NYCS Swag Spotlight: Home Free

/in , /by

Initially, the country music genre’s only all-vocal group Home Free was formed back in 2000 but were really thrust into the scene after participating and winning the 4th season of the singing competition, The Sing Off.  The group which is made up of five vocalists, Austin Brown, Adam Chance, Tim Foust, Rob Lundquist and Adam Rupp are our Swag Spotlight this week, as we focus on their unique brand and their beautiful harmonies.  Rob Lundquist spoke to NYCounry Swag about their tour, their sound and their niche corner of country music. “We have our own niche in this market for sure, nobody else is doing a cappella country, we get to be trailblazers in our own right, we figure out what we want to do and we can always try something else, it’s liberating,” he explains.

Although the majority of their music are covers with a twist on well-known country songs, they also dabble in writing, producing and creating their own original music. They have garnered over 215 million views on YouTube. “We try and put out two YouTube videos a month, we are not on the radio so that is our way to stay relevant and keep people engaged,” he tells us. “We were lucky enough to get with a pretty great management team, Works Entertainment and after the show is where we really started working, touring, making music videos and recording new singles all of the time and that’s really been why we’ve been able to hang around and keep growing.”

Most recently they covered Russell Dickerson’s “Yours”, and Lundquist told us that it was a no-brainer to cover that incredible love song.  As far as picking which songs to cover, he lets us know that it is a democratic process, each member must love the song in order for them to create an arrangement specific for them and their sound. They mainly think about what their fans will want to hear, what they think will reach new markets as well.  Their original song “Timeless” is a catchy tune with an amazing video, showing couples reenacting photos that were taken of them when they were much younger. Take a look at the touching video below.

Their Timeless Tour has hit over 30 cities over the country, including a sold-out stop at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium. The quintet will also perform at CMA Fest this year on the Riverfront Stage. Then continue the summer playing with The Oak Ridge Boys. “Tour has been great, we are all over the country.  People are coming out, we are playing some new markets that we haven’t played and it’s been really fun,” Lundquist tells us.

In a time in country music and music in general when the production and the instruments can sometimes overtake the lyrics of a song, Home Free has managed to push past needing that, creating their own brand using only the beautiful voices they were given.  For more information and tour dates head to www.homefreemusic.com

 

—————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

+ Follow our country music adventures on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook:

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Jordan Rager

/in , /by

Jordan Rager grew up in Loganville, Georgia, a very small town that didn’t offer much to do.  Yes, he played baseball but from an early age, he believed that music was an absolute dream job. His mother, one of his biggest supporters, would take him to bars and clubs when he was merely 14-15 years old.  That is where Rager cut his teeth, learning to perform for all different people, his mother always sat in the front row and then escorted him out immediately after he got off the stage. “I remember walking off stage that first show and I told her ‘I want to keep doing that’,” he tells us in a recent interview.

After finishing high school Rager decided college wasn’t for him and pursued his music career.  “I really wanted to dig into this music thing and give it my best shot,” he explained.  “I picked up a guitar and started learning how to play and started writing songs.”  He started writing with a few buddies who grew up in surrounding towns and they would carpool to Nashville a few times every month, eventually leading him to make the move permanently when he was 19 years old.  Focusing mainly on songwriting when he first got to town as well as what kind of artist he wanted to be and what he wanted to say, he worked hard to write music every day.

Eventually, Rager was asked to join Justin Moore’s Off the Beaten Path Tour, which gave him his first experience being out on the road. “The coolest thing about Justin is that he is genuinely an awesome dude on and off stage, so I really feel bad looking back now, but I basically shadowed him. I followed him around like a lost puppy because I wanted to learn everything I could from him,” he laughed. Learning not only the way that Moore interacted with his fans but also with the band leader, the crew, and even the vendors at the venue, he made sure everyone felt appreciated, something Rager has taken with him and will never forget.

