The Dirt Drifters

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Words like “gritty” come to mind when The Dirt Drifters take to the stage. Of course, there’s no shortage of grit out there, but something in the sound of this five-piece separates it from the pack.

Maybe it’s the vivid images on these 11 tracks performed by band members: drummer Nick Diamond, lead singer/guitarist Matt Fleener, singer/guitarist Ryan Fleener, bassist Jeremy Little and singer/guitarist Jeff Middleton. The images — cigarettes and beer cans on “Sun Goes Down” (written by Matt Fleener, Middleton and Rivers Rutherford), the bullet holes, blue lights and traces of cheap perfume on “Married Men and Motel Rooms” (Middleton, Mark Irwin and Josh Kear) — seem to have been scraped up from a cellar of hard-time memories. (The group wrote or co-wrote all but one track on the album.)

Then there’s the performance, the power chords, the galloping groove that feels like you’re taking corners a little too fast on “Something Better” (Diamond, Matt Fleener, Ryan Fleener and Middleton), the blue-collar epic that John Mellencamp might have conceived had he grown up in a Southern factory town (“Always a Reason,” Ryan Fleener, Middleton and Justin Wilson), the way that lyrics come to life in the union of Matt Fleener’s whiskey-rough lead vocals and pristine backup harmonies.

5 Things You Don’t Know About The Dirt Drifters >>

Drawn from New Jersey, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee, The Dirt Drifters found each other in Nashville. Warner Bros. signed them and producer Justin Niebank captured their spirit on This Is My Blood. And they’re not waiting for success to come to them; on tour dates beginning in August, they’ve giving two copies of their debut CD to audience members, one to keep and the other to pass along. They call it “Give Blood”; we call it building a base one fan at a time.

IN HIS OWN WORDS
(ALL ANSWERS BY MATT FLEENER)

MUSICAL HERO
“Steve Earle because of his lack of boundaries. I like Johnny Cash for the same reason.”

CD IN YOUR STEREO
“Guy Clark’s Somedays the Song Writes You.”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
“Anything but an RV.”

LUCKY CHARM
“When I was a kid, I would sit on my grandma’s kitchen floor and play with the magnets on her fridge while she cooked and listened to music. I keep one of those magnets with me on the road.”

SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER
“‘Wild Horses,’ by the Rolling Stones.

FIRST GIG
“Me and my brother singing ‘Modern Day Romance’ and ‘Pancho and Lefty’ back in OKC. We butchered ‘Pancho and Lefty’ pretty bad.”

TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“Day Dreamer.”

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Aaron Lewis, lead singer of Staind.

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Not every newcomer can persuade Charlie Daniels, George Jones and Chris Young to join in on his debut single. Then again, Aaron Lewis isn’t your typical newcomer. He’d already built a massive following as frontman for Staind when he came down to Nashville to explore a side to his music seldom exposed on the alt-metal circuit.

Town Line, produced by Lewis and James Stroud and released on R&J Records, brings that side to life. These five songs and two bonus tracks, all written solely by Lewis, combine sensitivity and introspection, poetic soul and fierce pride in his roots. Lewis is in fact a product of rural America, raised in Vermont and exposed by his grandfather to Merle Haggard, Hank Williams (Senior and Junior), fishing, hunting and communion with nature.

This background inspired his autobiographical first single, “Country Boy.” His voice here is worn but tough; a Dobro and raw electric guitar cast haunted shadows, and his three stellar guests join the autobiographical narrative. “I grew up down an old dirt road in a town you wouldn’t know” he begins — an exquisitely crafted line, spare, evocative and defiant. That mood sustains to the end, qualifying “Country Boy” as a genuine anthem for country and the lifestyle it represents. Fans responded too, boosting sales to near Gold status and viewing the “Country Boy” video more than 7 million times by late June.

Lewis still lives in the Northeast, and true to the spirit of writing from what one knows first-hand, he offers “Massachusetts” to celebrate his state as a patriotic icon as well as an ideal place for his family — yet he does so with a spirit that’s right at home with Music Row. It takes talent to paint pictures from disparate elements — the kind of talent heard on Town Line.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO
“My father.”

SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER
“Man, I think I’ve covered them all!”

PET PEEVE
“People who think they deserve something without earning it.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD
“There’s nothing better than a good steakhouse.”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
“I’m a trained goldsmith. I can take a piece of wax, carve it up, cast it, turn it into metal, polish it, set stones in it and hand you a finished piece of jewelry.”

On The Web: www.AaronLewisMusic.com

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Photo by Mark DeLong, courtesy of the CMA.

