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Midland LIVE at The Bluestone on Saturday, November 17, 2018!
*Opening Artist: Desure
*Doors for the show will open at 7PM
*Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of show
Ticket On-Sale July 13th, 2018 at 10AM!
With all the chest-thumping going on in Nashville today, where bluster and swagger have replaced heart and soul, you half expect some of country music’s male stars to be sporting bruises. Which is what makes Midland, a trio of friends based in Dripping Springs, Texas, so undeniably refreshing. Made up of singer Mark Wystrach, lead guitarist Jess Carson and bass player Cameron Duddy, Midland is the embodiment of Seventies California country, all smooth Eagles harmonies and heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics. Their songs are intoxicating, sung with the twang of George Strait.
And it’s impossible to resist.
Now, after endearing themselves to fans with the hit radio single “Drinkin’ Problem” and a self-titled EP, Midland unveil their full-length debut, On the Rocks (Big Machine Records).
A collection of 13 tracks all written or co-written by Midland – the guys took their name from a Dwight Yoakam song – On the Rocks excels at setting a mood, transporting the listener to another place and time. It’s an album made for wide-open skies, endless deserts and wondering where the road is going to take you next.
“Drinkin’ Problem,” written with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, who produced the album with Dann Huff, reclaims the drinking song for classic country music, making it less about an endless party and more about self-medicating. “They call it a problem, I call it a solution / just sitting here with all my grand illusions,” sings Wystrach, evoking the best booze ballads of both Gary Stewart and Merle Haggard, two of the trio’s chief influences.
“Make a Little,” a rollicking ditty, is more optimistic, soaring with the brotherly harmonies of Wystrach, Duddy and Carson and a timely message: “There’s just not enough love in the world.” The rapid-fire lyrics embody the clever wordplay that is unique to country music – “we should make a little, generate a little / maybe even make the world a better place a little” – and also nod to Alabama, another country band that helped spark a revolution in the genre.
Midland hearken back to a time when an artist’s personal style – colorful suits, tailored denim and well-worn hats – dovetailed with the music. And they tip their hats to other groundbreaking artists throughout On the Rocks.
The kick-back and get-high ode “Altitude Adjustment” name-checks John Denver, the majestic “Nothin’ New Under the Neon” sounds like vintage Eddie Rabbit, and the glorious “At Least You Cried” channels Dwight Yoakam. By album’s end, the band 2 returns to the Eagles, recalling their famous intro to “Seven Bridges Road,” with the closing “Somewhere on the Wind.”
“On the Rocks is a confluence of our musical tastes and our reverence for classic country,” says Duddy, whose wife, photographer Harper Smith, shoots all of the group’s stylish photos.
“This record is truly a nod to the time period we are influenced by,” says Carson, a Pacific Northwest native, “and is an effort to bring that sound and that pageantry back to the forefront.”
“We write with a very visual storytelling approach. We paint that big picture and go to that place,” says Wystrach. “Where is this story going? Let’s paint it.”
“Electric Rodeo,” with its plaintive piano, sweeping strings and high-in-the-saddle chorus, is a prime example of the “picture” the band talks about creating. And “Check Cashin’ Country,” a solo composition by Carson, stands as the band’s true-life road diary: the tale of a country-rock band trying to find time to sleep as they hustle from gig to gig, barely making enough money to put gas in the tank. It’s the country equivalent of Seger’s “On the Road.”
Midland first came together at Duddy’s wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the three members ended up jamming onstage at the rehearsal dinner.
“It was this serendipitous chain of events, and it was the best week ever,” says Wystrach, who, despite his hippie persona, was actually raised on an Arizona cattle ranch. “By the end, we knew the three of us had amazing chemistry.”
“Midland isn’t manufactured,” says Duddy, born in California. “We are three real friends who stumbled upon making music together.”
Whether they intended it or not, Midland are filling a void in country, with songs that run the gamut from lush Urban Cowboy anthems to loose campfire sing-alongs. Putting their own spin on a classic sound, they’re making something old relevant again.
