The OFFICAL BLUESTONE TICKET BOX OFFICE
Get Tickets to The Bluestone and never miss your favorite artist again. Tickets From country and electronic to Indie Rock. THE Bluestone brings quality entertainment to the stage every time. We’re working hard to bring you the best concerts and special events in Columbus, Ohio. Keep an eye on our tickets and events calendar and check back often for concert updates. Just click on an event to purchase tickets
https://www.ticketmaster.com/the-bluestone-tickets-columbus/venue/41852
The Bluestone is proud to present “Carolina” and “Musta Had a Good Time” country group PARMALEE.
TICKET AVAILABILITY
VIP Admission
- $150 per table (seats four people-no exceptions)
- Includes six bottles of Miller or Coors Light
- Private Bar Access
- Buckets (six bottles) available for purchase all night for $24
- All VIP tables located in the loft area
General Admission
- $15
- Standing room only
This event is open to all ages
Friday, 09/27 | Doors at 7PM
At 9:30pm on March 7th 2015… the gates to the fitness industries Biggest and Baddest party will open again for the 12th time. Jason Dhir Presents… ANTHEM Mega-party XII. After being sold out every year since its conception, MEGA-Party has not only set the standard in after hours gatherings, but has raised the bar with audacious entertainment and extreme production and detailed originality… its not just a party, its an experience!
For more info visit: jasondhir.com or email jason@jasondhir.com
Gates Open at 9:30pm. 21 & up. Dress to Impress. Cannot guarantee entry after 11:30pm.
BUY TICKETS
Cam Live at The Bluestone
CAM will be performing live at The Bluestone on Thursday December 1st
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Opening Artist: TBA
Tickets available for $15 in advance and will increase to $20 day of show
General Admission Tickets are standing room only!
PURCHASE TICKETS
CAM.
THE SIMPLE, THREE-LETTER NAME IS BOLD. AND THAT RINGS TRUE TO THE ART, AND THE HEART, OF ONE OF COUNTRY’S SHINING NEW ACTS.
THAT BOLDNESS IS EVIDENT IN NEARLY EVERY STEP SHE TAKES. CAM MAKES IT A HABIT TO WEAR EYE-CATCHING YELLOW EVERY TIME SHE GOES OUT IN PUBLIC. THE STRINGS AND ACOUSTIC GUITAR IN HER BREAKOUT #1 PLATINUM-CERTIFIED SMASH, THE GRAMMY AND ACM AWARDS NOMINATED “BURNING HOUSE,” ARE STIRRINGLY FRAGILE, A BRAVE COUNTERPOINT TO THE PARTY ATMOSPHERE OF MODERN COUNTRY. AND SHE SINGS WITH A DYNAMIC CLARITY THAT’S BOTH DISTINCTIVE AND FRIENDLY.
CAM BACKS UP THAT BOLDNESS WITH A FIRM DELIVERY, EMBEDDING HER MATERIAL WITH A RINGING CONVICTION THROUGHOUT THE 11 SONGS ON HER ARISTA NASHVILLE/RCA RECORDS FULL-LENGTH DEBUT, UNTAMED. RELEASED DECEMBER 11, 2015, HER NEW ALBUM BURST ONTO BILLBOARD’S TOP COUNTRY ALBUMS CHART AT #2 AND EARNED 2015’S BEST FIRST-WEEK ALBUM SALES BY A DEBUT COUNTRY ARTIST. WHETHER SHE’S SINGING ABOUT FRESH LOVE, BROKEN HEARTS OR DIFFICULT PERSONAL CROSSROADS, SHE’S CLEARLY LIVING THE EXPERIENCE FOR THE THREE OR FOUR MINUTES SHE’S IN IT. ACTUALLY, SHE’S RE-LIVING THE EXPERIENCE, BECAUSE THE EMOTIONS IN EVERY ONE OF HER SONGS COME UNAPOLOGETICALLY FROM HER SINGULAR INTERACTION WITH THE WORLD.
“THERE’S A LOT OF WORK INVOLVED IN BEING AN ARTIST, AND I’M SO HAPPY TO DO IT,” SHE SAYS. “BUT IF I’M GOING TO INVEST MY TIME IN THE WORK PART OF IT, THE MUSIC JUST HAS TO BE ME.”
THE “ME” THAT CAM PRESENTS TO THE WORLD IS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL. SHE’S POWERFULLY VULNERABLE IN “BURNING HOUSE,” FIERCE AND DEFIANT IN “RUNAWAY TRAIN,” EFFERVESCENT AND CAREFREE IN “MY MISTAKE.” AND THE EMOTIONS IN THE MATERIAL AREN’T THE ONLY THING THAT SEPARATES THOSE TITLES – EVERY SONG INCORPORATES A DIFFERENT SONIC PALETTE. WHILE ONE MIGHT RELY ON POLISHED POP INFLUENCES AND MELODY, ANOTHER YIELDS A PIANO BAR FEEL, ONE CLEVERLY INFUSES A BIT OF GREGORIAN CHANT, AND YET ANOTHER USES STEEL GUITAR TO CREATE A CLASSIC-COUNTRY MOOD.
