Single, “American Made,” cracks MusicRow chart; “Hippie @ Heart” set to follow
By Preshias Harris
A few decades ago, ‘Outlaw Country’ shook up the country music scene as personified by Waylon, Wille, Kris Kristofferson and David Allan Coe. Now along comes a new ‘bad boy’ of country music: Dakota Poorman who is happy to step outside the boundaries that surround many country artists.
‘New’ isn’t really the word to describe Dakota Poorman who has been earning his chops the hard way: playing gigs in bars and venues throughout the Northwest, surrounding his hometown of Maple Valley, Washington, and fronting the Dakota Poorman Band since 2010. However, he might be a ‘new’ name and a breath of fresh air in Music City.
This is one of a series of interviews conducted during the 2022 Country Radio Seminar (CRS) in Nashville.
Cranking up the excitement – and audiences – with what he describes as “Red, White and Blue Collar Country,” Dakota delivers his unique blend of country rock highlighted with banjo and fiddle that build on his influences as diverse as Travis Tritt, Bob Seger and The Marshall Tucker Band.
Sneak peek at March edition of Inside Track on Music Row
Catch up with what’s happening with my monthly column, Inside Track on Music Row, the longest-running country music column in the USA. You can read the entire column when it is posted at Nashville Music Guide. Meanwhile, click here to read the full February 2022 column, complete with photos, graphics, music links and more, at NMG.
Scroll down for a sneak peek at some news items set for the March column, featuring Elvie Shane, Cole Swindell, western artist Bobby Marquez, songwriter Steve Dorff, Scotty McCreery, The upcoming ACM Awards, and the launch of Country Rebel Records…
Elvie Shane’s “County Roads” a ‘most added’ song at Country radio
On the heels of his No. 1 smash hit “My Boy,” Wheelhouse Records singer/songwriter Elvie Shane’s new single “County Roads” launched at country radio, and immediately became one of the ‘most added’ songs of the week. Co-written by Shane with Dan Couch and Oscar Charles, his new single is full of untamed energy, flying like an unguided missile of passion down “County Roads” and paints a picture of Shane’s early days in Grayson County, KY. Listen to “County Roads” here.
“The story in ‘County Roads’ is the American graffiti that painted my coming-of-age years,” shared Shane. “Knowing where you came from is important to understand where you are and where you could go. All the full throttle mistakes made, lessons learned, and good times had are equally important. The choice for next single was a no-brainer after showing my better sides with ‘My Boy.’”
The Gold-certified “My Boy” is taken from Shane’s just-released debut full length album, Backslider. Shane is currently on his first-ever headlining My Kinda Trouble Tour. Dates, tickets, music and more here.
Cole Swindell’s Stereotype set for April release
Grammy-nominated multi-Platinum superstar Cole Swindell will release his fourth album, Stereotype, on April 8. Stereotype includes Swindell’s milestone, 10th career, multi-week No. 1 “Single Saturday Night,” as well as his current fast-rising single, “Never Say Never,” with Lainey Wilson. Produced by Zach Crowell, Chris La Corte, Jordan Schmidt and Michael Carter, Stereotype highlights Swindell as a hit-making songwriter across the project.
Hailey Whitters’ “12-year journey in a 10-year town”
By Preshias Harris
As the Grand Ole Opry gets back to entertaining full-capacity audiences, some rising ‘next generation’ stars will be taking the stage.
During a Zoom meeting on June 1, Jordan Pettit, the Director of Artist Relations for Opry Entertainment Group, announced the first artist to be part of the class of 2021 in the Opry NextStage program.
Pettit introduced Hailey Whitters, a singer-songwriter from Ville, Iowa. She recalled visiting the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 15. Backstage, she boldly went up to Little Jimmy Dickens and told him, “I’m going to be in country music someday.” Dickens told her to keep on saying it. Two years later, she moved to Nashville and played her first gig at Ri’chards Café in Little Creek, Tennessee. A few years later, she was back at Ri’chard’s, but this time she was waiting tables and keeping her dream alive.
