Eric Paslay. Photo: Joseph Llanes
Singer-songwriter Eric Paslay, known for the radio-friendly grooves of songs like “Friday Night” and “Song About A Girl,” as well as the smooth, soulful “She Don’t Love You,” will take fans deep into the earliest moments of the album-making process—songwriting–with his new five-song digital release The Work Tapes, which is available today (Friday, July 28) on various digital outlets.
Paslay, who has also constructed hits for Lady Antebellum, Jake Owen, Eli Young Band, and Rascal Flatts, found he still had plenty of his own songs to mine while assembling songs on the follow-up to his 2013 debut project—a catalog of about 1,500 songs.
“We haven’t made it through all of them honestly,” Paslay tells MusicRow. “We’ve made it through maybe half of them, so if people dig what we are doing with the work tapes, we’ve got plenty more to share.”
Instead of letting old acoustic recordings go forgotten, Paslay and his wife Natalie, who also works in music publishing, sifted through older work tapes and found among them five makeshift acoustic recordings, often created just moments after the songs were written.
“These songs didn’t fit with the album I’m making, but they sounded so good, I wanted people to hear them,” Paslay says.
“Back Home To You,” finds Paslay and co-writer Carey Ott trading harmony lines while Ott’s electric guitar work complements Paslay’s acoustic pickings.
“It’s a sweet song of us traveling and a lot of people travel for work, so lines like I’ll pick a different colored flower from every field I pass and bring it back home to you,’ it’s just saying I’ll share the journey with you when I get back. It could be a kid or something, too. I don’t have kids yet, but a father might share that with his kids.”
Amy Stroup co-wrote and provided harmony vocals on “Amarillo Rain,” which she and Paslay wrote in about 45 minutes.
“She’s from Abilene and I was born in Abilene but I think we just figured Amarillo sings better. Amarillo sings so beautifully. I think rain’s more precious in Amarillo than in Abilene, but don’t tell the Abileners I said that,” he quipped.
The majority of the songs were written and recorded at the former Cal IV building on 19th Avenue. Spirit Music Group acquired Cal IV in 2014. “It’s one of the last-standing old houses over there on 19th avenue, between all the condos,” says Paslay. “so I’m glad it’s still there. It’s cool to still have the building where all the songs were written and recorded.”
“Let Go,” one of the oldest recordings on the release, was penned six years ago with Dylan Altman and Rose Falcon. At the time, Paslay was promoting his very first major label single, “Never Really Wanted,” to country radio—and it wasn’t going well.
“The day I wrote ‘Let Go,’ was the day I found out ‘Never Really Wanted’ was dying at radio, and you have a little disappointment that it didn’t work out. I don’t think I was completely broken hearted, but you know, you put your heart and soul into finally getting a record deal and trying to get songs to work and you want them to work so badly, and also you think, ‘The world is over. My first single didn’t go to No. 1.’ But then you realize, ‘No, this is the first stage, it’s all good.’ But that day we just tried to channel a disappointment of the outcome of something into something people can relate to, to a love relationship. Now, listening to it six years later, you go, ‘Yeah, that did hurt, but what a beautiful song.’”
Paslay would go on to pen his own Top 5 hit, “Friday Night,” with Falcon, and pen Jake Owen’s “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” with Altman.
Fans won’t have to wait long for music from Paslay’s forthcoming full-length sophomore album. He anticipates a new single to release later this year, and he’s well on his way to having the full album completed.
“I think we’ve got one more recording session left, and we’ve been overdubbing and cutting vocals. I have plenty of songs. We went in and recorded about six songs and I was like, ‘There are four singles in here for sure and the other two are just going to be great live,” says Paslay. “Then we wrote five more songs that were like, ‘These need to be recorded.’”
For now, Paslay is excited to give fans a glimpse into the earliest stages of the album-making process.
“I think they are special songs and there’s that ‘it factor’ magic in a work tape that I think only the business even knows exist. So it’s cool to let people kind of go behind the scenes to find out this is how a song gets born.”