His latest single “One of the Good Ones” was released earlier this month with Riser House Entertainment.  The nostalgia-filled jam was written by Ross Ellis, Chris Stevens, and James McNair.  Ellis, who he is close friends with Rager, sent him the demo, knowing what a big Atlanta Braves fan, in particular, a Chipper Jones fan he was. “From the first listen I knew it was something I had to have. I’ve never felt that way about a song before. It’s never been a first listen, that’s mine,” he explained. He told us about how it has been a few years since he released music, but now he feels that he has a real grasp on who he is as an artist and “One of the Good Ones” is the perfect reintroduction to that new sound.  “I didn’t know the difference between, ‘Oh that’s a good song’ and ‘Oh that’s a good song for me’. And I think this time around I have a much better idea of what I should and shouldn’t be doing.”

After signing a recording and publishing deal with Riser House Records, Rager talks what it’s like to work closely with his friend and fellow Riser House Records artist, Mitchell Tenpenny. “He is a good bud of mine and I get to watch all angles of his rise to stardom, which is cool and it’s been awesome to see him get going because that dude is immensely talented and one of the hardest workers I know, its great to see a good guy win.” Tenpenny joined New York Country Swag for a Live Swag Session in Times Square back in December.

Looking ahead, Rager is recording a brand new EP with songs that he has written over the past year and is excited to have his fans hear his new music. “I’m excited to get back on the road and kind of reintroducing myself to places I’ve been before and going back and playing some of my favorite parts and playing my new stuff for people. I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks about it and I am hoping for a great 2018,” he tells us.

Be on the lookout from new music from Jordan Rager, be sure to be following him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

—————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

+ Follow our country music adventures on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook:

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Lewis Brice

/in , /by

Lewis Brice

Yes, the last name may be familiar to country music fans, but Lee Brice’s younger brother, Lewis Brice, is paving his own way in the genre.  Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, Brice remembers being surrounded by music.  “My mom and her sisters had a group growing up called The Lewis Sisters.  My first name is my mom’s maiden name.  My mom and dad sang together too.”  As his older brother pursued a music career right out of college, he decided to take a different path and actually wanted to be a chiropractor. He loved science and anatomy, but after getting his associates degree he decided to move to Nashville instead of continuing the medical field track.

“Lee was already in Nashville and I played music around bars.  I was a young kid, came here wanting to hang out with my brother a little bit and have some fun.  Then, as soon as I got there, I was in the scene and I really loved it,” he tells us. “After about 3 years, it really came to the point where I had to figure out what I wanted to do.  I loved playing music so much, so I quit bartending and decided to make music full time and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Brice released his debut self-titled EP last year and has been playing those songs on the road, supporting the music. He is a co-writer on all six tracks, finding inspiration from conversations he’s had or things he has heard people say.  Another way he comes up with song ideas is watching movies.  “I love going to movies I am a big movie guy, I put that in my publishing budget so I can still go to movies because I get a lot of ideas from there,” he laughs.

 

 

His first single “Messin’ With My Mind” has over one million streams on Spotify.  Brice explains it is the most personal song he’s ever written.   The second single he is promoting is going to be “Alabama” which was written with his brother Lee.  “All of our friends had farm properties and fields, so instead of us going out to bars we would just go in the middle of the fields and just have a good time,” he says. “It wasn’t a crazy deep song but it was something that we lived and since it’s a country song, you’ve gotta put a girl in it, so we named her Alabama.” The production on the track really makes it a standout on the EP, something that both Brice brothers had a hand in as well.  The background singers bring a gospel feel, really elevating the song.

