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.
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https://countryswag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/JA2.jpg288480Christina Boschhttps://countryswag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/logo-new-cs-white.pngChristina Bosch2018-03-12 16:20:512018-05-22 17:52:47NYCS Swag Spotlight: Jimmie Allen
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.
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.
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– Team NYCountry Swag
https://countryswag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TCcov.jpg288480Christina Boschhttps://countryswag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/logo-new-cs-white.pngChristina Bosch2018-03-05 16:50:032018-03-05 17:36:51Swag Spotlight: Tommy Cole
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.
McCalla, Alabama native, Ashla Taylor has always dreamt of having a career like Shania Twain. Growing up in a very strict Pentecostal Evangelist family, with rules and religious regulations, sneaking secular music such as Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child became a way of life for the young dreamer. Taking after her two grandmothers, who she calls feisty, she fell in love with music and performing. “My Nana Ellen was a honky tonk singer in the 70’s in a group called ‘The Blue Velvets’. My other Nana, Becky was a writer. She taught me how to write and she also took me to see my first concert when I was eight,” she tells us. That first concert just happened to be Shania Twain, and after seeing her perform everything changed for her.
From that moment on she tried her best to emulate stars like Twain, Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks and Etta James all while living a secret life and listening to these incredible females in private, so her family wouldn’t know. Sneaking around playing original songs at local music venues, she gained her confidence and started meeting people in the industry who told her she should definitely head to Nashville. After winning a local showdown, she made the decision to change her life, quit her boring job and move to Nashville to pursue her dreams. She explained how hard this was for her, all but destroying her relationship with her parents. “They thought that I moved and totally turned against everything that they raised me to believe, but in reality when I left home and came to Nashville and got away from that religious stronghold, I think that’s when I really found my faith,” she tells us.
Five years later, she has spent her time writing and released her debut EP last September, Truth Is…, five tracks that she is so proud of. “Nothing About Love” is set to hit radio stations all over the country this week. While she was working on her EP her agent called to tell her that there are open auditions for a Shania Twain docu-drama and urged her to send in an audition tape. “I was shocked, nothing in the world has ever made me feel so happy, just to get the chance to audition, I really didn’t think I would get it,” she tells us. Getting the call just days later that she had gotten the part, she told us that she was all alone when she found out, she couldn’t stop running around and shaking, she was so excited. “I have a lot of parallels with Shania, growing up I relate to her personal life story so not only was she a musical influence to me she was also a personal influence. Experiencing some of the family trials, I’ve gone through a lot of those things, I’ve had to work really hard and struggle to get where I am at and it’s never been easy,” Taylor explains.
The irony is not lost on Taylor who credits Twain for giving her the chance to follow her path, pursue a music career and make it through the difficult times. Fans can check out www.reelz.com to check out which channel they can catch The Price of Fame, which shows past the glitz and glamour of making it and delves into the deeper more serious stories each artist has.
After chatting about her favorite Shania Twain song (she has too many to pick just one) she tells us what music means to her, in a sentiment, we can all relate to…”That’s the power of music and what is so beautiful about it, it connects people all over the world it doesn’t matter what language or ethnicity, music is universal,” she thoughtfully explains. “It teaches you, it brings people together, it’s like a time machine, you can go right back to where you were when you first heard it.”
Next up for our weekly Swag Spotlight is: Drew Baldridge. During CRS week in Nashville, Baldridge took time to chat with New York Country Swag about his new single, his forthcoming sophomore album and his latest initiative W.E.R.D.
The first single off his next project, “Guns & Roses”, was released in September of last year. The track is not about the famous rock band, but a song written about his girlfriend. “I’m a boots-and-blue jeans kind of guy and she just like every girl, she likes to dress up and wear dresses and high heels and we just really go together just right,” he tells us. The single written with Grammy-winning songwriter and Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee, Tim Nichols (“Live Like You Were Dying” and “Heads Carolina, Tails California”) and Chris Stevens who is helping to produce the new project, will be on his sophomore LP that he hopes to release in late April or early May. When talking about the vibes of the new project, Baldridge explains how he loves a good groove but also wants to remain consistent with his country lyrics.
Growing up, Baldridge was involved with a lot of missionary work as well as singing in his local church. While chasing his dreams in the music industry, there is not a ton of time for much else. “In the last couple of years I performed at 160 shows, so I can’t get out and do missionary work the way I want to. Now, I am combining both things I love,” he tells us.
W.E.R.D (Win Encourage Rejoice Daily) is a new merchandise line that will be sold at all of his shows this year with 100% of the proceeds going to charity. Highlighting a new charity each month, the #WERDoftheMonth will allow foundations and missions that not only Baldridge is passionate about but also focusing on charities his fans are passionate about to benefit from the initiative. “My goal is to reach out to my fans and if someone reaches out to me on Facebook and explains a tough situation they are going through, I want to be able to rally my fans together to help this family out we want to take donations as well and help however we can,” he says.