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Before getting into the often raucous heart of The House Rules, jump ahead to the last track, one of only two not written or co-written by Christian Kane. If his cover of Tracy Chapman’s heartbreaking masterpiece “Fast Car” is all you heard from this album released on Outlaw Saints in partnership with Bigger Picture Group, you’d know that Kane possesses depth as a lyric interpreter that stands him apart from many of his peers.

It’s important to understand that from the top, because it lets us hear more clearly that on the riff-slamming single and title track (written by Kane and Blair Daly), the banjo-studded swagger of “Callin’ All Country Women” (Kane, Jerrod Niemann and Jimmie Lee Sloas), and the steel sweetened rocker “American Made” (Kane, Wayd Battle and Steven Carlson), his connection to the material is unusually insightful. As a singer, Kane knows how to bring each of these songs to life, whether an intimate narrative or a call to party fast and hard.

Produced by Kane, Bob Ezrin and Sloas, The House Rules combines the rough, raw edge that comes from being born in Dallas and raised in Oklahoma, with the sophistication Kane picked up after moving to Los Angeles and landing the lead role of Ryan “Flyboy” Legget in the MGM syndicated television series “Fame L.A.” He appeared in other TV productions as well and stars today in his fourth season as tough guy Eliot Spencer on TNT’s “Leverage.” But over time more of his energy went to KANE, a band he founded with Carlson. After they’d built a following in Hollywood clubs and a spot on local Country radio playlists, Kane and Carlson cast their lot entirely with music and moved to L.A.

With his good looks, stage and camera charisma and genuine Country feel, Kane has already gone far and is well positioned to go much further still.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER
“‘The Rooster,’ by Alice in Chains.”

DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Pink.”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
“My ’67 Bronco.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD
“I’m a sucker for Taco Bell.”

LUCKY CHARM
“My momma.”

PET PEEVE
“People that abuse authority ’cause they got beat up in high school.”

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Photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of the CMA.

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Some people were born Country. Brett Eldredge came to it a little late — but once he got there, he dug in deep and made it his home.

Growing up in Paris, Ill., Eldredge spent a lot of time hanging out at the local lake. He played baseball, basketball and football in high school. He enjoyed all music, especially big-band swing. Hearing Brooks & Dunn when he was 16 put Country in the center of his map, but the full-blown conversion didn’t occur until his sophomore year at Chicago’s Elmhurst College, when he visited Nashville for the first time.

Eldredge went to the Station Inn to hear his cousin Terry Eldridge, now a member of The Grascals, with The Sidemen. Called to sit in, he sang “Amarillo by Morning”; when he stepped down from the stage, his dreams, his passion and his future had all transformed.

Transferring to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Eldredge spent his spare time going to songwriter circles and hooking up with other writers. Two years after graduation, he found his break when Byron Gallimore caught a performance. Soon afterwards, he became the first artist signed to the newly revived Atlantic Records Nashville imprint.

Eldredge’s self-titled debut, produced by Gallimore, connects a wide range of moods through the excellence of his co-writing on 10 of 12 tracks as well as his extraordinarily communicative vocals. His first single, “Raymond,” exemplifies all that’s right in modern Country: Written by Eldredge and Brad Crisler, it shares a deeply emotional narrative with sensitivity and power. This quality persists in the evocative small-town imagery of “Signs” (Eldredge, Bill Anderson and Crisler) and every other moment created and captured here.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO
“Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.”

PHRASE YOU SAY OVER AND OVER
“That’s just one of them deals.”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
“Nikes — I love to run.”

LUCKY CHARM
“Socks that don’t match — it’s a weird new lucky charm I discovered after playing my first Grand Ole Opry show in mismatched socks. It went great.”

TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“I’m Just as Surprised as You Are.”

Visit Brett’s official artist section for more and watch a special video clip
to find out “5 Things You Might Not Know” about him!

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Photo credit: Jerrett Gaza

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2010 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Keith Burns built his chops through club gigs in his hometown of Atlanta before starting a six-year run on bass with Joe Diffie. He then stepped into the spotlight in 1996 as co-founder of Trick Pony, with whom he recorded and performed all the way to the group’s breakup.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Plantation, Fla., Michelle Poe learned the ropes as bassist in the family band, with her father on guitar, her mother on piano and a drum machine providing the beat. After high school graduation, she moved to Nashville and picked up band gigs on bass and harmony vocals with Dierks Bentley, Steve Holy and Hank Williams Jr.