Spending his time before pursuing a full-time music career as a bartender at 12th and Porter, Brice has watched countless bands take the stage and has always paid very close attention.  Now that he is able to get on the road with artists such as Hank Williams Jr, The Cadillac Three, Jerrod Niemann and of course his brother Lee, he is still learning and taking in every aspect of performing to better his own career. “Learning their grind, their persistence, I’ve learned more about their work ethic than their stage presence,” he explains.  “How they have gotten where they are, whether it’s writing every day or producing every day, it’s really being on top of their P’s & Q’s. Every one of those guys is incredible and they all work really hard.”  Later this month, Brice’s name is on the bill for Stagecoach Festival where Lee is also playing as well as Garth Brooks.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2018, Brice is excited to play his new music out on the road and to promote “Alabama”.  He lets us know that back in December he went on a writers retreat and wrote five songs, six days in a row and he can’t wait for the world to hear the new music. He is hoping to continuously draw more interest and to release new songs for the next EP. Follow Lewis on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Brinley Addington

/in , /by

Brinley Addington

A Tennesee native, this week’s Swag Spotlight shines on Brinley Addington.  Growing up east of Nashville in Kingsport, TN Addington was surrounded by his parent’s musical influences.  His mother loved Alison Krauss & Union Station while his father preferred Ricky Skaggs, James Taylor, and Jim Croce.  One of the first concerts he attended just happened to be Alan Jackson and Randy Travis, starting his love for traditional country music early.

After a life-changing trip to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry when he was just three years old, Addington tells us in a recent phone conversation that he can clearly remember being in that famous room.  “I remember the feeling, the story my parents tell me is that that day I was really cranky being a 3-year-old on a trip, whining and crying, but then when we got to the Opry and the curtain went up and I was just silent,” he recalls. “It’s just a special place. I love going and it is kind of the mark for me.”

From then on he would stand on the coffee table, pretending to be performing on the stage at the Opry.  As he got older he formed his own influences which included Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie, Tim McGraw, George Strait, and Garth Brooks.  Songwriting started early, Addington recalls freeform writing in English class and a poetry assignment. “I always enjoyed making things rhyme. The thing I love about country is lyrics and what they said, the thing that drew me to songs first were the lyrics I always paid attention to that,” he explains to us.  Towards the end of high school, he learned to play guitar and realized that he wasn’t just writing down rhymes, but he started writing songs.  Now looking back at his journey into songwriting he is grateful for the guidance he learned so early on. “I love songwriting, it’s a great outlet and I am very lucky that this is what I get to do every day,” he says.

His first cut came last year when Tyler Farr recorded “I Should Go To Church Sometime” as his next single.  Written by Addington along with Michael Hardy and Sarah Turner he recalls how the song completely changed his life.  Turner brought the idea to the write that day and as soon as she said it a light flip switched in Addington’s head.  “There is a lot of truth in it, if you grew up in church which I did, when you get older you maybe don’t go as much as you should and there is guilt surrounding that,” he tells us.  It’s not meant to make people feel guilty it’s just recognizing the thought that bad things go on in the world and it’s about stopping and reflecting and thinking ‘I need to pay more attention’.”  It was the first cut for all three of the songwriters and they got to experience that milestone together.

Addington’s debut single and the first off his new EP was released last Friday and is titled, “No Thanks”.  The track was written by Addington’s friends,  Ryan Beaver, Michael Tyler and Will Weatherly.  When discussing the concept for his new EP with Beaver, he heard the demo and flipped out over it and loved it. “I kept listening to it over and over and we got down to recording again and I asked if I could record it. They were gracious enough to let me,” he tells us. He loves how it is a fun and lighthearted song all about his favorite kinds of bars. “I’m really not into fancy places. I like going to hole in the walls with neon signs and Miller Lite and it works good for me,”  he laughs. “I would rather have a great time in a dive bar and any song that name drops Travis Tritt and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the same song, I feel like that’s just something I had to be a part of.”

“No Thanks” is the first sneak peek listeners will hear of the forthcoming EP, slated for release later this month.  Addington wrote three of the five songs and they are all fun songs, great for a live show.  Instead of doing a typical industry showcase to introduce the new music, his team decided to host the EP release at one of the first places he played when he first moved to town, Nashville Crossroads on Broadway.

