Artists That Begin With E

Emerson Drive

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:25:00 GMT

A decade of great music and over a million miles of life on the road have brought Emerson Drive to the spot that many artists dream of, a Grammy-nominated country band with a bright future. After 10 years the members of Emerson Drive are excited to have reached this career milestone and can't wait to see what the next 10, 20 or 30 years will bring.

"We have been playing music our entire lives," explains lead vocalist Brad Mates. "None of us can imagine doing anything else. We belong together on that stage each night. It's exciting for us to see what we have accomplished so far and to be planning for the next decade. This tour is still just the beginning!"

Emerson Drive has been a part of the country music scene since they signed their first record deal with DreamWorks Records Nashville in 2001. The band's first two singles, "I Should Be Sleeping" and "Fall Into Me," peaked in the Top 5 on the Billboard charts and quickly became fan favorites but it was the career-changing song "Moments" that gave the band their first #1 single in the USA. Emerson Drive has been honored with awards and/or nominations from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, Canadian Country Music Association, CMT, Dove Awards, Grammy Awards, Inspirational Country Music Association, Juno Awards, Music Row Magazine and Campus Activities Magazine. The band has toured with Toby Keith, Shania Twain and Big & Rich among other artists.

The Decade & Driving Tour celebrates the ten years of great music that began with Emerson Drive's debut single, "I Should Be Sleeping," and continues today with their most recent single release, "Let Your Love Speak," from their DECADE OF DRIVE: THE HITS album.

"This tour is a celebration," comments lead vocalist Brad Mates. "We have spent 10 years out on the road sharing our music with country fans across North America. We can't wait to take the party back out on the road."

Find Emerson Drive on the web:

Sarah Evans

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:12:00 GMT

Sometimes the best way for an artist to move forward is to take time to be still. There’s nothing that feeds a creative soul like taking time to soak up life and marinate in the moments that matter. Sara Evans embraced that philosophy, and now, six years after her last studio album, she’s back with Stronger, a landmark record filled with the kind of gutsy explorations on life and love that have made Evans one of the most compelling female vocalists of her generation.

If people are surprised to hear that Evans is back, it’s because it didn’t seem as though she’d ever gone away. She continued to tour and maintain close contact with her active fan base. She became an author, signing a three-book deal with Thomas Nelson Publishers, which has already published two of her novels – The Sweet By and By and Softly and Tenderly. She released a greatest hits collection that included four new tunes, and she’s continually remained a favorite at country radio thanks to such hits as “Born to Fly,” “Suds in the Bucket,” “I Keep Looking,” “Perfect,” “No Place That Far” and “A Real Fine Place to Start.”

Away from the spotlight, much has happened to Evans since her last studio record. She weathered a high profile divorce, yet focused on her three children, took time to heal and found love again with football-star-turned-sportscaster Jay Barker. They married, and Evans moved from Nashville to Birmingham, AL, devoting the last few years to happily focusing on home and their blended family of seven children. “I cannot believe it’s been six years,” she says of her self-imposed hiatus. “In so many ways, I feel like I’m just beginning. I really and truly do. I feel like I’m just starting my life, my career, and there’s nothing that I can’t do. I’m definitely more confident now than I’ve ever been in my life.”

That confidence informs the album’s lead single, “A Little Bit Stronger,” a portrait of a survivor that carries an empowering message. The song has quickly become one of the most successful singles in Evans’ career, approaching the half-million digital sales mark even before the release of her album. “‘A Little Bit Stronger’ is definitely something that I can relate to, and everyone else can, too,” Evans says of the song, penned by Hillary Lindsey, Luke Laird and Hillary Scott. “Time really does heal everything. You come out on the other side, and you always are stronger from it.”

Though Evans readily admits she’s the happiest she’s ever been in her life, her new album is a diverse collection of songs that don’t represent a singular season. “I honestly have to say that very little of this album is autobiographical,” Evans says, “because I really separate my personal life from my artistic life and my professional life. I could be going through a horrible, horrible day, but I could still go and write a happy song. I don’t have to write about what I’m going through. I like to write about something I saw in a movie or something that I heard a friend say or something that I saw on the news. I can put myself into a song. It doesn’t have to be about me in order for me to be passionate about it.”

