America’s working class and a classic sense of wordplay. It’s a timeless sound, one that links him directly to Travis Tritt and Alan Jackson, who likewise built their style on such predecessors as George Jones and Hank Williams Jr.

“It’s traditional, back-to-basics, true country music,” Campbell says. “It’s what I am. I can’t be anything else.”

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Jason Michael Carroll

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:55:00 GMT

The accomplishments are impressive enough for any new artist – a chart-topping debut album nearing a half-million in sales, three hit singles from that album (all of which he wrote or co-wrote), a Gold ringtone certification, and opening spots on some of country’s hottest tours. The key to Jason Michael Carroll’s success is evident in every note he sings – live or in the studio – and it lies in his authenticity. Whether it’s the empathy brought to bear on the tragedy of “Alyssa Lies,” the pure passion of “Livin’ Our Love Song” or the youthful exuberance of “I Can Sleep When I’m Dead,” Carroll knows how to connect with fans, and together with hard work, undeniable talent, and good looks, that connection has launched one of country’s most impressive young careers.

It’s a career whose music aptly depicts Carroll as country’s Gen-Y family man, reflecting his generation’s transition from party to parenthood, and able to fully express the joys inherent in both worlds and the tensions that can come in moving from unencumbered freedom to the responsibilities of home and hearth. As a husband and father of four, Carroll sings eloquently about both sides of the equation in songs that recognize the firm foundation that country roots and a sense of community provide in a fast-moving world.

Now, with the April 2009 release of his sophomore album, Growing Up Is Getting Old (Arista Nashville), he fulfills the promise of his first record and takes his career a big step forward. The first single, “Where I’m From,” could have come from the pages of his life, and yet paradoxically enough, given his strengths as a songwriter, it’s one he didn’t write.

“People ask me, ‘Do you only record songs you wrote?’ My answer is always, ‘No, if I believe in a song I didn’t write more than a song I did, I’d record it first,’” Carroll says, “and here I kind of had the chance to put my money where my mouth is.” The tale of two men from seemingly opposite worlds who meet by chance explores the similarities that lie beneath most of our differences.

“No matter where life carries you, and it carries us in all different directions, if you boil it down to the nuts and bolts of it, most of us are really the same,” he says. The song is filled with points that hit home, from the seat he occupied in his father’s church and the fact that his son bears part of his grandfather’s name to the affect cancer has had on those close to him. Its authenticity is ideal to an album that finds Carroll digging deeper creatively and solidifying his place in country music.
“You have a responsibility to your fans,” he says, “not only to record songs that are hits but also to record songs that mean something to you and convey to your fans who you are.”

Those songs are all over Growing Up Is Getting Old. A Carolina-born preacher’s son raised in a strict household, Carroll threw himself whole-heartedly into life and music when he got the chance. The resulting tension between experience and responsibility, and the hard-won wisdom that grows out of the maturing process have always infused the music he makes. Jason Michael sees himself in songs like the title cut, of which he says, “I don’t think there’s a truer statement out there right now, especially to a father of four who tries to get home as much as I do and who travels as much as I do.” His children – three from a previous marriage – are at the core of Carroll’s identity, and his relationship with them helped bring vocal passion to songs like the cathartic “Hurry Home” and the poignant “Tears.” “Sorry Don’t Matter” explores the cold reality of a betrayed relationship, while “Barn Burner” gives him the chance to revel in the joy of days when responsibility could be set aside one party at a time. Love’s complexities figure in “Happened on a Saturday Night (Suzie Q),” a story with a rocking pace and a hairpin plotline, “Let Me Go,” featuring a seemingly star-crossed pair of lovers, and “We Threw It All Away,” in which two people rolling the dice surprise everyone with a win. The laid-back anthem, “That’s All I Know,” sums up the easygoing, comfortably fitting philosophy that permeates the record.

Growing Up Is Getting Old found Jason Michael once again working with producer Don Gehman, known for his work with Hootie and the Blowfish, John Mellencamp, Tracy Chapman, and R.E.M.
“We collaborate really well together,” Carroll says. “Now, we butt heads really well together, too,” he adds with a laugh, “but I think that’s part of a great relationship when you have two people with really creative sides who can find a way to get both their influences into what they’re working on.”

The creative tension behind the teamwork produced an album that showcases both the passion and sincerity in his voice and the talent that brought Jason Michael from the Carolina nightspots where he honed his craft to national attention.
He was an unlikely candidate for the clubs. He was not allowed to listen to secular music growing up in North Carolina. In fact, his father once took him to task for having a copy of Billy Ray Cyrus’s first record, but through friends and later at his job in a motor shop, he immersed himself in music and found himself drawn to country. After winning a radio station’s karaoke contest, Carroll was asked to join a local country band in need of a singer. He began paying his dues in clubs, and his mother, who was by then encouraging his dream, signed him up for a televised talent show in Raleigh/Durham. He won, and the visibility opened doors that led to Gehman.