Baldridge will be opening for Scotty McCreery on a few of his shows as well as hitting the NY area on April 25th for MyCountry 96.1’s Country Night. Keep up with everything W.E.R.D and all of his new music by following along on his social media channels including, Instagram,Twitter,Facebook, and on his website here.
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Jameson Rodgers is our next Swag Spotlight and definitely an artist to watch this year. Releasing his latest 5 song EP earlier this month, Rodgers’ sound is unique and rugged. Growing up in Mississippi, he can recall listening to old recordings of his grandfather’s band. The Delta Playboys. Just before turning ten years old, Rodgers went to the Pyramid in Memphis to see Garth Brooks perform. He clearly remembers watching him on stage, smashing the guitar and thinking that it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. Besides influences like Garth Brooks and country music, Rodgers always loved the music they would play in between innings at his baseball games including John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty.
With music in his blood but baseball on his mind, he pursued a career in baseball all through high school and ended up at Southern Mississippi, where he eventually started writing songs. Playing those songs with his roommates at local bars or around a fire, he was hooked. After graduating, Rodgers headed to Nashville. “I didn’t know a soul, so I just started writing with whoever I could. I went to open mic nights and played, wrote a bunch of bad songs, then finally wrote a few good ones that landed me a publishing deal in 2014,” he tells us.
His latest self-titled EP features five tracks, three of which Rodgers co-wrote. The songs are a culmination of music he has loved over the past few years. He explains that his songwriting process varies daily, but he loves to be the “idea guy” and bring the idea of a song to the table. Listen to the full EP below.
After recently selling out the Lyric Theatre in Oxford, MS, a 1250 person room, Rodgers is in an exciting place in his musical career. Looking ahead to the new year, Rodgers looks forward to promoting new music and getting out on the road. “I think we’ve gotten every step except the record deal. so that is the biggest target in sight. We are going to try like heck to get that,” he explained. Be sure to follow him on Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter.
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Highlighting the first of our local New York country artists, our Swag Spotlight this week is Lauren Davidson. Growing up in Freehold, NJ (where Bruce Springsteen is from), Davidson was always surrounded by music. Her father was a singer-songwriter and frequently played piano and guitar around the house. He would sing her to sleep as a child, she recalls. Country music, however, was not an early influence that Davidson remembers. “Growing up we listened to a lot of Billy Joel, Carol King, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac (I’m a huge fan of them and Stevie Nicks) and a lot of singer-songwriter music which I think has really influenced my songwriting style as well,” she explains. That all changed after being cast in a show at Hershey Park her last year in college. Having spent her time performing on stage in theater productions all through high school and college, this country music review she was cast in would be a change for her.
“The production company was from Nashville and the first day of rehearsal instead of being all theatrical and learning your show they sat us in a circle and played a country music playlist and gave us the history of country music and ever since then I loved country music,” Davidson explains. Thinking back, she can remember the exact moment when she fell in love with the genre. “The last song that they played was Dolly Parton’s original version of ‘I Will Always Love You’ and I will never forget the entire cast sitting there in tears. We were all just so moved by the emotion of the song,” she tells us. “The original intention and arrangement made me connect to songwriters and that Nashville scene.”
After college, she moved to New York City, connected with musicians, and decided it was time to start writing her own music and performing. “It’s not necessarily the traditional southern roots and dirt roads, but my music tells my story,” she says of her lyrics. She writes from an honest place, realizing how the country music genre is changing and how all different genres are now blending, pushing boundaries, and are still being considered under the country music umbrella. “The fans are so accepting and loyal, it is such a great community to be a part of,” she tells us.
A huge decision for Davidson when choosing to pursue country music was whether to stay in New York or to move to Nashville. She has always dreamed of living in Manhattan. Being in New York allows her to live that dream and be a big fish in a small pond. “I have a lot of opportunities here that I wouldn’t necessarily have if I was in Nashville and I get to open for a lot of artists that come through town and meet a lot of people,” she says on her decision.
In the past, she has opened for artists such as LoCash, Justin Moore and Craig Campbell. Next month, Davidson has an opening slot for Tyler Farr’s New Jersey stop at Starland Ballroom. “It is like having a master class in performing or storytelling or whatever the experience is. It is really great to see some of these artists so close up and then be able to connect with their fans. It is one of my favorite things,” she says. Specifically, Davidson has opened for several artists that have played for our New York Country Swag including Russell Dickerson, Brandon Ray, and Mo Pitney.
She tries to get down to Nashville as often as she can to take meetings, play shows around town and arrange cowrites but for now New York is her home. The country scene is growing by the day in New York, Davidson explains she has seen an immense difference since Nash FM 94.7 came to the metro area.