Once introduced, they clicked as writing partners, to the extent that one or both were involved as writers on all but one of the tracks on their debut album. Produced by Burns & Poe and Mark Oliverius, released by Blue Steel Records, Burns & Poe shoots for the stars with a strong single, “Don’t Get No Better Than That.” Within that song, written by Burns and Oliverius, there’s a stomping beat, a chiming guitar riff and a tongue-tripping rap from Burns on the verses and full harmonies, sung over a handclap groove reminiscent of John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good,” on the choruses. All of it celebrates the exhilaration of rolling the top down, pointing your car down the highway and being free to drive toward whatever lies beyond the horizon for no particular reason at all.

But for a clear picture of how their talents intersect, check out “It’s Always a Woman.” Written by Burns, Poe and Don Goodman, this ballad features Burns on the verses, recounting the story of a man’s life lost to drink; his husky baritone is answered by Poe’s pure contralto on the chorus, ruminating on the role of a woman in his downfall as well as the promise of his redemption. Each sings thoughtfully, never overdoing the lyric. Unlike their sad protagonist, these two seem to have found their perfect artistic match.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS Q&A

DREAM DUET PARTNER
BURNS: “Don Henley.”
POE: “Steve Wariner.”

WORD OR PHRASE YOU SAY OVER AND OVER
BURNS: “Can’t say — it’s ‘R’ rated.”
POE: “Keith, watch your language!”

LUCKY CHARM
BURNS: “A cross.”
POE: “My two dogs.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD
BOTH: “Beef jerky.”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
BURNS: “I eat and write with my left hand and throw a ball and play guitar right-handed.”
POE: “I’m a substitute elementary school teacher.”

On the Web: www.BurnsandPoe.com

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Easton Corbin photo by James Minchin, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2010 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Easton Corbin looks back warmly at Gilchrist County, Fla., where he spent his boyhood fishing in the Suwannee River, participating in FFA and 4-H activities and aspiring to a career in Country Music. As a child, he nurtured that dream through hours spent watching “Hee Haw” and “The Grand Ole Opry” with his grandparents and playing vintage Country albums he discovered there while exploring the collections his father and aunt had assembled in their early years. By his late teens, he had developed his guitar chops through lessons with former Nashville session player Pee Wee Melton and was opening for national acts as they passed through his area.

2006 was a milestone year, as Corbin graduated from the College of Agriculture at the University of Florida and, five weeks after marrying his sweetheart Brinn, moved with her to Nashville. Both found day jobs but Corbin also used his contacts to set up an audition with Joe Fisher, Senior Director of A&R, Universal Music Group Nashville. That led quickly to a recording contract, an introduction to producer Carson Chamberlain and work on his self-titled debut album, set for release March 2 on Mercury Nashville.

On these 11 tracks, four of them co-written by Corbin, the feeling is deep Country, from the twang of his guitar to the raw appeal of his vocals. His writing draws from that same well; when he baits his lady’s hook on “The Way Love Looks,” which he penned with Chamberlain and Mark D. Sanders, you know it’s a sign of his affection. But the message rings clearest in his first single: Written by Rory Feek, Don Poythress and Wynn Varble, “A Little More Country Than That” combines an easy-going beat with a melody woven around a catchy motif that lends itself to a litany of images both rustic and romantic. Add that to Corbin’s relaxed way with a tune and you’ve got more than a good song — you’ve got a vivid intro to this promising artist.

IN HIS OWN WORDS Q&A

CDS IN YOUR STEREO
“Keith Whitley and Merle Haggard.”

DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Merle Haggard.”

GREATEST PERFORMANCE TO DATE
“The Suwannee River Jam. It was just me and my guitar in front of thousands of people. It was an awesome feeling.”

JOB IF NOT AN ARTIST
“I would probably be doing something in the agricultural sector.”

WHAT YOU HOPE PEOPLE WILL SAY ABOUT YOU 50 YEARS FROM NOW
“That I was an artist that recorded music that was pure and timeless for all ages.”

On the Web: www.EastonCorbin.com

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Josh Thompson's 2010 CD, Way Out Here. Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

By Bob Doerschuk
© 2010 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Josh Thompson’s future seemed written in concrete — specifically, in his father’s concrete business in Cedarburg, Wis., where he began working at 12. Years would pass before Thompson dared to dream about making music as a livelihood. In fact, he was 21 when he got his first guitar.

“I really just intended to play some of my favorite Merle Haggard songs around the campfire,” he explained. “But I began writing about six months later. Then it just got into my blood and controlled my life.”