As for his plans for the rest of the year, he can’t wait to play the new music for his fans and get back on the road.  Be sure to follow Brinley on his social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Carolyn Miller

/in , /by

Carolyn Miller

Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Carolyn Miller is our next Swag Spotlight.  Just like Tommy Cole and Lauren Davidson, Miller is pursuing a career in country music by growing her fanbase up north and taking frequent trips down to Nashville for meetings and songwriting sessions.  She tells us in a recent phone interview that like most performers, she was performing before she even knew it.  “When I was 2 in church if my parents blinked I would run up onto the altar, as I  got older they just realized it was I just loved to perform and be in front of people,” she laughs.

Besides not having the typical ‘growing up on a farm’ experience, Miller also went a different route during her early years, acting for television and Broadway. Starting with local community theater when she was merely six years old, and being signed to a top children’s talent manager when she was eight, Miller has worked professionally since then, working on a national commercial with Rosie O’Donnell, voiceover work for Jenifer Lopez’s perfume, landed a role in Daredevil with Ben Affleck and guest starred in Law and Order SVU.  All of this before she exited her teen years, Miller was accepted to the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College on scholarship.  After graduating college she was inspired by some friends who were posting cover videos on YouTube. She gathered some friends, Mikel James and David Wong and they recorded their own version of A Great Big World’s “Say Something”. Within 48 hours the video garnered over thirty thousand views, reaching now almost a hundred thousand views.

The exposure from the YouTube cover lit a fire under her to start exploring the recording artist side of her passion, something she had never really thought about before.  Although she grew up on Long Island, which did not have a country radio station for almost 20 years, she recalls seeing Carrie Underwood win American Idol and being hooked.  “the reason why I connect with it so much is country music is so real, honest, authentic, it tells a story, it’s vulnerable and it has something to say and there is always a purpose,” she explains.  “Coming from my acting background I love authentic stories and I love really getting up and singing I don’t want beats and autotune, country is just that real beautiful pure genre of music.”

After a chance meeting with Russ DeSalvo who has produced Celine Dion and Lionel Richie, Miller started working with him on her debut EP which will be out this summer. The EP features five songs that songwriters in Nashville, LA, and NY wrote, songs that she felt spoke to her.  She looks forward to honing her songwriting craft and performing songs in her live shows and for future albums that she has written herself.

Her background in performing and acting has given her the foundation in this industry to move at a much faster pace than someone just starting out. “I learned discipline, dedication and work ethic from the time I was 8 years old. I understand how it works, I’ve been exposed to it all from a young age,” she tells us. “Everything I’ve been through just proves to me that I know I am ready for this and I know this is what I am meant to be doing and the ups and downs of the industry are expected.”
Miller considers herself pop-country crossover, very New York City meets Nashville and is excited to release her debut EP, Unbreakable later this year.  While in NY she has performed at shows all around town, including the Country Christmas Showdown, was a Nash Next Finalist and is booking opening slots with bigger acts for the remainder of this year. “You have to live and eat and breathe and sleep your craft and feel it in your blood and DNA that there is no other option,” she thoughtfully exclaims.  “If that this is your happiness then you just know that this is what you are meant to do.”
Follow Carolyn Miller on her social media platforms, Facebook,  and Instagram, for announcements on upcoming shows and releases.

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Parmalee

/in , /by

Parmalee

This week’s Swag Spotlight shines on a band that has been together since 2001, Parmalee.  Brothers Matt and Scott Thomas, as well as their cousin Barry Knox and friend, Josh McSwain, moved to Nashville from North Carolina in 2011 to pursue their dreams of being a country music band.   “I think that country is just a part of who we are, we sort of landed there because we were kind of the band that nobody could pinpoint who we were,” Matt Thomas says in a recent chat with New York Country Swag.   “We were always a little too country for rock and too rock for country and too country for pop, it was always kind of blurred lines for us, so it was just a natural progression of where we needed to be.”  He explained that when Jason Aldean, Big and Rich, and Eric Church started making there mark on the genre, they felt they added a similar edge to the traditional music that had been popular in country for so long.