The Work Tapes Track Listing
Less Than Whole (Paslay, Big Kenny)
Amarillo Rain (Paslay, Amy Stroup)
Back Home To You (Paslay, Carey Ott)
Come Back To This Town (Paslay, Dean Alexander)
Let Go (Paslay, Dylan Altman, Rose Falcon)
Bandsintown Releases Latest App Update
/by Lorie HollabaughCCM News: Seventh Day Slumber, Crowder, Lecrae, Tori Kelly
/by Lorie HollabaughSeventh Day Slumber’s ‘Found’ Out Today
Produced by Holderfield, Found (VSR Music Group/Capitol Christian Distribution) features 10 new tracks showcasing the band’s musical breadth, from hard rock anthems to melodic pop ballads. The project was largely inspired following a season of burnout and depression band founder and frontman Rojas faced.
“… four years ago I came to a place where I just got depressed,” Rojas recently told Western New York’s Niagara Frontier Publications. “… I never lost my passion for ministry, or anything like that, but I just couldn’t make myself be happy.… I just decided to write about it. I decided to just put my heart and my soul into these lyrics…. That’s what this record, Found, is about.”
Crowder To Launch ‘American Prodigal’ Tour This Fall
Lecrae And Tori Kelly Support St. Jude With New Video
Denny Strickland Is ‘California Dreamin’ On New CD
/by Lorie HollabaughProduced by Strickland and Sean Giovanni, California Dreamin’ is a collection of 11 tracks that draw inspiration not just from Strickland’s country influences but also from pop, rap, rock and even acts such as Lana del Rey and Timbaland.
“I am incredibly proud of this album and excited for my fans to get to hear it,” said Strickland about the new release. “Gio and I worked so hard in the studio and I feel like we really nailed down my sound. I wrote so many of the songs featured on this project, a lot of it inspired by the West Coast,” said Strickland. “California was definitely my muse for this project.”
California Dreamin’ Track List:
Artist Pics: Brad Paisley, RaeLynn, Maggie Rose
/by Lorie HollabaughBrad Paisley Takes Weekend Warrior World Tour To Sweden, Norway
RaeLynn Offers Tracks From WildHorse During Warner Nashville’s Pickin’ On The Patio
Pictured (L-R): Kerry Hansen (Manager, Big Enterprises), Wes Vause (SVP, WMN), Cris Lacy (VP A&R, WMN), RaeLynn, Chris Palmer (VP Radio & Streaming, WMN), Lisa Ray (VP, Head of Brand Management, WMN), Jenn Witherell (Manager, Big Enterprises)
Raelynn brought the party to the Warner Music Nashville offices on Music Row Wednesday night, playing to a jam-packed crowd for this month’s Pickin’ on the Patio concert. The half-hour set consisted of favorites from her debut album WildHorse, which was recently included as one of Rolling Stone’s “Best Country and Americana Albums of 2017 So Far.”
Maggie Rose Headlines Rooftop On The Rocks At The Westin Nashville
Photo credit: Alex Berger (@alexbergerphotography)
Maggie Rose headlined Rooftop on the Rocks at The Westin Nashville’s L27 Bar Thursday night (7/27). Maggie and friends closed the evening with some new tunes, tracks from her latest EP Dreams > Dollars, and a show-stopping rendition of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends”.
Weekly Chart Report 7/28/17
/by Alex ParryClick here or above to access MusicRow‘s weekly CountryBreakout Report.
Exclusive: Joe Nichols Talks Returning To Traditional, Adding Country Spin To “Baby Got Back” On New Album
/by Jessica NicholsonJoe Nichols performs acoustically for MusicRow.
Joe Nichols’ latest album for BBR Music Group/Red Bow Records, Never Gets Old, is aptly named. The project, which releases today (July 28) finds Nichols doing what he does best—wrapping his warm, welcoming baritone around evocative lyrics and traditional country melodies.
The new album balances stunners such as the comforting, romantic title track (produced by Brent Rowan), and the empathetic “We All Carry Something,” with more light-hearted fare including “I’ll Sing About You” and “So You’re Saying.” Nichols fans will recognize “Billy Graham’s Bible,” produced by Tony Brown and Mickey Jack Cones, from Nichols’ previous album, 2013’s Crickets.
During a visit to MusicRow, Nichols performed several tracks from the album, including “Tall Boys,” and “Diamonds Make Babies,” which astute country fans will remember from Dierks Bentley’s 2012 album Home.
Though there is a nearly four-year span between Crickets and Never Gets Old, it is not due to a lack of hard work. Nichols and producer Mickey Jack Cones undertook the arduous task of building, dismantling, and reconstructing the project until it presented a unified sound.
