Old Dominion Guitarist & Hit Songwriter, Brad Tursi, Delivers First Solo Album [Interview]
Brad Tursi. Photo: Marina Chavez
As part of the award-winning, multi-Platinum-selling country band Old Dominion, musician and songwriter Brad Tursi has traveled the world, notched multiple No. 1 hits and won plenty of industry awards.
As one of the group’s chief songwriters and guitarist—as well as a celebrated writer with songs recorded by Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell and more—Tursi is living the dream. Though the music he makes with his band fulfills him, the Connecticut native has found himself needing another creative outlet through the years.
While growing up, Tursi was forged by the music of Guns N’ Roses, James Taylor, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Phish. He found his dad’s guitar in the attic when he was a preteen, beginning his lifelong passions of playing guitar and songwriting.
“I was in a band in college and then another band after college. Then after that, I almost quit music altogether,” Tursi tells MusicRow. “I moved to Nashville to be a songwriter, swearing I would never be in another band.”
Old Dominion celebrates one billion streams among other recent successes. Photo: Mason Allen
He realized he wasn’t going to keep that promise he made to himself when he reconnected with Whit Sellers, who was in a new band called Old Dominion. Tursi joined the group in 2012, and just a few years later, Old Dominion started their spree of hits with “Break Up with Him.” Thus, he and his bandmates were on the fast track to becoming seven-time ACM and six-time CMA Group of the Year winners.
All the while, Tursi started collecting songs that didn’t quite fit the Old Dominion sound. Some of them he pitched to other artists, while some felt like songs only he could sing. On Friday (July 19), he delivered 10 of those songs on his first-ever solo album, Parallel Love, via Sony Music Nashville with the band’s full support.
“Over the years, I just had all these songs that I knew were not right for the band. There was no pressure on me to do it or anything, it was just a passion project,” Tursi says.
He shares that making Parallel Love has been good for him personally, as well as for his position in Old Dominion. “Because a band is such a democracy, you have to compromise a lot. It’s nice to have this other outlet that actually allows you to be more open to compromise in the band setting.”
Parallel Love features co-writes with Stephen Wilson Jr., Dan Isbell, Jessi Alexander, Matt Jenkins and Ben West. Tursi produced the entire project as well, with West and Marc Scibilia co-producing select tracks.
“Church Bells and Train Whistles,” written with Wilson Jr. and West, was pitched around town before Tursi called it his own.
“That song has been pitched around to everyone and their mother. It’s the most commercial one, but I just love that song. I love the production. That’s the only one that I didn’t re-record, that’s just a demo mixed.”
A stand-out track on the project is “Question The Universe,” a song about meeting someone and watching the potential of a relationship fall apart because of life’s circumstances. Tursi wrote it by himself.
“A buddy and I were at Red Door one fateful night and he met a girl. The next morning, we woke up and they had fallen in love. But that coming weekend, the girl was supposed to move to L.A. to be with her boyfriend who was out there getting everything set up,” Tursi says of his inspiration for the song. “My buddy and her spent the whole week together and then she left.
“She actually ended up breaking up with the dude, and coming back after I wrote the song,” he notes. “I think a lot of people have experienced meeting someone that they wish they could pursue, but it’s just not going to happen for a myriad of different reasons.”
Brad Tursi celebrates new solo album release in Nashville. Pictured (L–R): Sony Music Nashville’s Randy Goodman, Morris Higham’s Buffy Cooper, Brad Tursi, SMN’s Ken Robold, Morris Higham’s Dustin Stout and Clint Higham. Photo: Mason Allen
Another song, “Oh Darlin’,” is broken up into three parts, weaved throughout the album’s 10 tracks. It’s one of Tursi’s oldest songs from the collection, and covers a musician’s fear of irrelevancy once the stage lights go dim.
“I think that’s a fear of a lot of musicians, especially when you’re successful. You ask yourself, ‘Do people like me for me or do they like me because of what I’m doing or who they think I am?'”
Tursi was inspired to write the title track for Parallel Love from a self-help book. “We’re like two wild flowers growing towards the sun. You next to me, me next to you. Lord, I love to watch you bloom, growing in a parallel love,” he sings in the song’s chorus.
“A lot of people think that once they find someone, that’s it—they’re together and everything they do has to be together. The fact of the matter is that people grow separately at different times. That person is there for you to lean on, but at some points, they might be ahead of you or behind you [in their personal growth],” Tursi explains. “I wrote that with Dan Isbell, who’s an old friend of mine. He’s a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, so he definitely brought some country elements to the song.”
Another standout track from the project is another solo-write, “Lover and a Friend.”
“That one took me a long time to finish. I started it on the guitar, and I just couldn’t finish it. When I finally started playing it on the piano, the tune kind of changed in my mind. It’s nice because it’s just a straightforward lyric—it’s not super metaphorical or anything.”
When looking at his first solo body of work, Tursi is proud of what he’s created as well as excited to continue to carve a new lane where can express his creativity.
“I hope that it’s the start of another little journey. Old Dominion has been so crazy, we’ve accomplished so many things. But the fact that I’m going on tour with this record with my own band in October is crazy. There are [opportunities] I haven’t even thought of, and I’m excited to continue the insane journey of music and life.”
Catch Tursi on the road for his “Parallel Love Tour” starting Oct. 3 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dates for the trek are below.
“Parallel Love Tour” Dates:
*on sale July 26
Oct. 3 – Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)
Oct. 4 – Lexington Opera House (Lexington, KY)
Oct. 10 – Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)*
Oct. 12 – The Levitt Pavilion for Performing Arts (Westport, CT)
Oct. 13 – Big Night Live (Boston, MA)
Oct. 16 – Egyptian Room (Indianapolis, IN)
Oct. 17 – Carol’s Pub (Chicago, IL)
Oct. 19 – Barnato (Omaha, NE)
Oct. 20 – Gothic Theatre (Denver, CO)
Oct. 25 – The Newberry (Great Falls, MT)
Oct. 27 – Wachholz College Center – McClaren Hall (Kalispell, MT)
Oct. 29 – McMenamins Spanish Ballroom at Elks Temple (Tacoma, WA)
Oct. 30 – Tower Theatre (Bend, OR)
Nov. 1 – Uptown Theatre (Napa, CA)*
Nov. 2 – Carmel-by-the-Sea (Carmel, CA)*
Nov. 3 – Fremont Theater (San Louis Obispo, CA)
Nov. 5 – El Rey Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)*
Nov. 7 – Rialto Theatre (Tucson, AZ)