Soon, Carroll was signed to Arista Nashville, and his first album, Waitin’ in the Country, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. His first two singles, “Alyssa Lies” and “Livin’ Our Love Song,” shot into the Top 5. He opened for Brooks & Dunn, Trace Adkins, and Alan Jackson, and became part of the 2008 tours of Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. He was also featured on Good Morning America, thrilled the crowd at the CMA Music Festival, and has played multiple times at the Grand Ole Opry.

He quickly learned how his music could truly affect lives, with fans regularly approaching him with stories of the impact that “Alyssa Lies” or “Livin’ Our Love Song” had on them.
“My songs speak so much to so many people,” he says. “I really can’t take for granted what I’m doing, and I thank God every day I have the chance to keep doing it.”
He is especially thrilled with the RIAA Gold Mastertone certification of “Livin’ Our Love Song,” recognizing sales of 500,000 ringtones and ringbacks.
“Standing in line at a bank or at a fast food restaurant and hearing somebody’s phone ringing and it’s my song, that’s pretty cool,” he says.

But through it all, he remains a young man who has not lost touch with his roots, and it’s obvious he’s embraced the wisdom he received from a superstar touring partner.

“I was hanging out with Brooks & Dunn on the road, and Ronnie Dunn said, ‘Jason, don’t let anything change you. Be who you are. That’s what got you here.’ It’s great advice.”

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Billy Currington

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:04:00 GMT

The title of Billy Currington’s new album, Enjoy Yourself, says it all. “That’s what I want people to think about doing when they hear my music,” the happy-go-lucky Georgia native says. “I want them to have a good time.” And a good time is clearly what they’re having.

He’s garnered an impressive ten Top 10 hits, with six of those hitting No. 1 – “Pretty Good At Drinkin’ Beer,” “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” “People Are Crazy,” ”Don’t,” “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right” and “Good Directions.” He’s sold millions of albums and has been selected to tour with the likes of Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Sugarland. Tour mate Carrie Underwood notes that Billy’s “talent and charm” have made crowds fall in love with him. He also received the compliment of a lifetime from David Letterman, who said about Billy’s “People Are Crazy” performance, “This song will change your life. You’re not going to do any better than this song here.”

His multiple nominations include two 2010 Grammy nominations (Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song) for “People Are Crazy,” which also received nominations for Single and Song of the Year from the Academy of Country Music, as well as Single, Song and Video of the Year from the Country Music Association. He was honored with a 2006 nomination for Top New Male Vocalist at the ACMS, which followed 2005 ACM and CMA nominations for “Party For Two,” his duet with Shania Twain.

He proudly claimed the “Hottest Video of the Year” trophy at the fan-voted 2006 CMT Music Awards for “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right.” Entertainment Weekly has praised his effortless charm, while the Associated Press says, “With Enjoy Yourself, he zeros in on an easy-going soul vibe, a sound that brings out a likeable quality in Currington’s Georgia-raised tenor.”

Despite his laid-back demeanor, Billy has earned a reputation as a hard-working entertainer who puts everything he’s got into his shows every night. He’s taken the stage several times at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the very facility that he helped build on his day job while pursuing his musical dreams. He’s still a working man who is drawn to exploring life’s simple truths and pleasures.

“With his rich tenor and relaxed delivery, Billy Currington knows how to put a tear in your beer,” Billboard says. ”Currington sings that he’s ‘not known for doing a lot,’ but he’s certainly found a way to do something that’s undeniably his own.”

Enjoy Yourself, Billy’s fourth album since he burst onto the scene in 2003, builds on the success of his 2008 collection, Little Bit of Everything, which yielded three No. 1 hits: “Don’t,” “People Are Crazy” and “That’s How Country Boys Roll.”

As with Little Bit of Everything, Billy’s latest features his now trademark mix of country, R&B and beach music. “It reflects who I am,” he says. “I’m definitely not just one thing. I’m the beach guy, I’m the country guy, I love my dirt roads and fishin’, but I love New York City and L.A. and Miami, too.”

The album is a perfect storm of material that Billy has been eyeing for just the right moment to release. “Some of these songs date back six to eight years,” he says. “There’s always a right time for everything.”

Finding the right song for the right album is a process in which Billy takes great pride. “I like to live with the songs I’m considering for an album. I like to go to bed at night and wake up in the morning and know I still love a song. If I still love it two years later, maybe other people will too.”

The album’s first single, “Pretty Good At Drinkin’ Beer,” became Billy’s sixth No. 1 hit. Interestingly, he found that song on the same demo CD as “People Are Crazy.” “I knew I should only pick one beer song for my last album so I held on to ‘Pretty Good At Drinkin’ Beer.’ When it came time to record, that was the first one I threw up in the air. Everyone was in agreement that it was a good summertime, first single for an album.”