Though she’s occasionally taken the confessional approach to writing – best exemplified by her autobiographical hit “Born to Fly,” which is reinvented on Stronger with a spirited bluegrass twist – Evans generally takes an observational approach, and it serves her well on her new collection. “What That Drink Cost Me” is a heartbreaking ballad about a woman who loses her husband to alcohol. Co-written with her brother Matt and producer Nathan Chapman, the song is a classic country weeper that gives Evans a chance to reveal the full emotional range of her powerful voice.

She and Leslie Satcher co-wrote “Ticket to Ride,” a buoyant story song about a new relationship that blossoms on an airplane. She and longtime friend and collaborator Marcus Hummon teamed up to pen “Desperately,” an examination of the kind of love we all crave. Evans co-wrote six of the album’s 10 tracks, but says her goal was to record the very best songs no matter who wrote them. “I didn’t have a message really that I wanted to say. I just wanted each song to be incredible,” she says, “so that was my only focus. That was my goal.”

Evans puts her own distinctive stamp on “My Heart Can’t Tell You No,” an ‘80s hit for rocker Rod Stewart that was originally intended as a country tune by Nashville writer Dennis Morgan and co-writer Simon Climie. Another highlight on the new album is “Alone,” a tender ballad about a woman letting her man know that what she needs most from him is space and time on her own.

In recording Stronger, Evans worked with hot young producer Nathan Chapman – known for his work with Taylor Swift – and with Music Row legend Tony Brown. “Both of them are brilliant producers,” says Evans. “It took me two years to make the album, so Nathan started out on the project and then he was committed to other projects so we begged Tony to come in and finish it. He so graciously stepped in and did a fabulous job.” Evans also teamed with Marti Frederiksen, who produced the track “Wildfire,” which he co-wrote with Evans, her brother Matt and Kara DioGuardi.

Stronger is just the latest jewel in an already stellar career. The New Franklin, MO, native has come a long way from singing with her family’s band as a child. She has garnered numerous accolades including the Academy of Country Music’s Top Female Vocalist honor in 2006 and the Country Music Association’s Video of the Year prize for “Born to Fly.” She’s been named one of PEOPLE magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People.” Her previous studio albums have been strong sellers. Her sophomore set, No Place That Far, has been certified Gold; 2001’s Born to Fly is double-Platinum and 2003’s Restless and 2005’s Real Fine Place are both Platinum.

Evans admits to having mixed feelings about taking so long between albums. “If I’d released this music any sooner than now, I know it wouldn’t have been the right timing,” she says, “but there were moments of feeling very anxious that I’d been off the radio for too long. My manager said to me, ‘You don’t need to think about how long it’s been or rushing into it. You just need to wait for the right song, and if you wait for the right song, it will all fall into place.’ He kept saying, ‘Don’t make any decisions based on fear. Be patient. Know that your fans are there. They are waiting. Nobody is going anywhere.’”

He was right. Country radio and the fans have embraced her new music, and Evans couldn’t be more excited about this next chapter in her career. “My goal with this album and then all the albums to come is just to continue to make the very best music that I can possibly make. I want to be at the top,” she says, and the supportiveness of her husband is certainly as empowering as any lyric Evans might sing. “Jay tells me, ‘There’s nothing you can’t do. There’s nowhere you can’t go. There’s no song you can’t sing. There’s no venue you can’t fill. Whatever you want to try to do, I’m there to support it. If you don’t want to do it anymore, I’m also there to support you.’ But I want it more now than I’ve ever wanted it.”

"I'm just really grateful for what I have. I want my life to mean something and I want to make music that matters."

Find Sara on the web:

Eden's Edge

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:03:00 GMT

When it comes to making great music, kindred spirits somehow seem to find each other and such is the case with Eden's Edge. Three talented young musicians from Arkansas -- Hannah Blaylock, Dean Berner, and Cherrill Green --make their debut on Big Machine Records with a vibrant sound that honors country music’s roots while creatively pushing the envelope with their seasoned musicianship, dazzling harmonies and insightful songwriting.

With one listen to Edens Edge, it’s obvious the trio has forged a unique sound shaped by their individual influences and anchored in their own distinctive gifts. Each grew up in rural Arkansas where farming, faith and family provided a firm foundation and offered a springboard for their musical aspirations.

“I had grown up singing in church and school talent shows,” says lead vocalist Hannah. “I’d always known that I wanted to be a singer. I didn’t know exactly how to go about making that happen, but my parents always knew that that was my true passion and they wanted to nurture that as much as possible.”

