CMT on Tour- Miranda Lambert’s Revolution Tour with
Special guest, Eric Church and introducing Josh Kelly
http://www.cmt.com/artists/cmt-on-tour/2010/about.jhtml
Saturday, Nov 6, 2010
Ford Park Arena
5115 IH-10 S Beaumont, TX 77705
409-951-5400
ABOUT ERIC CHURCH, special guest CMT’s on Tour - Miranda Lambert “Revolution” Tour
The CMT on Tour “Miranda Lambert Revolution” includes Eric Church as a special guest on the tour. Eric has long been known in Country Music circles as one bound for star status and with this tour he proves it so. Eric says to CMT and his fans, "I'm very excited to be on what I believe will be one of the best tours going out this fall. I've been on a lot of tours, and this one is gonna be the heat! I love what Miranda does, and we are gonna take the stage every night locked and cocked. The crowd better be ready for it, 'cause we are!"
Eric’s music demands honesty and pulls no punches with his straightforward lyrics about the human condition. He follows the greats of Country Music in this respect - Country Music artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, John Prine and Steve Earle. Just listening to his music, you know the man, Eric Church. His lyrics, vocals and melodies match each other so perfectly that there is no doubt of his totally believable honesty that sets him apart from the herd. And yes, this is his unique style of telling it like it is. Eric says "Honesty is my number one responsibility. If you listen to this, you'll find out who I am."
Church grew up in Granite Falls, North Carolina. His confidence and talent showed by the time he was four years old as he remembers standing on a table singing "Elvira" to a waitress and a few restaurant patrons. In appreciation and awe, those restaurant patrons gladly paid him in change for those adorable impromptu shows.
"I was 13 when I started writing," he says. "It was before I learned to play guitar. I had a lot in me that I wanted to get out, and I started writing lyrics and singing, and I thought, 'If I'm going to play these for people, I'm going to have to learn how to play guitar.'" So, buying a cheap, hard-to-tune guitar, Eric taught himself to play. The music spanned across the many influences of his parents' eclectic tastes, which stretched from Motown to country to bluegrass. (That’s the key, folks! Introduce your children to all genres of music. My own love of music came from influences in classical to country and beyond.)
In high school, Eric was known as a talented athlete in basketball, baseball and golf. After high school, Eric attended Appalachian State and turned his focus back to music, practicing in his dorm. On a trip to a local bar, Eric remembers the time the music drive kicked in hard. "I was watching a band that had the place packed," he says. "I knew the songs they were playing on guitar, but I'd been doing them in my dorm room at Appalachian State and they were doing them in a place that was slamming, with people stuffing money into the tip jar that was being passed around. I thought, 'I can do this as well as they can,' and two weeks later I had a gig." Funny how that Song Muse whispers in your ear at just the right moment!
So the Mountain Boys were born from the urgent need to play those gigs. The Mountain Boys consisted of Eric, his roommate, his brother and another guitarist. They knew 14 songs by their first night gig, but Eric says they faked their way through a four-hour set and so impressed the crowd that they became a regional band. Throughout the next year, original songs were added to the mix. Soon, Eric was selling CDs of his own material and playing four or five nights a week in bars and at fraternity and sorority parties in Asheville, Hickory, and Boone.
Those early gigs of regional acclaim soon led to a trip to Nashville. "I wanted to move two years before I graduated," he says, "but my dad made me a deal. He said 'If you'll graduate, I'll pay for your first six months in Nashville,' which I thought was a pretty good offer. I graduated with a degree in marketing and he was true to his word."
Known all too well by artists embarking on a career in a internationally known and huge bustling cities like Los Angeles, New York or Nashville’s gigantic size as well as a reputation of “making” music artists overnight sensations is overwhelming. When you are also confronted with the heavy population of fledgling artists looking for that same brass ring for most aspiring artists, it can be as if you’ve landed in on a new planet!
Eric says, "I was scared. I didn't know a soul. I didn't know what part of town was good or bad, didn't know the publishing companies or the industry. I just had something inside me saying, 'You have to be there.' That first week was terrifying. I got the phone book and started looking up publishers, thinking, 'I'll call these guys, we'll meet and I'll get a publishing deal.' Of course, once you've been here you know it doesn't work that way. I guess a lot of it was being young and stupid, but there's a lot to being young and stupid. There's vitality to that. If you actually had waited a few years and developed common sense you probably wouldn't do it, but you're so young you think, 'I can do this. It's no big deal.'"