When discussing their influences growing up, Matt laughs and says “honestly everything”.  “Our dad brought us up on soul, blues, and southern country, but also a lot of rock and roll and my mom listened to whatever pop music was out. There was a classic rock radio station back home, that was a staple, it was always a lot of soul rock and roll and country music.”  Now the band explains they are fans of good songs and great melodies, no matter the genre. At any given time you can find them listening to jazz music, or a Frank Sinatra album.  Scott will play the new Chris Stapleton record or even listen to pop music.

Their latest album, 27861 which is also their hometown zip code was released last summer on Stoney Creek Records. They decided to name the album after their hometown because that zip code had been essential to them coming together as a band and represents their roots. They even all have the numbers tattooed on their arms. The album features a collaboration of incredible Nashville songwriters including Rodney Clawson, Tom Douglas, Andrew Dorff and lead singer of Parmalee Matt Thomas.  Writing with those legendary writers, Thomas tells us “I love those guys, there are so many talented people in Nashville that you just have to soak it all in, learn more about people and I think I’ve learned to listen and know what people do best, it’s a very unique, crazy cool thing. ”

Thomas discussed narrowing down over forty songs down to twelve and how they made those decisions. “You want hits the band loves and wants to put on there, what your fans want, and what radio is going to want to play, what is going to help for the live show,” he told us. Looking to the future the band is gearing up to play some festivals and shows across the country this summer and are excited to announce their next single very soon.

Follow along on the band’s social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For full tour dates head to www.parmalee.com

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

NYCS Swag Spotlight: SaraBeth

/in , /by
SaraBeth

Photo via SaraBeth Facebook

Garland, Texas hometown of Lee Ann Rimes and our next Swag Spotlight, SaraBeth.  “Growing up she was what every singer in town aspired to be, if she could do it you could do it too,” SaraBeth explains of Rimes in a recent chat about growing up in Garland.  As a shy kid who sang in her church choir, Sara was in elementary school when she started performing at the Garland Opry. As she grew up she explains that her biggest influences were definitely Shania Twain and The Dixie Chicks. As her tastes matured, she found a true love for traditional country music such as Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline.  Her parents listened to light rock and Christian music, so those genres also shaped her influences today.  Originally going to Baylor and pursuing entrepreneurship, SaraBeth realized after graduating that she truly loved singing and did not want to look back and wonder “what if”.  She headed to Nashville to pursue her music career and hasn’t looked back since.

Releasing music as a solo artist since 2012, but realizing that it was always a group effort, she is now switching gears and working with two others to make up the SaraBeth trio.  Glenn Mitchell and Vicky Vaughn play and lend their voices to her latest single, “Something About It”. “I’ve never been more excited about a chapter in my music career, mainly because of all of the people I am working with and the music itself,” she tells us. “I was just SaraBeth but I’ve never played my own instruments, I was singing and writing the songs but I wasn’t writing them alone, I wrote a lot with my guitar player Glenn, who is now in the trio, so I was always sort of part of a group”  Working with a new producer who has also worked with some heavy hitters like Dixie Chicks, Big and Rich, Lady Antebellum, Sara Evans, The Band Perry and Martina McBride, SaraBeth describes Paul Worley as “the most wonderful person to collaborate with”.

The SaraBeth Trio is heading to New York this week. SaraBeth is running a half marathon, something she started getting into a few years back. “I woke up in 2011 on New Years Day and said this year I am running a half marathon,” she explains.  Since then she has run four full marathons and a bunch of half marathons and is looking forward to Sunday, running with her aunt and uncle who reside in NYC. We talked about how training for running long distances and the actual race is a lot like the music industry. “It is one of those things that is a lot about persistence and it is about doing things you don’t want to do. If the weather isn’t right or in the music industry people tell you that they don’t like this song or you don’t fit this mold, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it, it just means you have to keep training and pushing yourself and eventually you’ll break through,” she explains.