Looking to the future and the new year, she hopes to play shows in new places and definitely get into the studio to record more of her music releasing a new single in March. Be sure to follow Lauren on Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter.
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New York Country Swag 2018 Artist to Watch and our next Swag Spotlight, Jillian Jacqueline, grew up in Pennslyvania where she found herself the odd one out, listening to country music. Her mother who was from South Carolina only listened to country music and CMT was the only television station they would watch, she recalled during our recent interview.
From a young age, music was important to Jacqueline and her entire family. Her sisters were in a family band that sang at weddings and festivals. They covered everything from The Beatles and Carol King to James Taylor and The Eagles, rounding out her childhood influences. Moving to New York City with her family when she was thirteen, her musical palette expanded. Throughout her teenage years she was a fan of punk rock bands such as Third Eye Blind and All American Rejects. “That heavily shaped my melodic sense on top of the country music that I grew up on. Now what I do is sort of a melting pot of all of those different influences. As it is with a lot of artists, I feel like it is the roots of what you grew up on and then the music you got into in your teen college years, that all meshes together.” she tells us.
Jillian Jacqueline was signed to Big Loud Records in March of 2017, she released her first project for the record label, Side A back in September. The project as a whole is in one word, vulnerable. Showcasing her songwriting skills and unique take on the country genre, Side A has a little something for all fans and is completely relatable. The lead single from the EP is “Reasons” and has racked up over 12 million spins on Spotify since it was released. The song was written after Jacqueline decided to tap into her emotions and use her songwriting sessions as therapy after a tough breakup. “It turned out to be some of the most honest stuff I have ever written,” she explained. Just a week ago, she made her late night TV debut on Seth Meyers to sing “Reasons.” Check out the video below.
Each song highlights a personal detail of her life, which has prompted fans to reach out and explain how the songs have helped them. “I like to say it was sort of like jumping off a cliff naked, releasing these songs, it was so true to life,” she laughed. Proud of the human connection she has created, she says, “That’s why we are here”. When she recorded the songs for Side A, she explained she had seven more songs that she recorded as well, so hopefully, in 2018 she will release her first full-length album.
Jacqueline hits the road this summer with opening slots on two of the hottest tours this year, Thomas Rhett’s Life Changes Tour and Brett Eldredge’s The Long Way Tour. She will also be joined by another one of our NYCS 2018 Artists to Watch, Jordan Davis on The White Wine and Whiskey Tour.
When Kaylee Rutland was just eight years old she recalls raising her hand to sing a solo during her church choir show and was immediately bit by the performance bug. “It was the best feeling in the world and I knew I wanted to do this all of the time. It is something that I will always remember.” She spent her childhood in Flower Mound, Texas, and grew up listening to Christian music and Radio Disney, before falling in love with country music. “It’s always been country music for me, in particular, I would listen to Reba, Carrie Underwood, and Sara Evans,” she recalls.
After graduating high school, Rutland made the move to Nashville to attend Belmont University as a Music Business major. She graduated this past December and attributes so much to her college experience. Having heard from songwriters in the industry how they wished they had gotten a degree in the inner workings of the music industry, she decided to pursue that track and outside of class take voice lessons and go to songwriting sessions, ultimately creating a good balance of knowledge. “Getting to take what I learned in the classroom at Belmont and then apply it to my own career and mix being a student with being a musician has been fantastic,” she says of her four years at Belmont.
Her EP, That Side of Me, released in October features five original songs, all of which Rutland co-wrote as well as a new twist on Adele’s “Rumor Has It”. She explains how some of the tracks were written four years ago while others were written and recorded just months before the EP was released. “I wanted a variety of songs that showcased a different side of me as an artist, as a 22-year-old girl and I hope that each of the songs speak out to other people and show them different sides of them as well,” she says of the project. She has learned that being vulnerable and going into a songwriting session and opening up to the other writers is the way to find great, honest lyrics. “That’s what I love about country music, so much of it is real, it’s really just somebody sitting there with a guitar and pouring our their thoughts,” Rutland says.
Kaylee decided that the EP should close with a cover, and she knew that she could take a song that wasn’t a traditional country song and transform it into something new with an added twist. After one of her bandmates suggested an Adele song, she recalls laughing to herself thinking she couldn’t sing an Adele song, however, she took the upbeat revenge song and made it her own.
Looking forward to life as a college graduate, Rutland is excited to have her classroom days behind her and not have to balance her school schedule with her music career. “I plan on doing a lot more widespread performances, I am always performing in Texas and in Nashville, but I would love to get to more places around the country that I haven’t been before,” she explains. For more about Kaylee Rutland be sure to be following her on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram.
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