“We started working on this album about six months after Crickets was released,” Nichols says. “We started cutting different kinds of songs, progressive stuff similar to ‘Sunny & 75’ and then some traditional stuff.”
Joe Nichols with MusicRow owner/publisher Sherod Robertson. Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow
Once Nichols and Cones were nearly eight cuts into the making of the album, they realized some songs were leaning more progressive, while others harkened back to the more staunchly traditional songs found on Nichols’ earliest albums.
“We decided this needs to be a country record,” Nichols says. “It feels like the country music climate is shifting back toward accepting traditional country more than it had been, so as we cut away some of the more progressive stuff that we had already spent a lot of time on, we had to go back and record more country stuff.”
Nichols and company were still in the process of listening to, selecting, and recording new songs for the album in mid-2017. Some of the last songs to make the album, “Diamonds Make Babies” and the title track, were recorded in May.
“It was a quick turnaround on those,” says Nichols, who notes the song selection process for Never Gets Old resembles the one he went through for his 2002 album Man With A Memory, which yielded hits such as “The Impossible” and “Brokenheartsville.”
While Never Gets Old might be one of Nichols’ most traditional-leaning albums to date, listeners might do a double-take upon hearing the album’s closer, Nichols’ countrified revamp of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 hit “Baby Got Back,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100.
The song has been part of Nichols’ live show for a few years, and began as a joke on his band members.
Joe Nichols with MusicRow staffers.
“I thought it would be funny,” Nichols says. “During my shows, I would do a song or two by myself on acoustic guitar. I thought it would be funny to do a joke on the band, cause sometimes they would come join me on the last song of that short set list. So to mess with them, I started singing ‘I like big butts and I cannot lie,’ really country, but they played right along, so the joke was on me. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got to act like I know the song.’”
Fans and the band took to the twangy remix, so Nichols and his band added the song as a standalone in his set, before deciding to add it to the album, along with hilarious improvisations from comedian Darren Knight, who brings his popular “Southern Mama” character to the track.
“He’s so funny,” Nichols says. “He made it more ridiculous, just icing on the cake.”
Nichols’ rendition of “Baby Got Back” even earned Sir Mix-a-Lot’s stamp of approval.
“We met with Sir Mix-a-Lot last week actually, and he’s a really cool guy. He said, ‘I love this version of the song, and the reason is because it’s your song. You took it and covered it nothing like me so I respect it because you basically just used the words.’ I thought that was a really cool compliment.”
Jillian Jacqueline Joins Ryan Adams For Midwest Run
/by Lorie HollabaughThe Big Loud Records artist has spent much of the summer opening shows for Dwight Yoakam and will be joining Billy Currington for a West Coast run starting August 4 in Henderson, Nevada.
Exclusive: Eric Paslay Gives Fans An Inside Look At The Songwriting Process With ‘The Work Tapes’
/by Jessica NicholsonEric Paslay. Photo: Joseph Llanes
Singer-songwriter Eric Paslay, known for the radio-friendly grooves of songs like “Friday Night” and “Song About A Girl,” as well as the smooth, soulful “She Don’t Love You,” will take fans deep into the earliest moments of the album-making process—songwriting–with his new five-song digital release The Work Tapes, which is available today (Friday, July 28) on various digital outlets.
Paslay, who has also constructed hits for Lady Antebellum, Jake Owen, Eli Young Band, and Rascal Flatts, found he still had plenty of his own songs to mine while assembling songs on the follow-up to his 2013 debut project—a catalog of about 1,500 songs.
“We haven’t made it through all of them honestly,” Paslay tells MusicRow. “We’ve made it through maybe half of them, so if people dig what we are doing with the work tapes, we’ve got plenty more to share.”
Instead of letting old acoustic recordings go forgotten, Paslay and his wife Natalie, who also works in music publishing, sifted through older work tapes and found among them five makeshift acoustic recordings, often created just moments after the songs were written.
“These songs didn’t fit with the album I’m making, but they sounded so good, I wanted people to hear them,” Paslay says.
“Back Home To You,” finds Paslay and co-writer Carey Ott trading harmony lines while Ott’s electric guitar work complements Paslay’s acoustic pickings.