After the marathon, the trio headed to meet up with New York Country Swag on early Tuesday (Mar. 20) for a LIVE Swag Session in the video above.  Looking ahead to the rest of the year, they are excited to get into the studio in the next few months to record some new music. They have a bunch of tour dates scheduled overseas in the fall, something SaraBeth says she can’t wait to get back there to perform. “They obviously do like to have the party scene from the country artists, but they are an amazing audience to just be quiet and listen, they soak up every word you say,” she says of the experiences she’s had there. For a full list of dates and more info check out www.sarabethmusic.com and be sure to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

 

Jimmie Allen Swag

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Jimmie Allen

/in , /by

Jimmie Allen Swag

Since we last caught up with this week’s Swag Spotlight and one of our Artists to Watch in 2018,  Jimmie Allen we find he has made his way across the country on a radio tour and has his very first single on country radio.  In a recent chat, he explained his appreciation for the incredible team he has surrounding and supporting him and the story behind his first radio single “Best Shot”.

During our conversation, Allen was in LA visiting the radio stations on the west coast. Although he is traveling all around the country, they really only get to see the inside of radio stations so he makes the best of it. He loves not only meeting the program directors and DJs but everyone who works there and the local listeners. “I feel like they are the heartbeat of the station…the way they have responded to me has been nothing short of amazing,” he says. He does try and see the cities he is visiting at night or on the weekends, taking it all in day by day. “I love it, it is grueling but for me, it keeps me focused on staying positive and the opposite alternative which is not traveling or doing music,” he explains.

His voice beams with pride when discussing his very first radio single and how on its very first day it was added to rotation by a whopping 58 stations, the second most added song that day. He truly understands that his incredible team and the relationships they have built over the years has helped to catapult his song to country radio and how grateful he is for their support. “Nobody has gotten where they are without someone believing in them and people around them working towards the same goal,” he humbling explains.  “It’s a great win for all of us and it continues to prove if you have something that is halfway good and you have a strong team around you that believes in it you can make some things happen.”
Speaking of the new single, “Best Shot” Allen tells us was written with his friends JP Williams and Josh London over the course of a few weeks and four or five writing sessions to get the vibe just right. Recording the song three times and still not loving how it was turning out he decided to strip it down to play the song at The Bluebird Cafe one night at a songwriter round. “It’s easy to cover a song with guitars and drums and bass and fiddle and you can kind of smother it, you don’t hear the lyrics and the production sounds like everything else that’s out,” Allen says.  After his producer heard that version he knew to focus on the vocal performance to get the result that ended up on the radio today.

 As he finishes up his radio tour, Allen is gearing up to play some pretty big festivals, including Taste of Country up at Hunter Mountain, NY, and CMAFest in Nashville. He is also playing the ACM Tailgate Party in Las Vegas and heading to his very first award show right after.  Ending our conversation on a personal question, we wanted to know if he could go back in time ten years and give himself some advice what would it be.  He delicately explained, “I would tell him to keep going, trust yourself, don’t allow the noise of everyone else’s opinions of who you should be, drown out your own voice of who you know you are.”
We can’t wait to continue to support and champion Jimmie Allen as his career reaches new heights and more and more people discover what an incredible artist he is.  Be sure to be following all of his adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

Tommy Cole

Swag Spotlight: Tommy Cole

/in , , /by

Tommy Cole

Our next Swag Spotlight is focused on highlighting another local New York country artist, Tommy Cole.  Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Cole explains in a recent interview that his town was a blue-collar, steel town, and although it wasn’t the nicest place in the world, it was a great place to call home.  Growing up with a vast array of musical influences, Cole listened to everything from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, to Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, to 70’s rock music.  He recalls playing his very first cassette tape, which just happened to be Trisha Yearwood’s, “She’s In Love With the Boy,” and spending endless hours watching Garth Brooks VHS tapes.

When making his decision to play baseball or pursue a music career through theatre he laughs and explains, “I was an 18-year-old boy who wanted to have fun and chase girls, so of course, I decided to go play baseball.”  While playing catcher for the team, fate stepped in when Cole discovered his friend and the team’s pitcher also played the guitar.  The two quickly formed a duo, playing local gigs and bars around their college town.  Eventually, they recorded an EP, Southern Boulevard and spent the summers through school on the road.