With his father’s financial help, it gave Eric time to make contacts and take meetings. After six months, Eric took a day job. Then, six more months later, Eric’s drive and determination won out. And there he was, being offered and signing a publishing deal at Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing. Eric says, “When I got that first check from Sony Tree and they were paying me money to do it, I thought I had arrived, because I was getting paid to do something I'd be doing anyway!"
He began getting cuts, including Terri Clark's "The World Needs a Drink." Sony’s Arthur Buenahora at the publishing company introduced Eric to producer Jay Joyce. It was an instant merging of friendship and respect. The two began to cut demos in Jay Joyce’s basement. After the release of his first single, "How 'Bout You," and his album "Sinners Like Me" was released in 2006.
As if a sign of good things to come, Eric says, "The night I got the record deal with Capitol was a really good gig," Eric says. "I knew that whether I got the deal or not, this was as good as I could do. It clicked. You just have those nights. During 'Lightning,' the whole crowd was hushed and I knew they were listening. I knew they were with me on the song, and there's nothing as great as a performer as to capture the crowd." Two days later, following a showcase and on his birthday, he was in Capitol's office being offered a recording deal. Church signed to Capitol Nashville. How’s that for a hard earned birthday gift?
The result is the CD that places Eric in his own niche within a diverse country music world, and a firm identity and image of one of Country’s best songwriters and singers.
"I think we've made an honest record. I don't think there's a song on there that's not me," he says. "It's songs about what's going on in the world--this is what I think. You can agree or disagree. I just don't want them to hear it and go, 'That's nice' and move on. I personally like music that goes way out and picks a side."
Eric's new release "Carolina" is truly has that great gritty red dirt mixed swagger with a Carolina smoothness that makes this album a unique and refreshing album! With "Ain't Killed Me Yet" and "Lotta Boot Left to fill your sure that this album is gonna grab you right out of the chair with it's upbeat rockin' stand for independence and snubbing the non-believers of true Country Music. And we do love our stubborn mavericks!
"Young and Wild" inspires you with that same country rock - brings back memories of being just that...'burned up cars and some bars' and awakening that wild, young spirit in you still! Again, a maverick after my own heart! "Longer Gone" claims that same independence, and you can almost hear that train whistle in the beginning melodies.
So, you're frustrated with that fisherman or deer hunter in your life? "Love Your Love the Most" is a picture of the country man who loves all those great things like bass fishing and that kind of stuff, but never forgetting what he loves most - his woman. It's a dead on love song as wives and girlfriends of those not so vocal outdoorsmen - but absolutely adorable with lyrics that hit the truth of we women want most to hear from them! "Smoke a Little Smoke" ...'and drink a little drink' is just the kind of song you want to lay back and enjoy and forget the world exists!
The last cuts on "Carolina" slow it down with some of the most beautiful heartfelt songs "Without You Here," "You Make It Look So Easy," all wistful longings and and "Hell on The Heart" picks up the pace, mirroring all those facets and an appreciation of a woman's "being," good or bad. I believe Eric knows us better than we do! "Those I've Loved" (get the tissues on the last one!) couldn't be a more beautiful ending to this treasure called "Carolina!"
Eric has the songwriting skills, lyrics and music to hook you in by the first few songs without you even seeing it coming. Wrap yourself around this album and never let go!
(And get Country with CMT at http://www.cmt.com/, join the community family!)
CMT on Tour- Miranda Lambert’s Revolution Tour with
Special guest, Eric Church and introducing Josh Kelly
http://www.cmt.com/artists/cmt-on-tour/2010/about.jhtml
Saturday, Nov 6, 2010
5115 IH-10 S Beaumont, TX 77705
409-951-5400
Tickets
http://www.fordpark.com/events.aspx
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Ford-Park-tickets-Beaumont/venue/98878
Tickets on sale now!
$42.75, $37.75, $26.75
Pit tickets are standing only.
Miranda Lambert
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/lambert_miranda/bio.jhtml
Eric Church
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/church_eric/bio.jhtml
Josh Kelley
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/kelley_josh/bio.jhtml
Ford Arena, Ford Exhibit Hall and Ford Midway opened in fall 2003, with Ford Arena selling out its inaugural event. The 8,500 seat multi-purpose Ford Arena is the home to ABA Southeast Texas' Mavericks. The Arena also hosts concerts, rodeos, circuses, motor sports, ice shows and many other special events.
(Continued in Part III - About Josh Kelley)
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