“Bad Day of Fishin’,” Billy’s songwriting contribution to the record, hilariously advances his theory that a bad day of fishin’ beats a good day of anything else.

The equally hilarious “Like My Dog,” includes the lyrics I want you to love me like my dog does. “It’s about a relationship with you and your dog and how you wish your woman would love you just as much and in the same ways,” Billy says with a grin.

But the album is more than songs about dogs and beer. “Until You,” which was written by Dave Barnes, is a love song pure and simple. “It’s got this great melody and simplified smart lyric about you and your girl out under the sky and overlooking the city at night, just enjoying each other’s company.”

The second single, “Let Me Down Easy,” is soulful and sexy, while “All Day Long” is “happy and kind of sexy,” according to Billy. “Nothing too serious.” There’s not a sad song on the set. Even “Love Done Gone,” a Louisiana-infused tune complete with trumpets and trombones, puts a positive spin on a break-up.

“It’s a good vibe album,” Billy explains. “I hope it’s one of those albums that someone can put in when they’re hanging out in their camp spot or they’re grilling out by their pool and just feel good through the whole thing.”

“I know people like sad songs, but they like happy songs more,” Billy believes. “It took me awhile to figure that out. Growing up I was a fan of all of Merle Haggard’s sad stuff and George Strait’s sad stuff—anybody that was singing sad songs. I thought that’s what I wanted to do.”

Turns out, it wasn’t. After feeling the air sucked out of the room when he played heartbreak songs in his otherwise electrifying live shows, Billy decided he’d leave the sad songs to someone else. “I don’t want to feel that way or make anyone else feel that way when they’re listening to my music. I want people to walk away feeling happy.”

“I can’t say I won’t ever record a sad song again, but you’ll mostly hear happy stuff from me from here on,” Billy notes with conviction.

The album features Nashville’s top songwriters, including Troy Jones, Shawn Camp and Mark Nesler.

“This record was about recording songwriters’ songs,” says Billy. “I could have gone back and recorded a bunch of mine that I’ve written, but there were a lot of writers I wanted to record, like Shawn and Troy. I had to put their songs on this album.”

“I always go back to those same writers,” he adds. “They tend to keep writing the good ones.”

The album consists of what Billy has learned so far. “As an artist, I’ve gotten so much better all the way around. In the studio, live, playing the guitar and I’ve strengthened my voice. If you name anything I do musically, it’s gotten better with practice. I still have a lot to learn but I feel that like anything in life, you get better the more you do it.”

“I’m in a good place. I’m in a happy spot,” says Billy, who founded the Global South Relief organization to deliver supplies to those in need in Central American countries. “I’ve learned a lot about myself over the past five years, not only personally, but also as a businessman and an artist.”

Find Billy on the web:

Terri Clark

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:15:00 GMT

After years of being one of the biggest names in country music globally, Terri announced that she was going to leave her major label home & focus on making the music that she wanted to make. Yearning for change, she vowed to do things “her way”. What fans got in return was what she called the most “personal” record of her career.

“The new album is just as personal. I didn’t think I had it in me to dig that deep again and get that personal. It’s personal in a lighter way.”

We’ll save all the stats for your googling pleasure. To the casual fan, Terri Clark is a staple when it comes to listing off female country artists they’ve heard of. For the rest of us, beyond the millions of albums sold and an innumerable amount of awards and recognition lies a resilient, real talent who reminds us that life truly is an adventure. For every solemn moment, there is also celebration.

Now, with a new outlook and her hat back on, Clark continues her personal journey with an inspiring combination of emotion and shameless joy in her newest release, “Roots and Wings“.

“I chose “Roots and Wings” after much deliberation about naming the album after one of the song titles, which felt a little cliché. I felt not just ONE song encompassed what the album meant for me.”

This is typically the part where you’ll get sold on what’s the hot single, but the fact is that every song on “Roots and Wings” will make you feel something different. Kicking off with the empowering anthem “Wrecking Ball” and wrapping up with the heartbreaking “Flowers in Snow”, Clark’s honesty and passion shine through.

“I’m embracing my roots, who I am, my old friends and family, and coming full circle in my life… choosing some songs with those themes for this album.” If there was any indication of Terri’s love for her homeland, it’s captured in the lead-off single, “Northern Girl”.

Terri also takes us on a trip back in time, cutting a song she initially wrote at just 22 years of age. With “Lonesome’s Last Call”, Clark brings back a classic “hurtin’ song” feel. “It has that classic old school country vibe that I grew up listening to, and reminds me so much of my Grandparents who used to sing all the classics.”

Sticking to her northern “Roots”, Terri turns up the fun with what’s certain to be the rebirth of a vintage Canadian party starter, Trooper’s “We’re Here For A Good Time”.

While some would be quick to scrutinize a cover, Clark was the first to realize how big of a song she was taking on. “It’s so funny because my manager’s from Kentucky and he totally doesn’t get it. I tell him “you didn’t grow up in Canada hearing this like every 5 minutes on the radio!”