“We are a band,” says Carson, declaratively. “That’s a big part of the spirit of what we do, that group experience and camaraderie.”
Says Wystrach, “We’ve poured our hearts and souls into writing and making these songs and are extremely proud of what we’ve been able to create.”
With On the Rocks, Midland have captured a sound decades in the making that is just right for today.
Maddie and Tae LIVE in Concert at The Bluestone on April 16th, 2020
Opening Artist:
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Tickets are $15 in Advance and $20 Day of show
Tickets on-sale Friday, January 17th at 10am
PURCAHSE HERE
Maddie & Tae first broke out in 2013 with their PLATINUM-selling “Girl In A Country Song,” and the full-length that followed made good on the single’s glinting promise. Released in 2015, the whip smart Start Here cast a side-eyed glance at the high school cafeteria crowd—then just teens, it was a world they still knew well—and burned with the desire to break out, move out, and set the world on fire.
Eli Young Band
January 26, 2023 at 8 PM
Doors Open 7 PM
at The Bluestone
Columbus, Ohio
Artist Biography
by Mark Deming
Fusing a young man’s take on heartland rock with the tougher side of Texas country music and the cocky enthusiasm of alt-country firebrands, the Eli Young Band have become a potent draw in the Southwest on the strength of local airplay and extensive touring. The Eli Young Band’s story began when Mike Eli and James Young both enrolled at the University of North Texas and found themselves sharing a dorm room as freshmen. Both played guitar, and the two new friends started writing and singing songs together. Under the name Eli & Young, they began playing acoustic shows at local bars and coffee houses, and in time they expanded the band into a full electric quartet with the addition of fellow students Jon Jones on bass and Chris Thompson on drums, thus giving rise to the Eli Young Band.
The group became a potent local draw, and in 2003 opened a show for rising star Miranda Lambert. Producer Frank Liddell saw the show and was impressed enough to offer the band a deal with his independent label, Carnival Recording Co. The Eli Young Band’s debut album, Level, appeared in 2005, and the songs “That’s the Way” and “When It Rains” began scoring significant airplay in the Lone Star State. The Eli Young Band’s enthusiastic live show helped them draw a large and loyal audience in the Southwest, where they were able to fill 2,000-seat venues as a headliner, and they toured the country as an opener for the likes of Pat Green, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Jack Ingram.
In 2006, the group’s live show was captured for posterity on the concert recording Live at the Jolly Fox, taped during a gig at a club in Huntsville, Texas. The Eli Young Band then landed a deal with the Universal-distributed Republic Records; a video for a new recording of “When It Rains” subsequently received extensive play on Country Music Television, and the group’s first album for Republic, Jet Black & Jealous, was released September 2008, with “When It Rains” and two other songs from the album, “Always the Love Songs” and “Radio Waves,” becoming Top 40 hits.
The follow-up album, Life at Best, delivered another hit, the Liz Rose– and Lee Brice-penned “Crazy Girl.” The album was well-received by fans and critics alike, and the following year the Eli Young Band were nominated for a host of awards, including a clutch of Academy of Country Music Awards where they took home the Song of the Year accolade for “Crazy Girl.” They were also up for Grammys for Best Duo/Group Performance and Best Country Song. They soon returned to the studio to record sessions for their fifth album, and in 2013 the fruits of their labor appeared in the shape of the “Drunk Last Night” single, which raced to number one in the U.S. Country Airplay chart. Building on this success, they headed out on tour before announcing that 10,000 Towns was set to be released in 2014; it was preceded by the second single “Dust.” An EP called Turn It On was released in the spring of 2015. For 2017’s Fingerprints, the Eli Young Band signed with the Big Machine subsidiary Valory; the record entered the Billboard country charts at 17.
In March 2019, Big Machine released the compilation This Is Eli Young Band: Greatest Hits.