By the time she was in her teens, Hannah was singing in a band with her family and Steve Smith, a local financial planner with a penchant for writing songs. It was Smith who recruited Dean to join the group. “He taught me my first chords on guitar and he was also my soccer coach when I was seven,” says Dean, who plays guitar, dobro and contributes harmony vocals. “I grew up listening to a pretty eclectic mix of music from Johnny Cash to Crystal Gayle. My dad was a fan of Crystal and he had her tapes in the car. I also listened to the Beatles and other great songwriters like Billy Joel, Paul Simon and The Eagles. Then I got into rock music when I was a teenager and listened to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. I was learning to play guitar, so that was a big thing for me just listening to great guitar players. Eric Clapton was also another big influence.”

Dean and Cherrill had played music together a few times during their college days, and a month after Dean joined Hannah’s group, they recruited Cherrrill. “We needed another mandolin player and singer so we found Cherrill,” says Hannah. “She is just amazing. She’s this incredible instrumentalist and she could follow me like crazy with harmonies because she’d grown up her whole life singing in a family bluegrass band.”

Cherrill recalls listening to some classic country and a little Beatles growing up, but her world was dominated by bluegrass. “I listened to Alison Krauss, Tony Rice and Flatt and Scruggs, but then my mom listened to a lot of The Judds, Reba, George Strait, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn,” says Cherrill, who sings and plays mandolin, banjo and guitar. “We played a lot of festivals. At bluegrass festivals you just play all the time. We’d jam till really late at night and we were constantly around so many good musicians. When you are at those things, especially as a kid, musicians want to show you stuff so you are constantly learning. It’s basically like taking lessons from professionals all the time.”

After Cherrill, Dean and Hannah joined to form Edens Edge, the group steadily gained popularity, touring extensively around the region and winning area talent competitions. An entry in the 2006 CMT/NSAI Songwriter’s contest caught the attention of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Kye Fleming, known for penning such classic hits as Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” Sylvia’s “Nobody,” Ronnie Milsap’s “Smoky Mountain Rain.” “Kye contacted us and found out that we were 40 miles down the road from where she grew up in Fort Smith,” Hannah says of their Arkansas connection. She encouraged the young trio to move to Nashville. They made the leap in 2007 and began working with Fleming to hone their unique sound.

When Fleming was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame last year, Edens Edge was asked to perform a medley of her hits at the induction ceremony. Toby Keith, Taylor Swift and the late Tammy Wynnette were among the other honorees during the gala and the room was filled with Music City’s most powerful movers and shakers. “That night we got a record deal offer from Big Machine,” says Hannah.

Working with producer Mark Bright (Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts) the trio crafted a stellar debut that showcases their strengths as musicians as well as their compelling vocal blend. “The cool thing about the three of us is Cherrill has a classic country along with bluegrass background. Dean has the rock, blues and country background and then I have more the folk/americana/ country background,” Hannah says. “We’ve all kind of taken our favorite sounds from every genre and just kind of come up with our own formula.”

Cherrill, the Magazine , AR native, says Bright immediately caught their vision for the Edens Edge sound. “We felt he would bring creatively to the table what we wanted,” she says. “It’s a real challenge to take what we do acoustically as a trio, to add a band to it and yet keep the band from overpowering the acoustic instruments and vocal blend. It’s unique, and we needed a producer that understood our vision for the sound and could help us achieve that.”

They also flex their muscles as songwriters, co-writing with such proven hitmakers as Vince Melamed, Catt Gravitt and Danny Myrick. Hannah co-wrote the trio’s first single, “Amen” drawing from her rural experiences. “We all grew up in small towns and in Arkansas there is a church on every corner,” Hannah says. “Amen” is a fresh depiction of a small town love story. Everybody knows everybody else and gossip gets around and it paints a picture of that small town where two people fall in love.”

“Swinging Door” is a positive anthem that is attracting attention. ““I love it because it’s an empowering song,” says Hannah. “It’s from a girl’s perspective obviously, but it could also be from a boy’s perspective. It’s about being in a relationship and not letting somebody else push you around. I know we’ve all felt that way.”

