Search Results for "Eric Church"

If you answered yes to this question, then GAC’s wants you! GAC wants you to decide the Top 50 Videos of 2009. It’s time to rally your family, friends and fellow fan club members to get the vote out. We have over 140 videos from over 100 unique artists nominated. You can vote for up to 10 of your favorites every day.

So what are you waiting for? If you’re a fan of any of the artists listed below then it’s your duty as a card carrying country music fan to vote today and every day through Nov. 30, 2009 when the ballot closes.  Vote Now »

Continue Reading

Montgomery Gentry photo courtesy of Sony Nashville.

Country Throwdown 2010, a multi-act outdoor tour produced by the same company that created rock’s annual Vans Warped Tour, has enlisted Montgomery Gentry, Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town and Jack Ingram among the initial acts for a five-week, GAC-sponsored series of concerts next spring. Specific markets and the entire lineup have yet to be revealed, though the Throwdown will feature 21 total acts on an itinerary from May 13-June 20.

“When Eddie [Montgomery] and I were approached about doing the Country Throwdown Tour we immediately said yes,” Montgomery Gentry’s Troy Gentry said. “We loved the idea of it being like a big festival, a big party. I mean, that’s what Montgomery Gentry is all about. We’re keeping the ticket prices low because we know it’s hard out there. Fans are going to get a lot of entertainment for their money. This tour is going to be a great experience for us, the other artists and especially the fans.”

Continue Reading

Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

Many country stars enjoy dressing up for Halloween – and some avoid it altogether. Dial-Global recently spoke with Justin Moore, Big Kenny & Dierks Bentley about their Halloween plans.

“I absolutely hate Halloween,” Just tells Dial-Global. “Everybody makes fun of me ’cause I despise Halloween and I don’t know why. I was a real serious child, which makes no sense because I’m never serious now, but I never wanted to dress up as a kid. My parents, they’re like, ‘You are the strangest kid.’”

As one might expect, the opposite is true for Big Kenny. “Halloween is the great American excuse for everybody to get dressed up, eat, drink and be merry together and spook the dickens out of all the kids and even some dudes like me who are still spookable,” he says. Continue Reading

Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Sept. 30, 2009 — Dierks Bentley was the only country artist on the list this summer when Forbes magazine named 10 people most likely to break from stardom into superstardom. But if he’s ever tempted to take himself too seriously, he needs only look to his past to keep his feet on the ground.

Dierks took a lot of odd jobs to finance his life before he found his way in the music business, and one of those required him to clean 250-gallon septic tanks on houseboats at Lake Powell in Arizona.

“[One day] I was working these levers and suddenly the guys I was working with jumped back in horror,” he told The Orange County Register. “I had done it wrong, and the waste was just shooting out all over everything. Continue Reading

Eric Church photo by Jim Wright, courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Eric Church set a personal high with his current single, “Love Your Love The Most.” Eight months after it was released to radio, the song is now a Top 10 single in both Billboard and Country Aircheck for the first time.

He takes that career step at a time when taking any steps physically is a pain — literally. Eric broke his foot three weeks ago at the Syracuse State Fair, forcing him to pull out a stool and do subsequent shows sitting down. Continue Reading

The Oak Ridge Boys Photo Credit: Jarrett Gaza

By Bill Friskics-Warren

© 2009 CMA Close Up ® News Service / Country Music Association ®, Inc.

If anyone has proven the merits of the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” it’s The Oak Ridge Boys.

For more than 35 years, the internationally renowned quartet has been making hit records, collecting honors that include three CMA Awards and selling out concert halls with much the same ebullient blend of Country, pop and gospel — and, except for one late ’80s interruption, the same four voices.

So what’s with the version of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” on the quartet’s new Spring Hill Music album, The Boys are Back? And not just that, but what about the hip-hop-inflected rhythms on the title track and producer David Cobb’s blues- and rock-influenced arrangements elsewhere on the album? Continue Reading

Eric Church photo courtesy of Capitol Records Nashville. Photo credit: Jim Wright

By Vernell Hackett

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

When Eric Church wanted to leave college to pursue music, his dad made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “He told me if I’d graduate from college, he would pay for my first six months living expenses in Nashville,” the North Carolina native recalled. “I graduated with a degree in marketing and my dad was true to his word.”

That degree has paid off. Church’s sophomore album, Carolina, is out. He has already wrapped up the 37-stop first phase of “The Young & Wild Tour,” to resume in mid June. And his fan base, known as the Church Choir, is expanding not only because of their hero’s all-stops-out shows and originals-only sets but also because of where many of those shows take place – like, for instance, Lollapalooza. Continue Reading

Matt Stillwell photo courtesy of Aristo Media.

Written by Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Matt Stillwell has figured it out. On his debut album, Shine, produced by Mickey Jack Cones and released by Still7 Records, he walks that line where the gritty and commercial sides of life intersect. These 10 tunes, half of them co-written by Stillwell, are suited equally for radio listening and dance-club partying. And this Sylva, N.C., native sings each one with a voice that sounds both young and experienced. Continue Reading

Dean Brody photo courtesy of Broken Bow Records. Photo credit: David McClister.

By Bob Doerschuk

© CMA Close Up® New Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Raised in the shadows of the Canadian Rockies, Dean Brody grew up with an appreciation for rural life in British Columbia. After high school graduation, he continued to work at the local sawmill until the business slowdown forced him to take a new job as a miner.

Brody’s musical gifts led him back into the light and down to Nashville, where he got a publishing deal. But as he made his way into the business, the clock on his work permit kept winding down. After two years, he had no choice but to head back home to the mines. Continue Reading