“It’s a sweet song of us traveling and a lot of people travel for work, so lines like I’ll pick a different colored flower from every field I pass and bring it back home to you,’ it’s just saying I’ll share the journey with you when I get back. It could be a kid or something, too. I don’t have kids yet, but a father might share that with his kids.”
Amy Stroup co-wrote and provided harmony vocals on “Amarillo Rain,” which she and Paslay wrote in about 45 minutes.
“She’s from Abilene and I was born in Abilene but I think we just figured Amarillo sings better. Amarillo sings so beautifully. I think rain’s more precious in Amarillo than in Abilene, but don’t tell the Abileners I said that,” he quipped.
The majority of the songs were written and recorded at the former Cal IV building on 19th Avenue. Spirit Music Group acquired Cal IV in 2014. “It’s one of the last-standing old houses over there on 19th avenue, between all the condos,” says Paslay. “so I’m glad it’s still there. It’s cool to still have the building where all the songs were written and recorded.”
“Let Go,” one of the oldest recordings on the release, was penned six years ago with Dylan Altman and Rose Falcon. At the time, Paslay was promoting his very first major label single, “Never Really Wanted,” to country radio—and it wasn’t going well.
“The day I wrote ‘Let Go,’ was the day I found out ‘Never Really Wanted’ was dying at radio, and you have a little disappointment that it didn’t work out. I don’t think I was completely broken hearted, but you know, you put your heart and soul into finally getting a record deal and trying to get songs to work and you want them to work so badly, and also you think, ‘The world is over. My first single didn’t go to No. 1.’ But then you realize, ‘No, this is the first stage, it’s all good.’ But that day we just tried to channel a disappointment of the outcome of something into something people can relate to, to a love relationship. Now, listening to it six years later, you go, ‘Yeah, that did hurt, but what a beautiful song.’”
Paslay would go on to pen his own Top 5 hit, “Friday Night,” with Falcon, and pen Jake Owen’s “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” with Altman.
Fans won’t have to wait long for music from Paslay’s forthcoming full-length sophomore album. He anticipates a new single to release later this year, and he’s well on his way to having the full album completed.
“I think we’ve got one more recording session left, and we’ve been overdubbing and cutting vocals. I have plenty of songs. We went in and recorded about six songs and I was like, ‘There are four singles in here for sure and the other two are just going to be great live,” says Paslay. “Then we wrote five more songs that were like, ‘These need to be recorded.’”
For now, Paslay is excited to give fans a glimpse into the earliest stages of the album-making process.
“I think they are special songs and there’s that ‘it factor’ magic in a work tape that I think only the business even knows exist. So it’s cool to let people kind of go behind the scenes to find out this is how a song gets born.”
The Work Tapes Track Listing
Less Than Whole (Paslay, Big Kenny)
Amarillo Rain (Paslay, Amy Stroup)
Back Home To You (Paslay, Carey Ott)
Come Back To This Town (Paslay, Dean Alexander)
Let Go (Paslay, Dylan Altman, Rose Falcon)
Nashville Indie/Rock Band Humming House To Release Third Album ‘Companion’
/by Eric T. ParkerHumming House
Nashville indie/rock quartet, Humming House will release their third full-length album Companion, on Oct. 6 via Soundly Music. The release will be supported with a tour, which will make two stops in their hometown, one for Americana Fest on Sept. 16 before a Cannery Ballroom show on Nov. 10 with folk artist Becca Mancari.
Their lead single, “Takin’ Over,” was debuted by Brooklyn-based music platform Baeble.
“‘Takin’ Over’ is about the infectious nature of joy,” frontman Justin Wade Tam told Baeble. “It’s about those times when you’re on the dance floor or listening to a song and are overcome by the moment…losing inhibitions, singing at the top of your lungs, and dancing because you have too. I think the power of these moments is underrated and should be celebrated. All that to say… it’s all about dancing.”
The story of Companion mirrors the story of the band—collaboration, experimentation, and showing up for each other over and again. In the spirit of experimentation, the band threw out the constraining rule that they would only write with acoustic instruments, a rule that was instated for their previous albums.
The first half of the album is infused with indie/rock, “Can’t Stay Away,” “Takin’ Over,” and “Make It Through.” “Sign Me Up” and “Companion” nod to Paul Simon, while later tracks like “Silver Lining,” “Find What Waits,” and “London” gesture to the band’s long engagement with classical composition and songwriter-driven melodies so strong in the realm of Americana.