THAT WIDE-RANGING ARTISTRY IS KEY IN CAM’S APPROACH. INSTEAD OF LIMITING HER CHOICES TO MAKE AN EASILY DEFINED PRODUCT, SHE’S PUT FAITH IN THE UNIQUENESS OF HER VOICE, ALLOWING THAT TO BE THE DEFINING CHARACTER OF A PLIABLE, ADVENTUROUS MUSICAL PERSONA.
CO-WRITING EACH OF THE SONGS ON UNTAMED, CAM SAYS, “THE COHESIVE PART IS ME AND MY VOICE. THE MUSIC ALL STEMS FROM THE SAME PLACE, AND IT ALLOWS YOU TO GO IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS WITH THE CONTENT AND THE LYRICS AND THE KIND OF VIBE THAT’S GOING ON IN EACH SONG.”
ADVENTURE AND UNIQUENESS WERE PRACTICALLY BUILT IN TO CAM FROM THE OUTSET. CAMARON MARVEL OCHS WAS BORN IN THE WATERFRONT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TOWN OF HUNTINGTON BEACH, SHE SPENT BIG CHUNKS OF HER YOUTH AT HER GRANDPARENTS’ HORSE RANCH IN OCEANSIDE, WHERE THE TRACTOR WAS RED AND THE BARN WAS BLUE. HER GRANDFATHER WAS BOTH A COWBOY AND AN ENTREPRENEUR – HE STARTED HIS OWN BUSINESS, BUILDING WOODEN OFFICE DESKS – AND HER PARENTS WERE SIMILARLY NON-CONFORMIST. HER FATHER GREW UP IN A MILITARY FAMILY AND HAD THE GUTS TO MOVE OUT ON HIS OWN AT AGE 17, A TIME WHEN MOST KIDS ARE LOOKING TO DAD FOR A FEW EXTRA BUCKS TO PUT GAS IN THE CAR AND SEE A MOVIE. HER MOTHER HAD AN EXECUTIVE POSITION IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AT A TIME WHEN THOSE JOBS WERE RESERVED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEN. IN TURN, THEIR INDEPENDENT, SELF-RELIANT STREAK WAS INSTILLED IN CAM, PARTICULARLY AFTER THE FAMILY RELOCATED TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
“WE’D CLIMB REDWOOD TREES IN THE BACKYARD, AND I WOULD CLIMB SUPER HIGH AND GET STUCK,” SHE RECALLS WITH A LAUGH. “I’D ASK MY DAD TO HELP ME DOWN, AND HE’D SAY, ‘WELL, I CAN’T. YOU’VE GOT TO GET YOUR OWN SELF DOWN. BUT I’LL STAND HERE AND CHEER YOU ON.’”
THERE WAS PLENTY TO CHEER. FOR EIGHT YEARS, BEGINNING IN FOURTH GRADE, CAM WAS PART OF THE CONTRA COSTA CHILDREN’S CHOIR, WHICH SANG IN 14 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. THE CHOIR TOURED INTERNATIONALLY, PERFORMING IN SUCH EXOTIC LOCATIONS AS CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL IN ENGLAND, NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS AND THE VATICAN.
THROUGH THAT PROCESS, CAM LEARNED MUSIC THEORY, HARMONY, STRUCTURE AND TONE. AND SHE LEARNED THE JOY OF BEING PART OF A TEAM.
“I LOVED SINGING IN GROUPS,” SHE SAYS. “I DON’T NECESSARILY LIKE TO BE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION.”
WHEN SHE HEADED OFF TO COLLEGE, CAM STUDIED PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS. THE SCHOOL IS CENTERED IN FARMLAND OUTSIDE OF SACRAMENTO, PART OF THE SAME RING OF SMALL-TOWN SUBURBS THAT INCLUDES FOLSOM, A TOWN THAT WOULD BECOME VITAL TO THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY CASH.
THE SETTING WAS CRUCIAL. CAM HAD ALREADY BEGUN TO CONNECT TO DIVERSE BRANDS OF MUSIC – SHE WAS DRAWN TO STRONG, INDIE-ROCK FEMALES AND TO SINGER/SONGWRITERS IN HER CASUAL LISTENING AT THE SAME TIME SHE WAS SINGING CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH THE CHORAL GROUP. BUT COUNTRY MUSIC WAS A BIG PART OF THE SOCIAL SCENE AT DAVIS, AND IT BECAME AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN HER SELF-EXPRESSION.
