“Been There, Drunk That”

StarCity/Nine North

Full of laughs and highly entertaining. The lyric is wildly clever, and the track rocks splendidly. “Set ‘em all up—put ‘em on the table I can tell you what it is without looking at the label.” Woo-hoo. Larry Franklin’ fiddle sizzles, and Jeff King’s guitar is frothing.
—Robert K. Oermann, MusicRow

Brady Seals’ “Been There, Drunk That” is currently impacting country radio, and is already earning praise from critics. More than 20 years after he rise to the heights of country music fame as the long-haired Little Texas heartthrob on keys, Seals continues to thrive on the edge of the genre, easing effortlessly into the role of the slightly subversive renegade. His latest solo effort, Play Time, is a no-holds-barred celebration of “long-legged, half-wasted” party girls, dance club debauchery, and illicit smoke breaks. “There’s no question of this being a really adult record,” Seals says. “It gets raunchy and raw. But I’ve always wanted to make music that affects people. Love it, hate it. But you can’t ignore it.”

Seals had planned to independently release Play Time online when StarCity Recording Company entered the picture. An industry friend had passed the album advance to StarCity head Jeff Glixman, best known as producer of 1970’s progressive rock band Kansas, among others. The StarCity team promised Seals a level of creative control that he’d never before experienced with a label. “I was thrilled,” Seals explains, “to hear from this boutique indie label that wanted to release my album exactly as I had hoped to on my own…only with more money to put behind it.”

Seals has successfully managed to reinvent himself throughout his career, while always remaining true to his musical roots in rock-tinged country. At 16, Seals left his home in Ohio as a touring musician, and by 21 had scored three No. 1 hits with Little Texas—all of which he’d co-written, winning him the ASCAP Triple Play award. He went on to release three solo albums in the late ‘90s before forming and fronting the quartet of player’s players known as Hot Apple Pie, with whom he scored a top 20 hit (“Hillbillies”) and opened for such superstars as Keith Urban and Tim McGraw.

http://www.bradyseals.com/

“A Woman Needs”

Warner Music Nashville

Warner Music Nashville is releasing Jessica Harp’s empowering new single “A Woman Needs” to country radio, and it goes for adds January 19. To coincide with the release, Harp is offering three “making of the video” webisodes and the exclusive premiere of the song’s video on AOL’s The Boot. The webisodes will be part of a contest where fans will obtain a code to enter a page at www.jessicaharp.com/awomanneeds and the winner will win a weekend getaway to Nashville and a meeting with Harp. “A Woman Needs” parts 1 and 2 are posted Theboot.com and Part 3 will be available Friday, Jan. 22. The full video will post on Monday, Jan. 25. A winner for the contest will be announced on Thursday, Feb. 4 at www.jessicaharp.com.

In June 2004, Harp set out for Nashville to finalize a solo recording contract as a country artist. Fate intervened along the way when her best friend (pop star Michelle Branch) called and asked her to form a country/pop duo, which the girls dubbed The Wreckers. A No. 1 country single, a gold album, a Grammy-Award nomination, and high-profile tours with Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban followed, but Harp could never shake the feeling of wanting to show the world what she could do on her own.

Now she has that chance with the upcoming release of her major-label solo debut A Woman Needs — a breezy modern-country collection that finds the honey-voiced Harp telling appealingly relatable stories about her life, loves, and heartbreaks. “Country music is about real people and real things, and that always spoke to me not only as a music fan, but as a singer-songwriter,” Harp says. “I like to tell stories with my songs. This is the album I have dreamed of making since I was eight years old and singing along to my mom’s Judds and Reba McEntire records.”

“In a way, it’s like going back to square one after being in a successful band,” she continues, “but at the same time, it makes everything that I’ve done on my own feel that much stronger because I know I have stood on my own two feet and, against all odds, proven myself all over again.”

www.jessicaharp.com
http://www.myspace.com/jessicaharp

Label: Warner Music Nashville
Current Album: Startin’ Fires
Current Single/Video: “Hillbilly Bone,” from an upcoming album
Current Producer: Scott Hendricks
Hometown: Ada, Oklahoma
Management: Starstruck Mgmt. Group
Booking: William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Recent Hits: “She Wouldn’t Be Gone,” “Home”
Special TV/Film Appearances: NBC’s Clash of the Choirs show; judge on Nashville Star; Shelton was named one of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” in 2008.
Interesting Fact: Shelton heard about producer Scott Hendricks early on in Oklahoma. “I remember seeing a story on an Oklahoma City TV station about Scott Hendricks,” he says. “They said he was an Oklahoma guy who had moved to Nashville and made good, making these huge albums on big artists. I used to think, ‘It would be so cool to meet him some day. Maybe he’d give me a shot.’ Then, not long ago, he fell in my lap when he became A&R chief at Warner Bros. We decided we wanted to make this record together, and I’m really glad we did.”
Twitter: @BlakeShelton