Companion Track List:
1) Companion
2) Takin’ Over
3) Hope In My Head
4) Make It Through
5) Sign Me Up
6) Can’t Stay Away
7) Silver Lining
8) London
9) I Want It All
10) Fall In The Water
11) Wishing Well
12) Find What Waits
Humming House 2017 Tour Dates:
09/01 – Thomas, WV @ The Purple Fiddle
09/02 – Front Royal, VA @ Appaloosa Festival
09/08 – Milwaukee, WI @ MAC Rooftop Series
09/09 – Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre (Rye Room)
09/10 – Denver, CO @ Levitt Pavilion
09/16 – Nashville, TN @ Americana Fest
09/21 – Knoxville, TN @ Open Chord*
09/22 – Chattanooga, TN @ Revelry Room
09/23 – McMinnville, TN @ Isha Institute of Inner Sciences*
10/10 – Little Rock, AR @ South on Main*
10/11 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall*
10/12 – San Antonio, TX @ Sam’s Burger Joint*
10/13 – Arlington, TX @ Levitt Pavilion*
10/14 – Oklahoma, City @ The Blue Door*
10/15 – Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room*
10/17 – Davenport, IA @ The Raccoon Motel*
10/18 – Evanston, IL @ SPACE*
10/19 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill Duck Room*
10/20 – Columbus, OH @ Woodland Tavern*
10/21 – Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlie’s*
10/31 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe*
11/01 – Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East*
11/02 – Lewiston, ME @ Bates College*
11/03 – Brownfield, ME @ The Stone Mountain Arts Center*
11/04 – Burlington, VT @ Club Metronome*
11/05 – Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy*
11/07 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge*
11/08 – Vienna, VA @ Jammin Java*
11/09 – Charlotte, NC @ The Visualite Theatre*
11/10 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom*
11/16 – Athens, GA @ The Foundry*
11/17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl*
11/18 – Birmingham, AL @ Wordplay Theatre*
* w/ Becca Mancari
Industry Ink: Old Dominion, BMI’s Eastside Sounds, Production Music Conference
/by Jessica NicholsonOld Dominion Teams With Bud Light For Dive Bar Concert Series
Old Dominion perform at Blue Bar in Nashville. Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for Sony Music Nashville
RCA Nashville band Old Dominion launched a partnership with Bud Light on Monday night (July 24) with a special dive bar show at Blue Bar in Nashville, where the musicians and songwriters first began performing as a band eight years ago. Fans heard a first listen to Old Dominion’s upcoming sophomore album, which releases Aug. 25, as the band performed the album in its entirety.
Old Dominion will announce dates for six additional Old Dominion Bud Light Dive Bar Shows next week. The shows will be held in Los Angeles, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Cleveland and New York City.
Front Row (L-R): Sony Music Nashville’s EVP/Marketing & New Business John Zarling, Anheuser-Busch Midwest’s Michele Raymer, Anheuser-Busch brand rep/615 Leverage’s Jackie Campbell
Back Row (L-R): Morris Higham Management’s Will Hitchcock, Old Dominion’s Whit Sellers, Geoff Sprung, Matthew Ramsey, Brad Tursi, Trevor Rosen, Morris Higham Management’s Nate Ritches, Sony Music Nashville’s VP/Media Fount Lynch
BMI, ALT975 Celebrate Eastside Sounds
BMI and Nashville radio station ALT975 hosted the latest edition of indie rock showcase Eastside Sounds on Wednesday night (July 26). Featuring psychedelic folk/rock band Liz Cooper & The Stampede and psych soul rockers Okey Dokey, the Basement East was packed with fans of both acts.
BMI’s Nina Carter poses with Liz Cooper and the Stampede and ALT 975’s Jessica Kelley and Wells Adams after the band’s packed-out set at the Basement East
3404: BMI’s Nina Carter with psych soul band Okey Dokey at Eastside Sounds
Production Music Conference Adds NMPA’s David Israelite As Keynote Speaker
The Production Music Association has announced that David Israelite will be the Keynote Speaker during the group’s annual Production Music Conference (PMC). Israelite, the President/CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, will speak on Oct. 5 at 10:45 a.m. This year’s PMC event will take place October 4-6 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. Please see: http://pmc.pmamusic.com/