“Giving Myself to that Man” is another song attracting strong attention as the trio blissfully conveys the excitement of completely surrendering to a new love. “Feels So Real” is a beautiful ballad, penned by Hillary Lindsey, Angelo and Tia Sillers. “Last Supper” is a unique examination of a relationship on the rocks. “You break the bread and you break my heart. You raise the glass, we fall apart” Hannah sings in the mournful ballad. The collection closes with” Christ Alone,” an a cappella song written by their longtime friend and former band mate Steve Smith. “It’s about living every day for the right thing,” notes Hannah.
“It’s not about money, power or success. It’s about who did I love today? Where are my priorities and where are my values? It’s a reminder of what’s really important in life. People get emotional and are moved to tears when they hear that song. It’s a priceless gift for us.”

“It’s a really universal song,” adds Dean. “It’s in a Christian context, but it speaks to people that are from different faith backgrounds and people who don’t really have a faith background. It’s amazing in that way.”

Music has taken the young members of Edens Edge on an intriguing journey and they are thankful for the ride. “We’ve really grown up together and we’ve moved here and created a life together and I think that kind of history is organic,” says Dean. “We came together naturally-- just for the purpose of having fun and playing music. That’s part our chemistry- we’re all doing something that we love together.”

Cherrill and Hannah agree. “We’ve grown together and changed together,” says Cherrill while Hannah adds, “We’ve found or have written music that moves us and inspires us. We just trust that the music will speak for itself. You do what you do and hope people will love it and can connect with it because our first love--as much as we love playing and writing music--our first love is inspiring others through music.”

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Brett Eldredge

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:18:00 GMT

Some life-changing moments are only apparent in retrospect. Brett Eldredge recognized his as it was happening.
The Paris, IL, native was visiting Nashville for the first time early in his sophomore year at Chicago's Elmhurst College. He was at the Station Inn, an historic bluegrass/country venue where many of the greats of both worlds have played. His cousin Terry, a veteran of Dolly Parton's band and now a member of the Grascals, was playing with a band called the Sidemen, and a mesmerized Brett was in the crowd.

"There was something so real and truthful about the songs they were playing," he says. “What happened next came as a shock.”
"He asked me to come up on stage and told me to pick a song to play with the band," says Brett. I said, 'Amarillo By Morning,' and when I heard that fiddle intro, chills shot up my spine. I sang it for the crowd there and it was a magical experience. That was the point where I thought, 'This is it. This is something I've got to do.'"

By the start of the next school year, he had transferred to Middle Tennessee State University and begun the round of writers' nights and writing appointments that led him eventually to a record deal.

The talent that let him turn that dream into reality—the depth of his writing and the sheer power of his smoky and expressive baritone—are both apparent in his first single. "Raymond" is the poignant tale of a nursing home employee mistaken by a patient with Alzheimer's for her deceased son, who was killed at war. It is a song whose inspiring reaffirmation of their mutual humanity is affecting listeners deeply. The single rings true for Eldredge as his Grandmother currently struggles through the disease.

"There are a lot of things I'll play live where people will say, 'I like that,' or 'That's a really cool song,'" Brett says, "but when I do this one, I get the chance to tell people how special a thing it's been in my life, and it always touches someone. A lot of people know someone with Alzheimer's and people react in a really emotional way to it."

Brett has earned a reputation as much for the strength of his writing as for his world-class voice. He and co-writer Pat McLaughlin landed a song called "I Think I've Had Enough" on Gary Allan's latest album, Get Off On The Pain, and one of his frequent collaborators is Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry stalwart Bill Anderson.

"He's one of my favorite people to write with," says Brett. "I love the fact that he believes in country music so much, because it's something I really believe in. My dream, as I find my place in country music, is one day to be an Opry member."
Brett heard all kinds of music growing up, and became a particular fan of the classic pop singers he heard in his grandfather's car.
"I heard a lot of Frank Sinatra, who is still a favorite of mine, and Ray Charles and Bobby Darin," he says. "When my mother convinced me to sing 'Mack The Knife' at a talent show, I got hooked on singing in public."

That was in Paris, a town of 9,000 with "cornfields and factories and lake right in the middle." Brett, his older brother and his parents—a traveling grain salesman and a nurse—lived on the lake and, says Brett, "We were on the water every day, from the time I was so little they could pull me on water skis in a paddle boat until I left for college at 18." Sports were a big part of his life, and he played basketball, baseball and football in high school.

He also sang everywhere he could, often the Big Band music of Sinatra, earning spending money and learning to work a stage. His appreciation for country music became a passion when he turned 16 and he and a friend rode around listening to a Brooks & Dunn greatest hits album.

"There was something about it that just struck me," he says. "I couldn't get enough of it. Ronnie Dunn is one of my favorite singers of all time—I love the soul in his voice—and one of the main reasons I got into this in the first place."