Blake Shelton’s journey to country stardom starts way back in his high school days in Oklahoma, when he was part of the entertainment for an event in hometown Ada honoring acclaimed Nashville songwriter Mae Axton. She saw him perform and told him she thought he could get a record deal if he moved to Nashville, and that she was willing to help. That convinced Shelton to move just two weeks after graduation. He worked with Hoyt Axton, Bobby Braddock and Earl Thomas Conley, among others, en route to his record deal. Eventually, he signed with Warner Bros. Nashville and his debut single, “Austin,” shot him straight to the top of the charts and stayed there for six weeks. It also became his first No. 1 video, in a series that would ultimately include “Heavy Liftin’,” “Goodbye Time,” “Home,” “Nobody But Me,” “Some Beach,” “Don’t Make Me,” “The More I Drink” and more.

Four more albums produced a string of hits, leading up to his fifth and most recent studio effort, Startin’ Fires. One of the project’s signature songs, “Home,” took Shelton into new musical territory, both vocally and stylistically. “This is something I’ve been wanting to do,” he says, “exploring richer melodies and challenging myself as a singer. I think this album is probably more autobiographical than anything I’ve ever done. While Pure BS was a kind of reflection of what I was going through at the time, this album is a reflection of who I am and the things I love and always have—driving back roads, drinking beer, being outdoors. People know these things about me, but I’ve never really had that in my music, and I’m finally dumping myself onto my album. It’s about who I am personally, and I hope other people can relate to it.”

His upcoming project is sure to have plenty of the elements that make Shelton the multidimensional artist he is—soaring melodies, passionate lyrics, a bit of romance, and songs that celebrate the country life. Shelton’s hot new single, “Hillbilly Bone,” is a duet featuring Trace Adkins and is the title track from his forthcoming Warner Music Nashville album.

“Angels Like Her”

Lyric Street Records

Trent Tomlinson has recently released his newest single, “Angels Like Her,” from his upcoming sophomore album, A Guy Like Me. “Angels Like Her” was written by Tomlinson with Arlos Smith and Aaron Barker and was produced by the singer and Leigh Reynolds.

“This has to be my favorite song I’ve ever written,” shares Tomlinson. “I was so happy when the label came to me and said they wanted this to be the single. I love how the track turned out.”

As the best selling debut male artist of 2006, Tomlinson’s hit singles include “One Wing In The Fire,” “Just Might Have Her Radio On,” and “Drunker Than Me.” After wrapping in the studio, Tomlinson has spent the year touring and visiting radio stations across the country. A Guy Like Me is scheduled to be released by Lyric Street Records in 2010.

http://www.iwwerks.com/lyricstreet/TrentTomlinson/Sizzle/

www.myspace.com/trenttomlinson
www.trenttomlinson.com

“Barn On The Rooftop”

Cherry Heart

Ty Williams is releasing his single “Barn On the Rooftop” to country radio and the video, shot by Chad Denning, is currently gaining momentum at video outlets and dance clubs around the country. The song is a perfect introduction to the world of Ty Williams. It’s rowdy, loud and most of all… fun. And then there’s that horn section. Williams wrote or co-wrote 8 of the songs on his upcoming album.

See the Video: http://www.tywilliams.com/barnvideo

The Ty Williams story begins near our nation’s capital.

“Music was one of the few things in our life that remained a constant,” recalls Williams. “My grandma played the piano in the Farnham Baptist Church in Virginia, and my sister and I would sit in the choir loft next to her singing out of the hymnals. It was a small town…a farmer’s town… and country music wasn’t just a genre, it was way of life in my family and a soundtrack to our colorful lives.”

Later as a soldier in the Army National Guard, Ty earned the rank of sergeant during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was then Ty seriously began pondering the uplifting power of music.

“For three minutes at a time I could take them somewhere else through one of my songs,” says Williams. “In the middle of a desert and this war, I found hope, I found reason. The music saved my life and I was born again.”

“My live show mixes all genres and feels like a party,” he continues. “I work hard as a songwriter to tell great stories. I admire Garth and Reba for building their careers one handshake, one fan, one song at a time.”

www.tywilliams.com