“It’s not a Shakespearian lyric, it’s very simple. I just had to find a way to make it my own. I had to do something completely different in order to feel like I was doing it justice.” Clark lets loose and catches the essence of the song, paying tribute while also making it feel fresh and exciting.

The “Wings” spawn from Terri’s desire to rise from the ashes of a tumultuous few years.

In the time between albums, she shared much of her experiences during her Mother’s battle with cancer. Those who never met Linda felt like they knew her based merely on the stories Terri would tell about her. With some help from the iconic Alison Krauss, Terri shares with us the closeness with her mother, in the form of “Smile”. “The song is about how she was always willing to “let me go” so that I could live up to my fullest potential, and really fly…no matter how hard it was at the time, because we were always so extremely close.” To even the most distant stranger, this sweet homage brings with it the love between mother and daughter in the simplest form.”

“I lost my best friend, my Mom, to cancer last year, and ended a long term relationship not long after that. It was all very tough, but I also feel like that is when our spirits and minds grow the most, and creatively I feel like it all inspired me to write some songs that I otherwise may not have.”

In “The Good Was Great” Clark mirrors the changes in her own experiences – choosing to focus on the positive. “It’s about taking the good parts of a relationship and the sweetness it brought to your life instead of constantly focusing on the bad parts and reasons why it didn’t work out.”

Like life, relationships play a big part in “Roots and Wings”. Terri offers some fresh perspectives with songs like “Beautiful and Broken,” “Breakin’ Up Thing” and “The One” – Three very different songs that range from unconditional love to being true to one’s own needs in life.

To this day, there is no other artist like Terri Clark. In the seemingly endless debate of “what’s country”, nobody will argue that Terri remains one of the most influential performers of our time. Even with all her success, you won’t hear her brag about it. “I love letting people know and see that I am just an every day girl, with a not so every day job, but I don’t feel a “disconnect” with my audience just because I am on the stage…I feel like we are all there to have a great time, myself included, and usually, that is what happens.”

While we all face challenges in our lives, few are able to transform them into the kind of messages Clark shares in “Roots and Wings”. “I’ve been learning to be me again. To be the person I was before my Mom got sick. I’m learning how to have fun and lighten up and roll the windows down and hang out with friends and laugh out loud and be a goof ball.

I’m really enjoying life and being happy again. That’s coming out on the record. There’s some pretty fun stuff on here that I’m feeling is emerging that hasn’t in the past few years.”

Terri Clark’s ability to reinvent herself while returning to the sound that first brought her to us once again demonstrates the versatility of this one-of-a-kind entertainer.

To be more concise, “She’s still got it.”

Find Terri on the web:

Kenny Chesney

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:10:00 GMT

"Sail away, sail away, three sheets to the wind

Live hard, die hard,

This one's for him..."

--Hemingway's Whiskey

When Kenny Chesney pulled the plug on what would have been his 2010 tour in August of last year, he had accomplished almost unprecedented things. He's played NFL football stadiums by the dozen, received 4 Country Music Association as well as 4 consecutive Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Awards, had nineteen #1 singles, duets with Dave Matthews ("I'm Alive"), Mac McAnally ("Down The Road") and Uncle Kracker ("When The Sun Goes Down") and has sold over 27 million albums including the quadruple platinum CMA Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down and the two highly introspective singer/songwriter-driven Be As You Are: Songs from an Old Blue Chair and Lucky Old Sun. He co-produced a critically-acclaimed album on Willie Nelson and is the only artist in any genre to sell over a million tickets each of the past eight summers - and that was before the Sony Motion Pictures national theatrical release, "Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D," and the 90-minute documentary "The Boys of Fall," which showcases the impact of high school football and features some of the game's most enduring coaches and players at the pro, college and high school levels. Now, Chesney has released what will perhaps become his most enduring album, Hemingway's Whiskey.

"I just knew I'd had my foot on the gas for a long, long time," says the high energy performer. "I'd gotten signed to BNA Records in 1995, and I'd never let up. I was able to do things I didn't even know to dream, but in the work and the rush of it, things started to become a blur... and I knew it.

"I also knew that was not the reason I'd come to town: to just get on the treadmill and not look up. I loved songs, I loved artists... and I loved the process of making music. Suddenly, it was all deadlines and it didn't feel right. So I did what a lot of people have now told me was the unthinkable: I decided to stop everything for a year, to refocus on some personal projects and really think about my music and where I wanted to go. I am so glad that I did."

With his foot "off the gas," Chesney exhaled - and considered where the music had brought him, what it meant to the fans that came back year after year and how to expand on what is easily one of contemporary music's most vital communities. "The more I thought about it, especially working on 'Summer in 3-D,' which is as much a love letter to the fans who've lived these songs and their relationship to the music, the more I realized: this music is something they live right where they are, too.

"Anyone who knows me knows how pivotal football has been in developing who I am," explains the man who began playing for tips at Quarterback's Barbeque in Johnson City, TN. "It taught me discipline... teamwork... integrity... humility... and it gave me a sense that no matter how many times you get knocked down, if you keep getting up, you will get better.

"I quit growing my freshman year, so no matter how much I wanted to play baseball or football, that wasn't gonna happen. But I took those principles - and the fun and camaraderie I learned on the field - and I brought it with me when I came to Nashville. My career didn't happen overnight, obviously, but I always knew that if I just kept challenging myself to get better, I could do some pretty impossible things.

"The Boys of Fall" is about that... and it's a song that says everything about what it feels like to play high school football! Whether I've played the song for Joe Namath, Sean Payton (the coach of the unlikely 2010 Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints) or a young guy just getting into school, they all say the same thing: 'Yeah, that's how it is....' When a song can do that, you know you've got something."

That became the bar that Chesney wanted the rest of the songs on Hemingway's Whiskey to clear as well: whether it's the post-break-up obsession of "Somewhere With You," the wry commentary on pettiness of Bobby Braddock's "Small Y'all" featuring country legend George Jones, or the inherent dissatisfaction of humanity which marks the driving Tom Petty-esque "Round & Round," written by Paul Overstreet.

"Each of those songs is unique onto itself," Chesney marvels. "There's nothing else I've ever heard that sounds like it - and each one takes the sentiment and really pushes it. I can't think of anyone who's not survived a break-up doing everything in 'Somewhere With You' - they just don't talk about it. The truth of 'Round & Round' most certainly applies: we're never content where we are, it's just how we are.

"And as for 'Small Y'all,' well, it's been a long time since I've done something that country - and I promise country has never been done that hard, that big or that loud."

Having recorded seven albums since his first Greatest Hits, now certified quadruple platinum, Chesney has sung a lot of songs, covered a lot of ground musically and defined a genre that celebrated growing up in small towns, loving the beach and knowing how to kick back. His records are not only the soundtrack of country radio in the 21st century, but are the sound of summer for people who plan their vacations around trips to go see Chesney somewhere each year.

Knowing that, the man who's written hits for himself - "Beer In Mexico," "Out Last Night" and "I Go Back" - as well as others - Rascal Flatts multiple week #1 "Take Me There" and David Nail's sweeping "Turning Home" - would never turn his back on the basic truths that have defined his audience's own lives. Hemingway's Whiskey includes "Seven Days," a song about a vacation encounter that has stayed with the singer too many years later, the priority defining "Live A Little" and the song about mentally checking out in "Coastal."

"I think if you forget about that, you're not telling the truth about how anyone lives," confesses the man who's jammed with Eddie Van Halen and Steve Miller, Sammy Hagar and Joe Walsh. "You gotta let go... you gotta remember it's not all serious and have fun. There's a lot to be said for playing hard if you're gonna make up your mind to work hard - and that's what those songs are about."

Even the Guy Clark-penned title track embraces the intensity of life perspective, through a far loftier set of eyes and a perhaps more elegant set of circumstances.

"There is no American man more iconic than Ernest Hemingway," Chesney says. "He was a war correspondent, a hunter, a fisherman, a novelist - and his writing had that hard-work ethic. But I spent a lot of time in the same islands he did, and heard the stories. He savored every experience. He lived hard, he loved hard... he got hurt and he never stopped experiencing life to its fullest.

"I think if you're looking at what this music and this message is, it's that. It's not just a party or a feel good thing, though that's part of it... It's really about living your life completely, whether you're making a record, standing on that stage or on the front of a boat cutting through the Atlantic with your friends. Each thing is unique and you should give yourself over to it completely. That is the difference."

That completeness is certainly the indelible desire in "You & Tequila," a Matraca Berg/Deana Carter song that evolved into collaboration with jam-rock goddess Grace Potter. It professes, "It's always my favorite sins that seem to do me in." The song embodies Southern California canyons, desire and the weightlessness of yearning.

"Grace Potter was a crazy idea to some people," Chesney laughs. "And you know, we decided to try it and had her on a plane 36 hours later with no clue how it was going to work. We come from different worlds, both musically and in terms of Vermont versus East Tennessee, but there is something so inherently soulful in how she sings and locks onto a melody. I knew if she got it, it would be magic - and it was.

"She went in the booth at 4 o'clock and was out at, no kidding, 4:12. You get to a point where after a couple passes, you know it's magic - and why lose that? And it really is mesmerizing hearing her on that track."

Magic is something that can't be created on a schedule. Over the past 10 months, Chesney has gone in and out of the studio, creating only when the songs appeared and moved him, finishing tracks as they seemed to fit. What emerged is an album that is both grown-up and true to who he is at his core.

"As you move through life, you start to figure out that maturity doesn't mean getting old," Chesney explains. "It means you know more, are aware of more things and realize the impact your actions have on you and others. I can honestly say I'm not that different from the kid who came to Nashville with a head full of dreams and signed to Acuff Rose Publishing, eyes wide, not believing I would write with people like Whitey Shaffer and Dean Dillon.

"I've been lucky to have access to the best songwriters, the best musicians and they've allowed me to create some pretty powerful music. They understand the broader contexts I'm reaching for - not just in terms of playing, but emotionally. They like what I do, they bring me their best work, and I think that's part of why people have responded to the songs the way they have."

To hear "That's Where I Grew Up" is to understand it's not about trips through the calendar or school years, but the defining experiences that determine the man, just as "Reality" is about the yin-yang state of existence for anyone trying to make ends meet, but not be crushed by the daily grind.

"It's never as simple as flip a switch, go the beach, turn a corner," Chesney admits. "Sometimes you don't even realize the impact a moment's had on you - or the details that will come back to you later. You just suddenly know that you're different... just like you suddenly realize, this, whether it's a fast car, a beach bar or all the other things in the song, is a break from the pressures we all endure.

Find Kenny on the web:

Eric Church

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:27:00 GMT

Eric Church is on a mission. You might expect someone coming off of their first two Top Ten country singles and an ACM Award for “Top New Solo Vocalist” to lock down the formula and go for more of the same, but with third album, CHIEF, Church is trying something bolder and using the opportunity provided by his success to push his music even further.

“I have a theory that all of us only get a small window of time to make records when people will really listen and care,” he says. “It's up to us to move the needle. People like Waylon and Cash or Garth and Strait - they all took the format and said ‘We're going over here,’ and they all changed the direction of the music a little bit.”

Church’s 2006 debut album, SINNERS LIKE ME, established him as one of the most acclaimed new songwriters in country music. The follow-up, 2009’s CAROLINA, includes the singles “Love Your Love the Most” and “Smoke a Little Smoke,” which—along with the continually escalating popularity of his hard-charging live show—elevated Church to the top ranks of today’s country stars. Although “Smoke” was peaking on the charts, Church decided to take a step back to give some thought to his next creative direction.

“I took about a month off and went to a cabin in North Carolina,” he says. “We’ve always blazed our own trail and I was trying to figure out where it needed to go and, honestly, I wasn't sure. So, I didn't go anywhere for a month. Writers came out and we just wrote songs all day and all night. That really stoked the creative flame. Then, I spent the next six months on tour writing whenever I could.”

The songs that resulted illustrate Church’s impressive range. Some of the titles like “Drink in My Hand” or “Hungover & Hard Up,” instantly show that he’s still comfortable with the expectations of his rowdy live audience. “You’ve got to know what's going to fire them up,” he says, “but, you also need to give them a twist, something they can't just go back and get from the other two records.”

Other songs, like the ambitious “Springsteen” or “Like Jesus Does,” reveal complicated emotions and sophisticated song structures. Perhaps the bravest track on CHIEF is the first single, “Homeboy,” a provocative appeal from one brother to another to get back on track and make peace with his family.

“‘Homeboy’ deals with social issues and with everyday life,” says Church. “It was pretty challenging for me to take that term ‘homeboy’ and use it as slang, as a destination, and then at the end, as a spiritual place. Sonically, it's like three or four different songs.”

“It’s not something people are used to,” he continues, “and there can be a price to pay for that. I’ve had people say ‘that's strange,’ ‘it's odd’—things that some people might run from but, I think it's fantastic.”

When it came time to record the album, Church had a sound in mind that felt different from his first two releases. “This record, more than anything else I've done, is breathing and alive,” he says. “There’s a wildness to it. It’s untamed and not very harnessed.”

This energy started with the singer’s own role in the sessions. Much of CHIEF was cut live in the studio. Church played guitar with the band (and for the first time on record, electric guitar on “Like Jesus Does”) and some of the final versions even use the original tracking vocal.

Church gives credit to producer Jay Joyce, with whom he has made all three of his albums, for helping to bring this excitement out on the tracks. “There’s just a comfort level with Jay,” he says. “We’ve both learned to sit back and let each other try different paths and get farther out there. A lot of stuff we just tried, like the handclap loop on ‘Homeboy,’ just because we weren’t afraid. We never thought there was anything we couldn’t do. I think it’s the most aggressive record I’ve made because of that.”

Though Eric Church’s focus is on looking forward rather than looking back, he does acknowledge that the surprising success of “Smoke a Little Smoke” allowed him to explore and experiment with his new songs. Church explains, “This was the first time I picked a single because of the reaction on the road and it paid off.”

The desire to capture the intensity of his live show on record is indicated right in the title of the new album. "‘Chief’ was my grandfather’s nickname, and it has become my nickname on the road," Church reveals. "When it's show time, I put on the sunglasses and the hat, and that's how people know it's game time. This album was made from a live place; we recorded it with the live show in mind, so it just seemed right to make that the title."