As Pettit pointed out, Whitters is “now twelve years into a ten-year town” and the release of her album, The Dream, showed the depth of her creativity as an artist and a songwriter. In his introduction, Pettit described Whitters as “so vulnerable, bold, honest and raw.” Whitters said that being part of country music and performing on the Opry stage “was all I ever wanted to do.” She made her Opry debut on August 7, 2019 and will take the stage for the Opry’s Saturday show on June 5.
The country baritone voice that touches listeners’ hearts
By Preshias Harris
“For me, the greatest reward from performing is the satisfaction of realizing people in the crowd understand you,” says Josiah Siska, the Black River Entertainment recording artist and songwriter. He explains, “When I write songs, when I play my music or when I cut a song, it’s always something that I can relate to; a story from my life, something that I’ve lived or an experience, a mood or a love that I’ve felt.”
That’s also what draws Josiah to songs written by other songwriters such as “To Get A Girl.” It’s his current single written by Danny Myrick, Josh Ronen, and Landon Wall and released by Black River in early March 2021. Watch the official lyric video here.
“I’m not too great at communicating with strangers all the time,” Josiah admits, “But when I play my music on stage, the people in the crowd get to hear me. When they tell me that it’s good, I feel real good. That’s the most rewarding thing about being an artist for me.”
The Gwinnett, Georgia, native is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays electric, acoustic and classical guitar, as well as the banjo and piano. He was working at a Dacula, Georgia, golf club when he auditioned for Season 15 of American Idol, impressing the judges with his rendition of “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” It was the first big step on his musical journey.
Idol: A leap of faith
“It was kind of a blind leap, just blind faith,” he says of his decision to try out for Idol. “I went out to Hollywood by myself. I auditioned when I was seventeen, I turned eighteen when I got accepted on the show and I did it all on my own.”
His love of stepson captures No. 1 spot on TikTok with
#MyBoy
By Preshias Harris
Elvie Shane knows just how much dedication and hard work (and patience!) it takes to see one of your songs eventually begin to climb the charts. The Billboard Country Airplay chart for October 16 shows Elvie’s “My Boy” jumping in at No. 56. The song also tops Billboard’s “Most Added” chart that lists the songs added to the playlists of Country Radio stations nationwide.
Watch Elvie perform a ‘Live in Studio’ version of “My Boy” at YouTube here.
Due to the continuing corona virus, Elvie and BBR Music Groupreimagined the traditional radio tour. The innovative approach involves customized, high-quality live-streamed, full-band performances and video chats, which deliver extraordinary experiences for the viewer and will likely become the model of radio tours for the foreseeable future. For six weeks straight, Elvie has performed roughly five full-band shows per day—miraculously maintaining his stamina, gaining believers and setting the bar high for future newcomers.
The song also leapt to No. 1 on TikTok’s Country chart with well over 775 million uses of #MyBoy and more than 1.5 million streams in the USA alone. You can see a few of the posted TikTok videos here.
No overnight success
Elvie Shane wows the crowd at the 2019 CMA Fest. Photo credit: Catrina Engelby
This achievement is no overnight success – either for “My Boy” or for Elvie himself. Growing up in rural Caneyville, KY, Elvie absorbed influences from the Gospel music of his church and the gritty rock music favored by his truck-driving dad.
He credits a professor at Western Kentucky University for encouraging him to develop his creative writing, but, much as he enjoyed listening to music it wasn’t an immediate career choice, particularly as he devoted his attention to providing for his wife and stepson.
After he watched the now-famous Chris Stapleton/Justin Timberlake duet at the 2015 CMA Awards, he saw that his voice and personal style of songwriting might find an outlet in country music. He started performing anywhere he could find a mic.
New album and single from a country artist on the rise
By Preshias Harris
Recently, I caught up with David Adam Byrnes, a singer-songwriter on the verge of major stardom with a new album, Neon Town, set for release in October.
I have known Arkansas-born David Adam for years, both as an industry friend and a fan of his music. I sent him a “12 Pack” of questions, and reading his answers (via e-mail) made me laugh and smile! It was definitely my dose of sunshine for the week.