After graduating college, Cole took the leap to move to Nashville, ready to pursue his singing career once and for all. He recorded his first solo artist EP, My Kinda Crowd and spent three years on the road up and down the east coast.

Something happened when he moved to that magical town, he realized that although he loved singing, he found a passion for learning the craft of songwriting. “I moved down there to be a singer, it was all I knew, I didn’t know how to play guitar, I didn’t know how to write a song really, I wrote some, but they were awful,” he explained  “I played out on the town on Broadway for the first two years, did nothing but play 8-12 hour sets and I had a guy come up to me and tell me I was really good, but I had to start writing songs.”

He also learned that being a great singer doesn’t always mean being the loudest or the biggest voice. “I wanted to belt and be as loud as I could be, but the real proof that you are good is not blowing it up, but being able to be real quiet in a song and have everyone hang on every word,”  he tells us, referencing some of his now favorite influences, Sean McConnell, Charlie Worsham, and David Nail.

 

Back in July of last year, Cole followed his heart to New York City and ended up falling in love with the city itself. “I’m a Northern boy at heart, I can’t help that,” he tells us “They won’t sugarcoat anything for you, they will tell you how it is and I love that.  As much as I fell in love and that’s how I ended up here, I really did fall in love with this town.”  He appreciates that the New York/New Jersey country scene is a tight-knit group of musicians and artists all working together as well as separately to achieve one common goal.
Country CHristmas
He continues to play shows on the east coast and is working now to put out new music that he has been working on and writing since his move to New York. He frequently collaborates with another one of our Swag Spotlights: Lauren Davidson.  “Just enjoy what you are doing, enjoy putting out music and people liking your music and then go from there, because especially having so many people pursuing this dream it’s not easy,” he concludes with.  Fans can follow along with Tommy Cole on his social media platforms including Instagram,  Twitter, and Facebook. 

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag

Swag Spotlight: Jon Langston

/in , /by

Jon Langston Swag Spotlight

 

Recently it seems like there is something in the water in Georgia, country artists like Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, and our next Swag Spotlight, Jon Langston all hail from small towns in Georgia and are making big waves in Nashville and the country music genre.  Langston was a big football guy growing up, always loving music, but focusing his sights on a football career.  When too many concussions in college forced him to hang up his pads for good, he ultimately grabbed a guitar and started writing songs.  With so much free time after stopping football, finding a new passion was just a fun hobby for the “Forever Girl” singer until YouTube changed his life.

 

 

“Forever Girl” was the very first song Langston wrote back in 2012. He remembers sitting on his porch his junior year of college, writing the whole song himself after jotting down a few ideas during class.  He posted an acoustic version of the song to YouTube and the rest is history. The song spread, people loved it, and he started to realize he might be on to something.  Playing frat parties and local bars around town, Langston got his feet wet in the entertainment industry.

“I saw that social media was the greatest tool you could have, free advertising and free marketing for me.  I was using the platforms to my advantage and I found ways to reach out to people and get my music out there,” he explains.  Although his music lived on YouTube for almost five years, when he moved to Nashville and got his publishing deal with Sony ATV he put the songs on Spotify where they have now garnered over 30 million spins.

 

Continuing his journey, writing and releasing new music to his fans, Langston is gearing up for a busy 2018 filled with festivals and gigs in markets he hasn’t played before. “We are traveling to new places we’ve never been and playing shows that fans have been begging us to get there, we are finally able to spread our wings a little and get out there,” he tells us.

On Friday (Feb. 23), Langston was signed to Universal Music Group with a record deal, presented to him by his mentor and friend, Luke Bryan.  Check out his ultimate surprised reaction in the video below.

 

 

Follow Jon Langston on his socials including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

—————————-

Thanks for supporting Country Music in NYC!

Click Here to learn more about NYCountry Swag
+ Follow our Country Music Adventures on Instagram, @NYCOUNTRYSWAG!

– Team NYCountry Swag