Brett spent two years in Chicago, where his older brother lived, performing with a school jazz band and with a Big Band around the region. "One of the coolest gigs," he says, "was at the Field Museum, I was singing in front of a 12-piece band under this huge Tyrannosaurus Rex statue near some mammoths. It was quite the experience." Then came that fateful visit to Nashville and his transfer to MTSU. He studied classic country stylists like George Jones and later Vince Gill, absorbing everything he could.

"I was driving back and forth Nashville every day from Murfreesboro, which is thirty miles away," he says. "I had a guitar Terry had given me, which was originally a gift from Dolly, and I'd pretty much lock myself in my room and make myself learn songs. I would play writers' nights all around Nashville. There might be two people, there might be 40 or 50. I'd go play my songs and see what people liked and what they didn't. I'd screw up royally in front of them, but I learned."

He earned a degree, which, he says, "made Mom and Dad happy, and then I moved on to what I really wanted to do.
A staff writer for hit producer/publisher Byron Gallimore heard him at a writers' night and introduced him to Byron, who signed him.
"I wrote for about two years, developing my craft and writing with everyone I could. In the beginning, Byron just let me kind of find myself, because that takes a while. As you write more you starting homing in on what you sound good on. Eventually, Byron said, 'You've got something here' and we went in and started cutting songs. We did a showcase, and Carole Ann Mobley from Warner Music Nashville said, 'We've gotta sign this kid'. Mobley and Craig Kallman then signed Brett to Atlantic Records, making him the first official signing for the new imprint.

As he worked with his band tightening his show, he was offered a particularly gratifying gig."I opened for Blake Shelton at The Ryman and it was the coolest experience. I flew back from this house gig and all of a sudden I'm thrown into playing the Mother Church of Country Music, something I always dreamed of doing. I was operating on almost no sleep, but stepping out on that stage where everybody who's anybody in country music has been meant the world to me." He remains active in sports, playing basketball and volleyball and playing on an intramural softball team in Nashville, and rooting for the Cubs and Bears. Meanwhile, he is dedicated to improving his craft.

"As a songwriter," he says, "my aim is to portray a little bit of me and my life along with the stories of other people and turn them into something that can really touch somebody's heart and soul. We sit down on Music Row every day and write songs and every once in a while a song like ‘Raymond’ comes from such a real place. I hope it's that real to other people and that I can make them feel the way I felt when I wrote it and when I sing it."

Judging from audience reaction, that’s exactly what he’s doing.

Find Brett on the web:

Eli Young Band

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:03:00 GMT

It's a crazy-good story. The Eli Young Band—four musicians who met during their college days in Texas—is now 11 years into a career built on touring without a single lineup change. That dedication is paying off big-time as the band enjoys a crazy new level of success. They sell a crazy amount of tickets. Get a crazy amount of airplay. And are selling a crazy amount of downloads—EYB is on the verge of its first Gold single for the aptly named “Crazy Girl.”

Penned by fellow artist Lee Brice and Nashville songwriter Liz Rose (“You Belong With Me”), “Crazy Girl” is a perfect introduction to Life At Best, a 14-track album that takes the band’s wide-ranging multi-genre influences and distills them into a focused, engaging vision: edgy country with hints of heartland rock bands such as Tom Petty and classic Eagles.

Produced by Mike Wrucke with executive producer Frank Liddell (a team noted for its award-winning work with Miranda Lambert), Life At Best takes the listener on a journey, winding through songscapes that walk a delicate line. There’s a distinct variance from track to track as EYB veers from energetic quasi-rockers to steel-ladled country songs to conflicted ballads. And yet the album maintains a singular identity, built around a sound that’s been masterfully created over the course of three studio albums.

“We were able to just go in and record the entire record all in the same time period, and so you’re in the same state of mind the entire time you’re recording,” lead singer Mike Eli notes. “There’s something to be said about that when you’re creating music, and I think this album demonstrates it. There’s a degree of cohesiveness with this record that I don’t think we’ve had with our prior records.”

There’s also a degree of anticipation—understandable given that “Crazy Girl” provides a new level of exposure to a national presence that’s been created by simple touring. Their last album, Jet Black & Jealous, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Country Albums chart in 2008 even though the group had never made the Top 10 through radio play at that point in its career. One title from that project, “Always The Love Songs,” provided that Top 10 breakthrough while the group earned critical acclaim from People, USA Today, Billboard, The New Yorker, American Songwriter and Country Weekly and picked up television appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. EYB also nabbed a nomination from the Academy of Country Music for Top New Vocal Group of the Year.