But first, the big news about his new album. From a
small-town Arkansas kid to a mainstream songwriting scholarship in Nashville to
a return to his independent country music roots, David Adam Byrnes is making
the scene in Texas with singles flying up the Texas radio chart.
On October 2nd, Byrnes released his new album Neon Town,
and for several months its presence has already been felt with three
back-to-back #1 hit singles. The very
week the second single, “I Can Give You One,” hits #1 in Texas, the virus
pandemic hits the world. Shows canceled,
album release canceled…life as we know it, canceled. After months of shutdown David decided that
the show must go on. On April 10th he released his new single “Neon Town,” the
title track to the new album, and it has also reached the #1 spot.
It’s always good to hear new music from a (relatively) new singer, but when that new music is a song written by four respected Nashville songwriters – two veterans and two emerging stars – it’s certainly a newsworthy event. But here’s where it gets extra special for me. The creative team behind the song includes two long-time and much-loved friends of mine.
Hard to believe, but my friendship with both Doug and Dave goes back more than a quarter of a century! Doug is probably best-known for the Randy Travis mega-hit, “Three Wooden Crosses” (co-written with Kim Williams) that became the CMA, ACM, CCMA and NSAI ‘Song of the Year,’ as well as Lee Brice’s “Love Like Crazy”, a Billboard Song of the Year. As a producer and A&R exec, he’s worked with a “who’s who” of country music talent from Clay Walker and Joe Diffie to Blake Shelton and Kelsea Ballerini.
Dave Gibson
Dave Gibson is another Music Row stalwart who has been a long-time friend of mine. His list (a long list) of writing credits includes songs for Confederate Railroad (“Daddy Never Was the Cadillac Kind”), Alabama (“Jukebox on My Mind”), Montgomery Gentry (“Lonely and Gone”) plus big cuts on Conway Twitty, Pam Tillis, Steve Wariner and more. Dave’s latest project is The Waterhole Bunch, a show that premiered on ROKU TV Worldwide in August that he describes as “puppets and humans making music and mayhem.”
Gabby Barrett, Rascal Flatts, Caylee Hammack & Reba,
Tenille Townes, Kenny Chesney … Jon and Preshias talk about that and more!
Livestreamed on The Y’all Show
Another edition of our weekly livestream of the Y’all Show hosted by Jon Rawl. Watch the entire episode here on the Y’all Show YouTube channel.
Gabby Barrett is Country’s ‘golden girl’ breaking records with her album Goldmine
Rascal Flatts set to release seven-track EP July 31
Blake Shelton’s Ole Red Orlando ‘virtual’ launch party postponed
Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum remains closed – for now
Reba joins Caylee Hammack on “Redhead” song and video
Tenille Townes (Lemonade Stand) & friends have “Big Hearts for Big Kids”
Kenny Chesney score 31st chart-topper with “Here and Now
A country music Q&A from my book I Know Country
…and more from this week’s Y’all Show With Preshias. Scroll down to read more
Gabby Barrett is Country’s new ‘golden girl’ as she continues to break records with her debut album Goldmine. Among her achievements:
Gabby is the first-ever female artist with a Country song to log
over 10 million on-demand streams in a single week with 11.3 million.
The ACM New Female Artist Of The Year Nominee has racked up nearly
400 million on-demand streams to date.
Gabby is the youngest artist to have a debut #1 in over two
decades.
Additionally, Goldmine breaks the first day Country
streaming records on Amazon Music globally with first-day streams exceeding any
other debut Country album ever.
Kyndon Oakes, Mark Vikingstad and Michael Boris make up the trio known as Lockeland. They were drawn to Nashville by their mutual love of music and have been writing and performing together now for several years.
Lockeland
Each brings a unique music vibe that blends them together as a trio. Kyndon began singing alongside family members before moving to Nashville in 2009, originally to pursue a solo career. Mark says he joined his high school band “because chicks dig it.” He moved to Music City just days after receiving his BA diploma in Music Business from SUNY Fredonia. Michael grew up in Apalachin, NY, but moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University, graduating with a degree in Commercial Music Percussion.
Til The Cows Come Home
Together they create a three-part harmony that gives them a unique edge in the world of contemporary country music.
They are about to break out with their infectious debut single, “Til The Cows Come Home,” released March 8, 2019. Check out their website here.
A couple of days before Country Radio Seminar (CRS) hit town, we met up to talk about their new single and how they make music together.
Trio ‘locked in the land’
How did you come up with the group name Lockeland?
Kyndon: When we came together to form the group, we were trying to come up with a name and we kept texting each other with all these different names that we thought would work best. We fell on Lockeland just by chance. Mark and Michael are from New York and I’m from Kansas, and we ‘locked the land’ in between and met in Nashville. Plus it helps that Nashville is landlocked, so we settled on Lockeland.
Looking at your set list, it seems you’re open to playing music from a lot of different genres. What do you think of as your musical influences?
Michael: That’s one of the very cool things I love about this band because we all come from very diverse musical backgrounds. I started playing drums when I was eleven. I played a lot of ‘fife and drum core’ stuff. Then I moved into classical music, then I started listening to hard rock and a lot of punk, stuff like that. When I moved to Nashville, I simply hadn’t listened to a whole lot of Country. But when I moved here eleven years ago, I gave it a try and I was like, “You know what? There’s a lot of really great music here.” So there’s honestly not a music genre that I, personally, don’t like. I love R&B, rock, funk, country. I think that’s kind of the same for all of us.
“When people come up to you after the show and they’re talking to you and giving you that feedback, that’s when you know you’ve had a good show. You can feel that. You can feel the energy. They’re singing along, they’re clapping along, they’re in it.” – Kyndon Oakes
Number One party toasts Evans, DeStefano, Osbourne
“Kiss Somebody” is the first No. 1 in the USA for Morgan Evans, both as a songwriter and as an artist.
(L to R): Josh Osbourne, Evans, Morgan Evans, Chris DeStefano. Photo: Preshias Harris
Australian-born Morgan and his label Warner Brothers along with ASCAP, BMI and APRA AMCOS (Australia’s PRO) came together to celebrate for the three songwriters. Morgan, his producer Chris DeStefano (also a co-writer) and Josh Osbourne were at Sound Check January 17 to receive awards, kudos and plaques.
The single is off of his Top 10 US debut album, “Things That We Drink To.” Morgan’s artistic vision came full circle with his producer and hit songwriter Chris DeStefano. The eclectic country album arrived at #1 on the ARIA Top Country Albums Chart and scored a Top 5 debut on the all-genre ARIA Top Albums Chart in Australia. Evans’ current single “Day Drunk” has held the #1 spot on Australia’s Music Network Country Airplay Chart for 21 consecutive weeks. That track also topped the all-genre TMN Hot 100 Airplay chart for two weeks in Australia, almost unheard of for a Country act. The album has garnered critical acclaim and it looks like 2019 is not even going to slow down.
From 2007 talent show to 2018 No. 1
Morgan Evans. Photo: Joseph Llanes
Back Story: Morgan Evans moved to Nashville two years ago from his native Australia, where his career was already flourishing. He won a talent show in 2007 where the prize was a trip to Nashville to record a single. He is married to Black River’s Country star Kelsea Ballerini. He signed with Warner Bros in 2017 and released his U.S. debut “Kiss Somebody.”
Evans is supporting Old Dominion on the MAKE IT SWEET TOUR to kick off 2019, before joining the first leg of Dan + Shay THE TOUR beginning in February. At a NSAI fundraiser with Evans and his album’s co-writers and friends, they revealed that Evans and DeStefano had both co-written each of the album’s 11 songs (including the duet song with wife Kelsea)!
“Whenever I see the city skyline, I remember the first time I came to Nashville and I looked at that skyline and I imagined being a part of that community. And every time I have that thought, I get that rush of memories, especially on a day like today when we get to stop and look back and celebrate things. These guys have sat up here a lot of times, but for me, it’s the first I’ve experienced this. And I guess, more than anything, it means that I get to keep doing this for a long time.” – Morgan Evans