If there is one thing country music needs more of, it’s the attitude that is driving Eric Church, the approach behind every song on CHIEF, the fearlessness that lets an artist swing for the fences and try to leave a mark on history. “There were safer choices I could have made for sure, but I just can't feel that helps anybody,” he says. “If you have any respect for the music, you'll use each chance you get to try to be one of the ones who moves the flag.”

Find Eric on the web:

Chris Cagle

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:49:00 GMT

If Chris Cagle were nothing more than a man who lives life at full-speed, taking corners on two wheels, he would still be one of country music's more interesting characters. There aren't many in the industry who can put passion and energy on stage or on record the way he can. But a man doesn't go gold with his first two albums and produce seven hits--including four Top Tens--on nothing more than bravado. Chris's secret weapon lies in his ability to rope the whirlwind, to capture its motion and emotion with his pen and his voice. It is, as Wordsworth said, where emotion is recalled in tranquility that poetry is created, and it is there that Chris's untamed spirit becomes art.

The two sides of Cagle's compelling psyche come together beautifully on his third album, Anywhere But Here, a collection that crystallizes the promise of the first two and takes him another big step forward. Its first single, "Miss Me Baby," is four minutes of raw drama sung with a nuanced intensity that announces Chris's growing maturity as a vocalist. It also represents the eighth time he has hit the Top 40 with a song he has written or co-written.

The album captures a renewed Chris, back from vocal rest and a period of intense introspection, reflecting on the complex emotions to be found in living a modern life in the spotlight. He knew early in the recording process that he and co-producer Rob Wright had found something special.

"I had gone back to the studio where I did my first album," he says. "Same musicians, same engineer, everything. We were doing 'Miss Me Baby' and I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, we really do have something.' It was like the first time I heard 'Laredo' after we mixed it and I thought, 'I've got a shot.'"

Chris is convinced that his long period of enforced vocal rest--something his restless spirit found nearly intolerable at the time--have left him in a better place vocally.

"The one thing that has changed with this record over the last two," he says, "is the dynamic of the vocal. I'm not just singing hard at everything. I've been learning, listening to people like Conway Twitty, and there were times recording things when I'd think, 'Yeah, that's natural. That's what you want.'"

That new sense of control comes through in songs like "Maria," a sultry and powerful look at passionate love, "I Was Made For You" and "You Still Do That To Me," songs that celebrate lasting love, and "Anywhere But Here," where every note catalogs the lyric's pain.

On the rowdier side, there is "Hey Y'all," a flat-out rocker about the joys of outdoor partying, "Might Wanna Think About It," which finds the tough-minded Texan staking out his territory in the modern-day battles over rights and obligations, and "Wanted Dead Or Alive," a fresh reading of the '80s-era Bon Jovi classic. There is also "Wal-Mart Parking Lot," a quintessential small-town tale of coming of age at this generation's equivalent of the town square. The song helps anchor an album's worth of real life sung by one of the country artists most able to turn reality into memorable music.

"I've got a lot of high hopes for this record," he says. "I tried to make music that was better without necessarily making it different because I love the music that I've made in the past."

Find Chris on the web:

Billy Ray Cyrus

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:07:00 GMT

Back To Tennessee is much more than just another album in one man’s remarkable and enduring career. This is an extremely meaningful homecoming in that man’s singular journey back to the musical roots that have long sustained him. “This album is everything I am at this second,” says Cyrus. “It’s everything that I’ve been through and every step along the way to this point -- Ironically, sometimes looking back, in my case BACK TO TENNESEE, is the best way to move forward.”

Sitting in the slightly cluttered but welcoming music room that is his refuge of his Los Angeles home, with his trusty dog Tex by his side, Cyrus explains that the initial spark for Back To Tennessee was struck when Cyrus recorded “Real Gone” with Mark Bright, the Grammy-winning Nashville producer perhaps best known for his work with Rascal Flatts. Right from the start, it was clear that working with Bright brought out the very best in Cyrus. True to the song’s title, “Real Gone” (written by Sheryl Crow and John Shanks) captured Cyrus at his most rocking and most real.

The inspired result of that first collaboration is Cyrus’ most important and revealing album since Some Gave All, the nine times platinum 1992 classic that introduced Cyrus to the world. It is only now that Billy Ray could make this album. Since then, Cyrus has gone on to sell more than 25 million albums worldwide, and earned nearly thirty chart singles, including 15 Top 40 charts hits; while at the same time establishing himself as a successful and respected actor in film and television. Cyrus’ most recent album -- 2007’s Home At Last -- entered in the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, hitting #3 on the Top Country Album chart, while “Ready, Set, Don’t Go” -- the moving duet with daughter Miley Cyrus -- became a Top 5 country smash.

Yet even after experiencing the circus of celebrity for more than a decade and a half, Cyrus is ultimately a man who prizes nothing more than being authentic and true to where he comes from and who he is. “I’m the first guy to admit I’m not the best singer in the business,” says Cyrus. “I don’t write the best songs. But for better and worse, I am true to myself and my own instincts -- sometimes to a fault. Whatever else I may be, at least I’m real.”

For all that has changed around him, Cyrus remains, “As Country As Country Can Be,” to borrow the title of another of Back To Tennessee’s many highlights that he wrote with songwriters Casey Beathard and Mick Adkins. “I love country music,” Cyrus explains. “I love all styles of music. I just love music period. But when you grow up in Eastern Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia, there’s a lot of Southern gospel, a lot of blues and a lot of rock & roll, and it’s still as country as country can be. Growing up I listened to Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. There’s a lot of that influence in my music. But I also grew up with Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers. Those were my influences too.”

Cyrus paid his dues along the way. “It was the 12 years of persistence and dedication and being told no, the trials and errors and failures, everything I learned along that journey to making that first album, Some Gave All,” Cyrus explains. “That was all built on a foundation of something very real.” The success of that debut, including hits like “Could’ve Been Me,” “Wher’m I Gonna Live?” “She’s Not Cryin’ Anymore,” the title track and, of course, “Achy Breaky Heart” was massive and overwhelming. Yet here too Cyrus depended on his roots to keep him grounded.

“You can see my dad’s picture sitting there in front of us today,” Cyrus says. “My dad passed away a couple of years ago -- he had a gospel quartet, and that’s where I got my start as a little boy. There’s a misperception that I was an overnight success. When I started Some Gave All, I was living in my car. I’d gotten thrown out of my house and sat writing some of those songs sitting on the curb. “Wher’m I Gonna Live,’ “She’s Not Crying Anymore” and “Some Gave All” I wrote all in one week. Everything that led up to that moment was very real.

Yet as Cyrus recalls, “Fortunately, I had that man in the picture, my father, tell me ‘Don’t worry son, just do what Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton did, branch out.’” Like Carl Perkins said, “Whatever you do, don’t change a thing. Stay real and it will come around.” When I was down because I felt like Nashville had thrown me out, Waylon Jennings said, “Son, take it as a compliment. You know the definition of “outlaw,” don’t you? It’s someone who’s been outlawed. Just be who you are – you’re an original.”
Taking the advice of those he respected the most, Cyrus pushed forward, continuing to record fine country and inspirational recordings, touring regularly, and increasingly establishing himself as an actor. Remarkably, auditioning for the role as Gene the pool cleaner in David Lynch’s acclaimed 2001 art film Mullholland Drive led to a second career that has been wildly successful, with Cyrus becoming a popular TV star. First, as the title character in the syndicated smash drama Doc, then as fictional country star Robbie Ray Stewart alongside his real life daughter Miley in the current smash, Emmy-nominated Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. “Like a lot of things in my life, it’s all about amazing opposites,” Cyrus explains with a laugh. “My entire career as an actor making family entertainment somehow started with auditioning for David Lynch. As always, I just followed my instincts.” Soon, Cyrus can be seen in the action-comedy film The Spy Next Door alongside Jackie Chan. The film, which was produced by The Wedding Singer Producer Robert Simonds, will hit theatres in 2010.

Sensing it was now time to make another musical statement, Cyrus earlier this year carved out time in his busy schedule to go to Tennessee and dedicate himself one hundred percent to making a new album. As he recalls, “I lived in the studio, just like I used to, working with Mark and an amazing group of musicians.”

To the public, Cyrus has played many parts, yet on Back To Tennessee, he is only himself as he sings songs from the inspirational (“Somebody Said A Prayer”) to the simply entertaining (“Thrillbilly”). It’s an album that sums up Cyrus’s entire path.
Asked what he’s most proud of in his career so far, Cyrus takes his guest today to a prized place in his West Coast home where he keeps a letter than means more to him than any other world possession. That letter came from Hendersonville, Tennessee and written on June 12, 1992. The letter came from the one and only Johnny Cash. As the Man In Black wrote Cyrus: “I was very impressed recently to hear you give God the credit for your success. It’s good to be reminded where all goodness comes from. Thirty-six years ago today I was working with Elvis and saw him take the same flak you’re taking now. Congratulations on the way you’re handling it all. In your case, as in Elvis’, the good outweighs the bad. Let ‘em have it. I’m in your corner.”

Those words meant the world to Cyrus, then and now. “There was a storm brewing in my life right then, and he sent me that letter. I held to it because if Johnny thinks I’m okay, I figure I’m okay. Bruce Springsteen also stood up for me – which was amazing. Those men and Carl Perkins taught me something I still live by. If I don’t fit in, then I don’t fit in. I’d rather have friends like that. And I’d rather be myself.”

Take a listen to Back To Tennessee, and hear the deeply felt sound of Billy Ray Cyrus being himself, as only he can. Back to Tennessee will be available at retail on April 7th, 2009.

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