By the time he got to Nashville in 2005, Thompson was nurturing a knack for capturing the nuances of life in a lyric and a tune. After landing a music publishing deal and making an initial impression by co-writing “Growing Up Is Getting Old,” the title track of Jason Michael Carroll’s latest album, with Jeremy Campbell, he built a reputation strong enough to earn a record deal with Columbia Nashville, which released a four-song, self-titled digital EP in November 2009.

On his album debut Way Out Here, in stores today, Thompson unveils a double-threat talent as a writer and performer. Produced by Michael Knox, the album features 10 tracks, nine co-written by Thompson. The last, “Sinner,” he wrote on his own as a profession of repentance tempered by a hint of stubborn pride. Articulated over an understated but dramatic backup, it rings with a quality of honesty that goes beyond craftsmanship.

Other sides of life emerge vividly on Thompson’s first single, “Beer on the Table,” which he wrote with Ken Johnson and Andi Zack. Using a technique familiar to Country composers, the song is built around a play on words that uncovers a new level of truth: Over a stomping, dance-floor beat prickled by bits of banjo, Thompson runs down his working-man credo, which adds up to “workin’ hard all week puts the beer on the table.” And you know from the grin in his voice that this artist writes and sings from first-hand experience.

IN HIS OWN WORDS Q&A

DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Lee Ann Womack or Norah Jones.”

CD INYOUR STEREO
“Satisfied by Ashley Monroe.”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
“My Jeep.”

FIRST GIG
“A bar in Marinette, Wis. It was horrible … long story!”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
“I love cantaloupe.”

MUSICAL HERO
“Merle Haggard.”

BOOK ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND
“Waylon Jennings’ autobiography and Lone Survivor.”

PET PEEVE
“Lazy people.”

On the web: www.JoshThompsonOfficial.com

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Nathan Lee Jackson photo courtesy of the CMA. Photo credit: Abigail Hadeed

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

Nathan Lee Jackson nourished his talent with a regimen of piano lessons, church choirs, talent contests and opening slots at shows around Winchester, Ky. Moving to Nashville after high school graduation, he followed the well-trod path into the music business, though with two unusual advantages. The first was one of his roommates, Billy Strange’s former wife, who happily introduced the young newcomer to her industry friends.

The second was Jackson’s artistry. His expressive vocals and the dramatic poetry of his lyrics resonated on a recording he’d made of his ballad, “Powerful,” which caught the ear of Jeff Glixman. With deep roots in classic rock, the producer related to this intensity and, with Zak Rizvi co-producing, helmed Complicated Hearts, Jackson’s StarCity Recording Company debut, with Jackson’s wife Stephanie among the participants.

On 14 tracks, including 12 co-writes and the self-penned “Powerful.” This album weaves a complex tapestry of influences and unusual arrangements, from two a cappella tracks to the jazzy ballad “Kentucky Breeze,” written by Jackson and Jesse Lingo, and the tightly harmonized fiddles and screaming lead of “Sittin’ by the River,” written by Jackson and Jim Femino. There’s Country in the steel guitar on the new single, “Desperate Man,” by Jackson and Bud Tower. But here too there’s edginess in the power guitar driving home a story of finding God at a moment of final reckoning. Throughout Complicated Hearts, Jackson swings for the fences and connects every time.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS Q&A

MUSICAL HERO “Garth Brooks. Ropin’ the Wind was one of the first albums I owned, and ‘The River’ was the first solo I sang in church.”

SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER “‘Two Sparrows in a Hurricane’ by Tanya Tucker.  I loved that song as a kid and it applies to my life now more than ever.”

CD IN YOUR STEREO “Nichole Nordeman’s Wide Eyed.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD “Free food!”

DREAM DUET PARTNER “My wife Stephanie … however, if Stephanie was at home, sick with the flu, and LeAnn Rimes just happened to want to sing a duet with me on the CMAs, I guess, through my tears, I would enjoy that thoroughly.”

One the Web: www.NathanLeeJackson.com

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Gloriana photo courtesy of Emblem Music Group. Photo credit: Kristin Barlowe.

By Bob Doerschuk

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

Established through club gigs in North Carolina as a duo, brothers Mike and Tom Gossin moved to Nashville in 2007 and soon after hooked up with Rachel Reinert. Working now as a trio, they connected with Cheyenne Kimball, a member of the audience during one of their gigs at Nashville club 3rd & Lindsley; instrumentally as well as vocally, she proved the last ingredient in the sound of Gloriana.