Still, nothing demonstrated the band’s impact on the public consciousness better than its ability to turn a disappointing concert hurdle into personal triumph. A handful of dates on the multi-act Country Throwdown Tour were dropped in 2010 as the promoters made a cost-cutting move during a difficult touring season. With only nine days notice, the Eli Young Band announced a concert on its own in Dallas and sold an impressive 20,000 tickets with little advance.
“We were rolling the dice on that show,” drummer Chris Thompson admits. “It was great to see the payoff on that concert and know that those people have our back.”

If the band’s fan base has its back, it’s merely an extension of the solidarity the Eli Young Band has demonstrated since the beginning. Thompson, guitarist James Young and bass player Jon Jones formed an instant friendship and started performing around Denton when they were students at North Texas State University in 1998. Eli came into the picture when he enrolled at the school the next year, first playing duo shows with Young, then singing lead as the gang of four officially made its live debut in October 2000.

“In the very beginning, we decided that this is gonna be the four of us or it wasn’t gonna work,” Jones reflects. “Way before Nashville was even on our radar, we had time to figure out how we wanted to do it and really kind of commit to each other. We decided that we would be stronger, the four of us going through it together instead of just one person, which I think is the best thing about being a band. You have a group of people to share everything with—to share some of the work and keep each other grounded.”

There was plenty of work. And little pay. EYB built its reputation by honing its music in front of audiences. They’d play a club, sometimes for fewer than 100 members, but when they returned to that venue, the crowds were invariably larger. Within three visits, they usually sold out the house and would soon need to move up to a larger hall.

The group routinely plowed its earnings back into the business, buying better equipment, fueling its cramped van, and gambling on the good vibes the musicians shared as a band—and with their growing legion of fans. It’s the same method that lifted many classic bands: New Jersey’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Seattle’s Nirvana and Detroit’s Bob Seger. The Eli Young Band established itself first in Denton, grew to prominence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, expanded into a regional act across Texas and Oklahoma and eventually extended its tentacles from coast to coast.

EYB shed the van in favor of a bus several years ago and has stepped into even larger venues, opening for the likes of Alan Jackson, Jason Aldean and the Dave Matthews Band. And the group has reached a level where it regularly sells out 5,000-seaters on its own in the Southwest and 3,000-seaters in other areas of the nation.

“Crazy Girl” underscored the strength of the group’s foundation when it sold 47,000 copies in its first week out. It quickly became the fastest radio hit in EYB’s career and sent an undisputable signal that the group is now a coast-to-coast phenomenon.

“Some of the biggest responders were way outside of Texas,” Jones asserts. “It seemed like everywhere we’re went people were really welcoming us into the doors and ready to give the single a chance.”
But as strong a reception as “Crazy Girl” has received; it’s merely an introduction to an album long on ingratiating melodies, magnetic hooks and subtly provocative storylines. “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” kicks it off with a breezy Petty feel, and the project runs through the punchy “Every Other Memory,” the optimistic crunch of “Recover,” the introspective ballad “My Old Man’s Son” and the gritty “Skeletons.”

“What I like about our records is there are different kinds of songs here and there, and there’s something for everybody,” Young says. “We don’t set out to write just one kind of song.”

EYB members wrote or co-wrote nine of the 14 tracks, drawing on their collective experiences as musical partners and growing individuals. They referenced their struggles as a band, the pitfalls of relationships, the complexities of family heritage and the difficulties of simply being human. Despite digging into hardship, they transmitted it with an unerring sense of optimism.

And they did it in a way that only four guys who have held together as friends and business partners through several years of difficult touring can. They were all born within a 15-month span, and that’s created a shared prism through which they’re able to see the world and their music.

“Life At Best has just a little bit more maturity than anything we’ve done before,” Jones says. “We’re always writing about what we’re going through, and the type of song that appeals to us changes with our lives. We’ve been growing up together and going through the same phases really since college, and you can see some of that in this record. You can see that we’re a little bit older than in Jet Black & Jealous.”

And a little more established. Their growing TV presence, their continuing road-warrior commitment and the imminent Gold of “Crazy Girl” all point Life At Best in one direction: a crazy little thing called success.

Find Eli Young Band on the web: