Hailing from Dripping Springs, TX, lead vocalist Mark Wystrach fronts Midland’s rich sound, rounded out with lead guitarist/vocalist Jess Carson and bass player/vocalist Cameron Duddy. Rooted in tradition in both sound and style, the trio initially garnered attention by playing clubs in the region. Their critically acclaimed sophomore album Let It Roll (Big Machine Records) earned the No. 1 position on Billboard’s Top Country Album Sales chart upon release, receiving praise from outlets such as Rolling Stone, Variety, NPR, and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
Wystrach, Carson, and Duddy all played an integral role in writing the 14-track album with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne. The album was produced by Dann Huff, McAnally, and Osborne and was a follow-up to the critically acclaimed, gold-certified debut album, On The Rocks (Big Machine Records).
Launching in 2017 with rave reviews, On The Rocks was declared “The Year’s Best Country Album” by the Washington Post. Their 2x Platinum-certified chart-topping debut “Drinkin’ Problem,” which offers an intentional nod to Country music reminiscent of the 1970s and 80s, earned the band their first GRAMMY® Awards nominations for Best Country Song and Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Midland was also named New Vocal Group of the Year at the 2018 ACM Awards and was nominated for Vocal Group of the Year at the 2020 CMA Awards.
Born in Hollis, Queens, he debuted in 1999 with Venni Vetti Vecci and its single “Holla Holla.” From 1999 to 2005, Ja Rule had several hits that made the top 20 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Between Me and You” with Christina Milian, “I’m Real (Murder Remix) with Jennifer Lopez, “Always on Time” with Ashanti, “Mesmerize” also with Ashanti, and “Wonderful” with R. Kelly and Ashanti. During the 2000s, Ja Rule was signed to Inc. Records, which was formerly known as Murder Inc. and was led by Irv Gotti. Ja Rule has sold over 30 million records worldwide and was the best-selling rapper in 2001.
Ashanti
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, and author burst onto the music scene with her smash hit, self-titled album, Ashanti. It landed the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 and R&B album charts, selling a whopping 504,593 units in its first week. This set a SoundScan record as the most albums sold by any debut female artist in the chart’s history and granted her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Throughout her 20-year career, Ashanti has released six studio albums and received several illustrious rewards, including eight Billboard Awards, a Grammy, two American Music Awards, two Soul Train Awards, and six ASCAP Awards. she has reigned at the top as one of Billboard’s “Top Females of the Decade from 2000-2010” and continues to break Billboard records having a Hot 100 entry every decade in the 2000s, 2010s, & 2020s.
Pre-sale tickets for both shows go on sale Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 10 a.m. Stay tuned to Shoshone-Bannock Casino Hotel’s Facebook page for a special access code.
All other tickets will go on sale Friday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m.
Upcoming Entertainment
Chris Janson – March 24 The Clairvoyants – April 8 Midland – June 2 Lee Brice – June 23 Ja Rule & Ashanti – July 7
“I have a scissors and a microphone,” is how Molly O’Connell, county Tipperary’s hope for season 19 of TG4’s Country music series, Glór Tíre, describes herself.
A hairdresser by profession, she is also an emerging name in the Country & Irish scene, having released three singles to date.
Now, she is hoping to secure a place in the semi-finals of TG4’s hit series, Glór Tire, when she returns to perform on the February 7 edition of the show.
Despite being eliminated during her initial appearance, she is back with a chance to enter the semi-finals of the show.
Molly will appear on the first semi-final, to be broadcast on TG4 on Tuesday, February 7 at 9.30pm.
She, along with singers Billy Mac (Fermanagh), Jamie Donnelly (Tyrone), and Florence Given (Tyrone), will be singing to secure the public vote which could allow one of them to go through to the second semi-final on February 14.
Music and performance run deep in the O’Connell blood, and singing is something Molly has been doing for a long time.
“I’ve been singing since I was six in Scór [the GAA’s cultural competition] and Fleadhs,” she says, “and I was blessed to win an All-Ireland in the Scór at a young age.”
From Kilcommon, near Thurles, Molly grew up in a family that loved Irish folk and Trad as much as Country music, and both these elements have deeply influenced her own singing style.
“I would have learned sean nós and Country songs, so my voice is a mix of sean nós and Country,” she explains. “It came from both sides. My dad was in a Country band, The Mellowtones, similar to Big Tom, that kind of genre. They are all trad on my Mum’s side. My Mum taught me my first song, ‘The Old Rustic Bridge By The Mill’. There were five of us in the family and we were put up onto the fireplace as a stage and taught to sing.”
While some of the contestants can boast years of experience on the Country & Irish gig circuit, Molly is a relatively new arrival. However, she has been very much making her presence felt.
“I have three singles out since May 2022, all originals written by Stephen Hamilton,” she says. “I’ve been very lucky to have got on the Cut Loose Country Festival in July 2022, with Nathan Carter, Michael English, and Jimmy Buckley.
“Now, to be asked to be on Glór Tíre, after such a short space of time with my singles being out, I’m delighted. The musicians here are the top Country musicians. To actually get to play in a live band is phenomenal as I would play with backing tracks.”
It is certainly an endorsement of Molly’s potential that none other than Louise Morrissey, a legend of Country & Irish music, has chosen to be her mentor for this series of Glór Tíre.
“She is a huge influence,” declares Molly, who adds it is “absolutely amazing” that she will also be duetting with Louise Morrissey as part of the show.
“I rang my Mum and said, ‘Can you believe it? Pinch me! I’m going to be on stage with my inspiration, Louise Morrissey!’” says Molly. “Back in the day, when we had cassettes, I used to press record when she’d come on the radio and sit down with my notepad and write down the lyrics to her songs live ‘Sliabhnaman’ or ‘Tipperary On My Mind’. Being from Tipperary, she has been the county’s Country Sweetheart. I can’t believe it.”
For Glór Tíre contestants, being on the show is a massive opportunity to gain wider exposure, and the chief way to introduce yourself to the nation’s Country & Irish audience. “It is very helpful to have this show, to give unknown singers a platform, and be shown to the thousands of people who watch this programme,” says Molly. “I would just love to establish myself on the Country scene and prove I deserve a space on that scene, and if I look down and see somebody smiling that is ticking the box. I’m just following through my dreams.”
See www.tg4.ie and follow @glortire on social media for all of the latest news and updates. To listen to Molly’s music go to Spotify and iTunes.
Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde won their first-ever Grammys when the bulk of the country music categories were presented during the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony on Sunday afternoon in L.A. The country vocalists’ collaboration “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” was named Best Country Duo/Group Performance, besting nominees like Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
“I’m still working on pulling my dress up,” McBryde said after rushing hand-in-hand to the stage with Pearce. “I’ve known Ashley for a long time and I just wanted to sing a song with her,” Pearce said of their duet, a slice of classic country music about being both the other woman and the woman being cheated on.
“We won a Grammy,” Pearce exclaimed. “H*** s***!” replied McBryde, who is also nominated for Best Country Album for Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville. That category will be presented during tonight’s telecast. (Here’s how you can watch.)
Other country winners during the pre-tel ceremony included Willie Nelson for Best Country Solo Performance, for his rendition of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever,” and Cody Johnson’s “’Til You Can’t,” which earned songwriters Matt Rogers and Ben Stennis a Grammy for Best Country Song.
In the Americana and roots-music categories, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway won their first Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for Crooked Tree. Regrettably, Tuttle — seated near the back of the auditorium — was cut off from speaking before she could reach the podium.
Elsewhere, Brandi Carlile added to her collection, winning Best Americana Album for In These Silent Days, produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings. Carlile also won Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. (Here’s the full list of winners.)
2023 Grammy Winners in Country and Roots Music:
Best Country Solo PerformanceKelsea Ballerini – “Heartfelt”
Zach Bryan – “Something in the Orange”
Miranda Lambert – “In His Arms”
Maren Morris – “Circles Around This Town”
Willie Nelson – “Live Forever”– WINNER
Best Country Duo/Group Performance
Ingrid Andress and Sam Hunt – “Wishful Drinking”
Brothers Osborne – “Midnight Rider’s Prayer”
Luke Combs and Miranda Lambert – “Outrunnin’ Your Memory”
Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton – “Does He Love You (Revisited)”
Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde – “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” – WINNERRobert Plant and Alison Krauss – “Going Where the Lonely Go”
Best Country SongMaren Morris – “Circles Around This Town”
Luke Combs – “Doin’ This”
Taylor Swift – “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)”
Miranda Lambert – “If I Was a Cowboy”
Willie Nelson – “I’ll Love You Till the Day I Die”
Cody Johnson – “’Til You Can’t”(presented to songwriters Matt Rogers & Ben Stennis) – WINNER
City Council to vote on estimated $1.5M sponsorship Tuesday
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A country music-centered festival is poised once again to take over the sand at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront this summer.
Tuesday, Virginia Beach City Council is scheduled to consider approving a sponsorship agreement for a new festival dubbed “Beach IT;” a three-day, two-stage “celebration” between 1st and 8th Street beaches.
10 On Your Side has learned it is scheduled to place June 23-25 of this year. The event will be put on by Country Nation-Live Nation. They are the country music festival division of the world’s largest live entertainment company: Live Nation.
The festival will “bring together emerging artists, as well as award-winning and ‘A-List’ country music recording artists,” according to an agenda item submitted by Convention and Visitors Bureau.
While neither Country Nation-Live Nation nor the City of Virginia Beach have made a formal announcement yet, discussions have been ongoing for several months, according to a source familiar with negotiations.
The proposed sponsorship agreement calls for the city to let festival promoters keep all the admissions taxes on ticket sales. Typically, the city would keep 10% of the price you pay for a ticket.
In addition, the city won’t charge the festival for use of the beach, police, fire, public works, and parking lots.
The city believes that will equate to roughly $1.5 million.
“This country show could be one of the biggest country shows we’ve ever had,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said.
Parts of the deal are similar to the one approved for the 2023 Something in the Water festival. Sources say Live Nation approached the city about doing a new country-focused festival after the Patriotic Festival left for Norfolk in 2022. It had hosted country music artists on the beach for nearly two decades prior.
Patriotic Festival President Ira Agricola believes there is room in the region for both to succeed.
“In a region with 1.7 million people and very robust visitor attraction, the addition of a country music festival in Virginia Beach is positive for local and out of market fans,” Agricola said. “Hampton Roads is a great market for country music and the Patriotic Festival looks forward to its 19th year of success Memorial Weekend in Norfolk.”
Live Nation “delivered the biggest summer concert season in history” in 2022, according to public filings. It brought in $6.2 billion in revenue between July and September.
While it isn’t known when tickets will go on sale or who will perform, Dyer said this is proof the “beach is back.”
Earlier in June, “Jackalope”– an action sports festival — will also premier at the Oceanfront.
“We are putting together shows that will provide something for everyone,” Dyer said.
CARTHAGE, Texas (KTRE) – It’s customary for acts being inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage to receive a single plaque for their accomplishments.
But, a three-piece vocal group, the Texas Tenors, who were inducted in August, 2022, all wanted a piece of the plaque according to one of the vocalists, Marcus Collins.
“With the one plaque, we’d have to every couple of months we’d have to take it to John’s,” Collins said. “Then he’d have to bring it to my place, ‘cause we each want to have it in our house.”
With the Hall of Fame working on a limited budget, the Texas Tenors did something no act had done before according to Tommie Ritter Smith, president of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
“The Tenors were so impressed with them, they wanted three,” Smith said. “We couldn’t afford three, so they sold their guitar they played the night of the show of their induction ceremony.”
After the guitar was sold, they handed the Hall of Fame $5,000 to make sure each of the Texas Tenors could have additional plaques on Feb. 4, 2023.
“It’s an honor to be in the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame,” Collins said. “Just the fact that they care so much about country music and music in general in the State of Texas.”
The Texas Tenors also reflected on the 15-year journey that lead them to the Hall of Fame.
“Never thought that this was going to happen for us,” Collins said. “From America’s Got Talent to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, it’s been almost 15 years now since we’ve been on the show.”
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.
Dierks Bentley with Ashley McBryde, “Cowboy Boots”
“They ain’t broke in until they’ve broke a few horses and some hearts,” Dierks Bentley sings in this sentimental ode to trusty, dusty old boots. Joining Bentley is is another superb, rootsy-warm vocalist, Ashley McBryde. Together, they bring all out the best nuances in this track, which is included on Bentley’s upcoming album Gravel & Gold, out Feb. 24.
Shania Twain, Queen of Me
Shania Twain returns with the album Queen of Me, her followup to 2017’s Now. Here she nods to the current culture’s fervent nostalgia for ’90s music — both pop and country. With three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (“You’re Still the One,” “That’ Don’t Impress Me Much,” “From This Moment On”), Twain has been one of the foremost architects of the ear-catching, euphoric pop-country blend, and brings to this new project a continuation of the peppy, empowering messages (see songs such as inescapably danceable “Giddy Up!” and “Not Just a Girl”), layered over staunchly pop productions that legions of fans have come to expect. Given her battle with health issues including Lyme disease and dysphonia, Twain’s vocal does sound different than her projects from the mid-’90s, but she uses her voice’s newly gritty texture with great impact, as it lends an added toughness to her defiant, triumphant storylines such as “Brand New” and “Queen of Me.”
Morgan Wallen, “Everything I Love”
Leading up to the March 3 release of his upcoming massive, 36-track album One Thing at a Time, Wallen released three new songs this week: “Last Night,” “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book.” “Everything” is the most traditional country of the three, holding on to his country/rock/hip-hop hybrid, while incorporating a ’70s Allman Brothers vibe — and the the lyrics offer a direct nod to the Brothers’ classic “Midnight Rider” on the lyric, “We were listenin’ to ‘one more silver dollar’/ Hanging out in my Silverado.”
Corey Kent, “Man of the House”
Kent follows his radio hit “Wild as Her” with this moody, autobiographical track about a boy forced to grow up a little too fast, trying to “fill shoes that ain’t my size” in order to make up for the hole left by an absent father. The memories and inner struggle tumble out as his voice runs the gamut from subdued and husky to an angsty near-scream as the memories and inner struggles tumble out, before he muses that now grown up and a father, he’s still “a boy trying to be the man of the house.” A solid showcase of Kent’s maturing acumen as a songwriter and vocal interpreter.
4Runner, “Ragged Angel”
This group first signed with Polydor in 1995, released their debut track “Cain’s Blood” and earned followup hits. Years later, they disbanded to raise their respective families. But now, they return with their first release in nearly two decades, on a reimagined version of a song they first released in 2004 — and a new baritone singer, with lead singer Craig Morris’ son Sam. In that time, it’s clear the group’s Eagles-esque, full-bodied harmonies are perfectly intact on this uplifting and buoyant track, which feels like a perfect throwback in an era filled with nostalgia for 1990s and 2000s country sounds.
Charles Wesley Godwin, “The Jealous Kind”
Godwin’s scruffy voice offers bone-baring honesty on this cover of Chris Knight’s “The Jealous Kind,” accompanied by cool piano licks and haunting bass lines. He and his band kick up the tempo, leaning into the urgency reverberating through the song’s storyline, detailing a guy outrunning the law to reach his wayward lover.
“I never drove two days through the pouring rain just stopping for coffee and gas,” he sings. “Never outrun the law on the interstate/ Didn’t know this thing’d go that fast … but there’s always a first time.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Journalist Joe Edwards, who chronicled country music and helped “Rocky Top” become a Tennessee state song during his four-decade Associated Press career, has died. He was 75.
Longtime AP colleague Randall Dickerson said Edwards’ wife called him to share the news that her husband died Friday after a lengthy illness in Nashville.
Edwards documented the ascent of country music through interviews with stars ranging from Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift. He wrote the AP’s Nashville Sound country music column from 1975 to 1992 and did commentary for The Nashville Network cable TV station in the 1980s.
When Edwards retired in 2012, Reba McEntire said in a video tribute: “I’ll never forget the first time you interviewed me at the very beginning of my career, and I’ll never forget how sweet you were always to me.”
In 1982, a story Edwards wrote about the popularity of the song “Rocky Top” led the General Assembly to declare it a state song.
“He got the ball rolling,” Boudleaux Bryant, the song’s co-writer, said at the time.
He also covered sports and a variety of other topics during his AP career, which was spent entirely in Nashville. He worked most of the jobs in the Nashville bureau, including sports editor, broadcast editor and day and night supervisor.
Edwards was among those covering the death of Elvis Presley in 1977. He also reported about or edited stories from more than 20 Country Music Association awards shows.
He was nominated for several AP writing awards in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I just show up on time and do what I’m told,” he once said.
He wrote often about the syndicated TV show “Hee Haw,” and he once appeared on camera with its cast members.
Edwards began his AP career in 1970 after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to that, he attended Vincennes University in Indiana.
While in college, he worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Crawfordsville, Indiana, Journal-Review.
Shortly after taking the job in Nashville, he periodically played basketball with Al Gore, then a reporter for The Nashville Tennessean. Gore later became vice president.
“He was a pretty good rebounder,” Edwards recalled.
Country music stars he interviewed also included Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell and Loretta Lynn. For several years, Edwards voted on nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He specialized in writing obituaries, including those for music stars Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Roy Orbison, Bill Monroe and Carl Perkins.
In 2010, he wrote extensively about the Nashville flooding that left much of the city submerged for several days. But he preferred reporting about more light-hearted topics, such as the taster at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Also, Edwards traditionally wrote a year-end story annually wrapping up Tennessee’s offbeat happenings of the year.
“People call and ask if I’m going to do the weird story again,” he said.
In the early 1970s, as bureau sports editor, Edwards spearheaded an effort to include girls high school basketball scores on the AP wire and to have a girls poll join the one for boys.
The first and most important thing you need to know about Lakeview is that they want crowds to stage-dive at their shows. Once you know that, everything else about this country rock band makes sense. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy are taking their passions for metal and Americana into an emerging genre that really doesn’t have a name. “Blue-collar County Metal,” “Yallternative,” or “whatever your flavor is,” these guys just want to annihilate stages with their heavy country jams just like their idols in bands like Hatebreed and The Acacia Strain.
“People are saying that we make heavy country music,” Denaro told PopCulture.com via Zoom. “We just write what we feel like writing. Sometimes it’s not very heavy, sometimes it is.” With decades in the hardcore and metal scene between them, the pair connected and began writing music together, with their sound eventually evolving into some guitar-heavy country songs. “It’s just a byproduct of us,” Denaro said. “It wasn’t one day we were like, ‘Hey, we should make a heavy song.’ It was just kind of as we started to write more songs with each other. If you listen to the songs we’ve put out, it’s almost like a roadmap of just an exponential growth of me and Luke both finally finding where we fit the most comfortable.”
“This all started with us just kind of screwing around writing songs anyway,” he continued. “It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s go be musicians and be famous.’ We were like, ‘Hey, I want to write these songs,’ and ‘Yeah, let’s try it.'” Healy adds, “We were like completely not touring. We were like, ‘Yo, we’ve already lost everything to music in our lives. And we’re old and men now, and we’re still just now starting after all these years.'”
With the prospect of getting “real jobs” and a looming future where they’d each “settle down,” they guys realized they “had to scratch the itch” and see where it led them. “We were just writing country songs together,” Healy recalled, “and like Jesse was saying it just kind of progressed from that point on. Heavy songs, doing the heavier stuff. It was kind of like a riff idea comes along and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we can make that work. We like this stuff.’
“It comes a lot more natural when we write,” he went on to say, then noting another heavy metal musician they often work with, “like with Cody Quistad from Wage War, and he’s always bringing some really good a— beaters to the forefront. And we’re like, ‘Yo, no matter what, we’re going to find an idea in our notes somewhere that is going to work for this type of song.’ And that’s how ‘Loser’ came about.”
The song Healy mentions, “Loser,” is a 2021 single that Lakeview released. Lyrically it’s the story of a guy who has to face the fact that his girlfriend has come to the realization that she is out of his league, which is something he seems to have known all along. Musically, the song is structurally similar to many of the songs played on mainstream country radio, only with the added element of a heavy metalcore-esque guitar riff that perfectly compliments the song’s rhythm.
“Come coming out of the label, too, helped a lot,” Healy confessed about how their band sound’s has evolved after they got out from under label representation. “I’m not saying the label completely dictated everything that we were allowed to release or not release, but…” Healy and Denaro then noted that both “Loser” and its follow-up “Song of A” were both older songs they had written that never got released.
“We truly get to do whatever we want now,” Denaro said. “And I think I’m grateful for people understanding what we’re doing. I think it helps that it’s just kind of a natural thing that’s happening for us as far as this is just the music we make. It’s not like we saw somebody do it and we’re trying to recreate it. It’s just like, we don’t really know what else to do, and this is the stuff we make.”
“I think we’ve been blessed for people to actually connect with it,” he added. “Some people don’t understand it, which I’m not confused about that at all. It makes sense to me… It’s been a cool six or seven months of me and Luke just kind of doing whatever we want, writing whatever we want, and we’re really excited.”
Healy then noted that one crucial factor in the evolution of Lakeview has been performing for audiences and seeing crowd reactions. “Playing live, really a lot of that guided that,” he said. “Finally, after COVID ended and everything was kind of opening back up, with being out on the road a lot more often, it was like, ‘Okay, these songs are fun to play. This is what we grew up playing, this type of vibe and doing this stuff. And then these other songs are still really great because we love songwriting.'”
He added, “We love the sadder songs. We like the more chilled stuff, too, just as much. But playing it live, it’s just like we’re not used to going out in front of a whole bunch of people and they’re just kind of sitting there or just standing there. It’s kind of like, ‘Yo, what are we doing?’ And everybody still loves it, but we don’t love that. We don’t like that.
Denaro then noted that Instagram and TikTok have been helpful for Lakeview to figure out what fans are enjoying, saying they basically use the social media sites “as market research” for their music. “When we go play shows, there’s certain songs that we’re really stoked on, and then we play them live and we’re like, ‘Oh, this is something that we’ll just put on an album and maybe not highlight very much.’ And it’s a really cool song, but it’s not something that these people are connecting with.”
@lakeviewcountry
We are THE masters of 2nd verse chugs. “BY NOW” PRESAVE IN BIO #countryrock #countrymusic #rockmusic #foryou #fyp
♬ original sound – lakeview
He continued, “At the end of the day, we don’t really care who here, ‘the important person here in Nashville,’ if they like it or not, because the actual people that listen, buy the music, support you, they’re in the middle of Kansas and Arkansas and wherever.” Healy chimed in, “The real-life people, the real-life folks that are out doing what we’re doing. You know what I mean? We still wake up at 5:30 and go out and work a full day… Every single day. We’re hoping that will change at some point. But this is what we write the music for. It’s the regular Middle America folks out there that are fighting to survive every single day working their asses off this. That’s what Lakeview’s for, not to cater to Nashville.”
As we’ve established, Lakeview doesn’t put too much stock into labels, but they did note “Blue-collar country metal” as something that they feel could accurately sum up who they are. This is something that Healy believes is strongly represented in working-class culture among music fans. “I always said, [fans at] a Lamb of God show, they’re at Jason Aldeen the next weekend wearing different shirts. I’ve always said that. I’ve said that my whole life because it’s so true. Because I’m that same dude.”
Noting the crossover fanbase for both country music and rock music, Healy added, “It’s like, ‘This is good. And also this is really good. This is all so good.’ And you can’t put yourself in a box. If you put yourself in a box, as even just a consumer, not just a creator, dude, you’re just missing out. You’re missing out on good times on both of those spectrums. Both of those spectrums bring a completely different atmosphere. And we’re kind of trying to blur those lines. We’re like the Hatebreed of the country community.” Denaro then quipped, “Hatebreed country.”
Healy continued, “We’re like those dudes who, are at a show. And it’s like, yeah, we’re kind of like that of this genre right now. It’s like, yo, we are not doing the whole standing around thing anymore at country shows. And it’s working. It’s fun…Our generation comes from that and they want that. They always wanted the stage dive out at a country show. They just know that it was never a socially acceptable thing. Well, guess what? Now that’s changed.” He added “We want to let them know that that’s allowed… that is more than welcome at any Lakeview show. That and beyond.”
With a wealth of experience behind them, and an unwritten future ahead, Lakeview is only worrying about grabbing the bull by the horns and living in the moment. On Friday, they dropped their new single, “By Now.” Speaking about the new track, Denaro shared, “We wrote that with one of our best friends, Quin, who also wrote songs like, ‘Hits Different’ [and] ‘In Case You’ve Forgotten.’ Almost everything we write with him.”
He continued, “It just comes from an idea of basically in the chorus, we say, ‘By now going out on the town, she’ll be looking like around with a girl I just met.’ And that just means I should be over this person by now. I should not be picking up that phone call when I get that phone call. And I think we’ve all been through a relationship or a hookup or whatever with somebody, and your conscious brain is like, ‘This is bad.’ But what you do is not that. You’re like, ‘I’ll just say hey,’ or ‘I’ll respond back,’ or ‘I’ll pick up the phone, meet him out for a one drink,’ and it always turns into something more. It’s just about that, about that whole situation.
Healy offered, “It’s a hitting it without quitting it, even though you should have quit it. It’s that. And it’s very frustrating… Coming from a man, it’s like we all know that women totally have control of us… And that song is about that type of frustration, that relationship you have with somebody that you just know, ‘Crap. Soon as they hit me up, it’s the game over. I’m definitely going to end up back at your place because I can’t say bye. I can’t.'”
The band has lots more on the horizon, as Denaro revealed, “We got more singles coming out. We got a bunch of festivals, a bunch of just our own headlining shows. It’s hard being in the genre and being so, I guess left of center.” He added, “It is that it hard for us to get those nice opening tour opportunities. We’re basically just like… We tested it out in California where we flew all the way out to California, played three shows, and we ended up selling some of them out. People came, it was shocking to us. I was like, ‘Oh, people actually want to see us play.'”
Denaro continued, “So we’re just basically going to test that throughout the whole country. Hit markets that we’ve never been to, and just go to your hometown and play a headlining show and, hopefully, people will show up.” They also have a few really exciting festival slots lined up, playing alongside some big-name bands and artists. “We got some really cool festivals like ‘Tailgates and Tall Boys’ where we’re playing with Nickelback and which is a dream… and playing with Colt Ford and some other folks like that. I think it’s going to be a really, really fun, eventful summer and the rest of the year for us for sure.”
Fans can check out more of Lakeview’s music by clicking here. The band’s official website also offers more info about what they’re up to and where they’ll be playing soon. Keep it locked to Pop Culture.com for more exciting country music news, reviews, and interviews!
Their hope is to bring both emerging and top artists together in the south beach area of the city.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Riding on the heels of a successful planned return for the Something in the Water Festival, the Virginia Beach City Council is planning to discuss another musical possibility.
On February 7, agenda documents show that members will address the proposed “Beach IT!” music festival.
If approved, the Live Nation event will be held from June 23 through 25.
Their hope is to bring both emerging and top country artists together in the south beach area of the city.
The venue area would stretch from 1st Street to 8th Street at the Oceanfront.
If successful, officials hope that this would become an annual event.
In order to assist and attract the festival to the area, the city would allocate an initial $1.5 million in funds that would be adjusted if needed.
Rock n’ roll baby: Willie Nelson has been nominated to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The announcement was made Wednesday morning.
Nelson is in a group of star-studded nominees including Sheryl Crowe, Missy Elliott, and 11 others. The country music legend’s consideration is his first.
The nomination comes in a stream lately of country music stars being considered for induction, such as Dolly Parton in 2022.
Inductees will be announced in May, with the ceremony occurring in late fall.
Fans of “Shotgun” Willie can vote for him here.
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