They rehearsed for six months before sending a demo to Emblem Music Group. Matt Serletic, founder of the new record label, responded immediately, welcomed them to the roster and got to work lining up material for their debut album. With Stephanie Bentley and Josh Kear, he co-wrote their first single, “Wild at Heart.” Rock-solid chords are their vocal trademark; on this track, they sing in a single, high-impact sound, roaming over a restless rhythm bed and climbing between verse and chorus to a peak of exuberant intensity.

Produced by Serletic, Gloriana overflows with an upbeat, attractive energy. Much of it stems from the material, from the electrifying opener “How Far Do You Wanna Go?” to the group’s one co-write, with Kyle Cook, on “Time to Let Me Go,” set over a relaxed train-track beat and sweetened by fiddle and steel. A lot owes to the positive qualities of the group’s main influences, which range from Ryan Adams to Fleetwood Mac and Keith Urban . But ultimately it’s the performance that distinguishes this foursome — a union of voices so confident and strong that it seems guaranteed to succeed.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS Q&A

SONG YOU WISH YOU’D WRITTEN
(REINERT) “‘Beautiful,’ by Christina Aguilera.”
(TOM GOSSIN) “’God Only Knows,’ by the Beach Boys.”

CD IN YOUR STEREO
(MIKE GOSSIN) “The Beatles — every album they did.”

DREAM DUET PARTNER
(KIMBALL) “Jason Michael Carroll.”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
(TOM GOSSIN) “I can cut hair. I went to hair school.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD
(EVERYONE) “Mexican!”

SONG YOU’D SECRETLY LIKE TO COVER
(TOM GOSSIN) “’Blue Ridge Mountains,’ by Fleet Foxes.”

PET PEEVE
(REINERT) “When people sing along to a song but don’t really know the lyrics so they kind of mumble them.”

ACTOR TO PORTRAY YOU IN MOVIE
(TOM GOSSIN) “Jon Stamos.”

WHAT YOU’D BE DOING IF YOU WEREN’T IN MUSIC
(MIKE GOSSIN) “Air Force pilot.”

Watch Gloriana Videos »

Upload & Share Gloriana Photos »

On the Web: www.Gloriana.com

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

By Bob Doerschuk

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

If you can make your past come alive through music, then you’ve got a gift that will serve you well. In this department, Justin Moore is amply blessed.

Case in point: Though written by Randy Houser and Jeremy Stover, Moore’s first single, “Back That Thing Up,” conjures how life must have felt back on the Arkansas farm where he was raised. Kids grew up there hunting, fishing, milking the cows and working the land — the kind of routine that feeds the good-natured, double-entendre swagger in this tale of a country boy as he introduces a city lass to the wonders of rural recreation.

In addition to driving a Bush Hog and excelling at sports, Moore spent a lot of time singing, whether in the church choir or onstage with his uncle’s Southern rock band. His passion for music catapulted him right out of Poyen High School, shortly after graduation, to Nashville. For several years he divided his time between the two locales, writing for Keith Stegall’s Big Picture Music, playing shows for friends and family back home and eventually cutting his self-titled debut album for The Valory Music Co., with Stover producing. And on these 10 tracks, nine of them bearing his credit as co-writer, including his Top 25 second single, the wistful hometown hymn “Small Town USA,” which he wrote with Stover and Brian Maher, Moore makes his world feel like you’d grown up there too.

IN HIS OWN WORDS Q&A

DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Ronnie Dunn.”

TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“How I Got This Way.”

LUCKY CHARM
“A necklace with a cross my wife gave me.”

GREATEST PERFORMANCE TO DATE
“My debut on the Grand Ole Opry.”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
“I’m a good cook.”

SONG YOU SING IN THE SHOWER
“It’s the only time I don’t sing.”

MUSICAL HERO
“Dwight Yoakam.”

SONG YOU’D SECRETLY LIKE TO COVER
“’Bad Company’ by Bad Company.”

CD IN YOUR STEREO
“Travis Tritt’s Greatest Hits.”

PET PEEVE
“Slow-driving people in the fast lane.”

SONG YOU WISH YOU’D WRITTEN
“’Believe’ by Brooks & Dunn.”

PHRASE YOU FIND YOURSELF SAYING OVER AND OVER
“’I’m sorry’ to my wife.”

MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE YOU’D LIKE TO RELIVE
“Hunting with my late uncle.”

FIRST GIG
“Hot Springs, Ark.  I don’t want to brag, but I got a standing ovation.  The audience was pretty much all my family though.”

Watch Justin Moore Videos »

On the Web: www.MooreJustinMusic.com

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