“VARSITY BLUES CAME OUT, AND EVERYBODY WORE COWBOY BOOTS TO SCHOOL,” CAM RECALLS. “AND EVERYBODY LISTENED TO TIM MCGRAW AND THE DIXIE CHICKS AND SHANIA TWAIN.”
THAT INCLUDED CAM, WHO IDENTIFIED WITH THE VALUES OF HOME AND COMMUNITY THAT ARE CENTRAL TO THE GENRE. THAT EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WOULD PAY OFF WHEN SHE PURSUED MUSIC PROFESSIONALLY. WHILE LIVING IN LOS ANGELES, CAM MET A KINDRED SPIRIT IN UP-AND-COMING SONGWRITER/PRODUCER TYLER JOHNSON (TAYLOR SWIFT, P!NK). A SONGWRITING PARTNERSHIP WAS BEGUN, WITH PROMISING EARLY RESULTS – THEY CO-WROTE A SONG ON MILEY CYRUS’ ALBUM BANGERZ, AND CAM ALSO LANDED A SONG ON A PROJECT BY INDIE COUNTRY ACT MAGGIE ROSE.
CAM AND JOHNSON METICULOUSLY WROTE AND REWROTE THE MATERIAL FOR WEEKS AND MONTHS AT A TIME UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF GRAMMY®-WINNING PRODUCER AND SONGWRITER JEFF BHASKER (FUN., MARK RONSON), WHO HELPED BRING HER TO THE INDUSTRY’S ATTENTION IN NEW YORK, EVEN WHILE SHE MADE ORGANIC INROADS IN MUSIC CITY.
IN A BIT OF A FLUKE, CAM’S MUSIC WAS DISCOVERED ONLINE BY NASHVILLE RADIO PROGRAMMER MICHAEL BRYAN, WHO STARTED PLAYING ONE OF HER SONGS, “DOWN THIS ROAD,” ON WSIX EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS UNSIGNED. WHILE THE ATTENTION WAS A BOON, WHEELS WERE ALREADY IN MOTION BEHIND THE SCENES WITH LABEL MEETINGS IN NASHVILLE WHEN BHASKER GOT CAM A MEETING IN NEW YORK WITH RCA RECORDS CHAIRMAN & CEO PETER EDGE AND PRESIDENT & COO TOM CORSON. BLOWN AWAY BY HER INCREDIBLE VOICE AND IRRESISTIBLE PERSONALITY AND CHARM, EDGE IMMEDIATELY CALLED SONY MUSIC’S CEO, DOUG MORRIS, WHO LIKEWISE FELL FOR HER UNDENIABLE TALENT WHEN SHE AUDITIONED FOR HIM. IN A RARE SITUATION, SHE’S NOW SIGNED TO BOTH THE COUNTRY (ARISTA NASHVILLE) AND POP (RCA RECORDS) LABELS – SHE SEES HERSELF AS A COUNTRY ACT, BUT IF HER MUSIC BREAKS OUT OF THE GENRE OR FINDS AN AUDIENCE OVERSEAS, THE POP DIVISION IS WAITING IN THE WINGS.
MANY OF HER SONGS WENT THROUGH MAJOR REVISIONS EVEN AFTER SHE SIGNED HER DEAL, A REFLECTION OF CAM’S EVOLUTION AS AN ARTIST AND HER DOGGED PURSUIT OF A DISTINCTIVE SOUND. AS THE ARRANGEMENTS OR INSTRUMENTATION CHANGED, THE LYRICS INVARIABLY GOT TWEAKED, TOO. SHE WAS PRESENT FOR EVERY NUANCE, ENSURING THAT THE END RESULTS REFLECTED HER REALITY.
“IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO KNOW EVERYTHING THAT WAS INVOLVED IN MY MUSIC,” SHE SAYS. “I’M THERE FOR ALL THE PRODUCTION THAT HAPPENS, I SIGN OFF ON ALL THE MIXES, I’M THERE FOR THE RECORDING. THE PEOPLE THAT ARE WORKING WITH ME ARE INCREDIBLE, SO I’M NOT DRIVING EVERY ASPECT OF IT, BUT I’M THERE INSPIRING IT.”
IN EARLY 2015, COUNTRY RADIO WAS INTRODUCED TO CAM WITH THE ENGAGING FIRST SINGLE, “MY MISTAKE,” WHILE HER FOUR-SONG EP, WELCOME TO CAM COUNTRY, DEBUTED ON SPOTIFY. THE MEDIA WAS IMPRESSED WITH CAM’S POSSIBILITIES. BILLBOARD PRAISED HER MUSIC AS “AT ONCE FRESH AND FAMILIAR, THAT RARE MIX OF DARING AND COMFORT THAT’S OFTEN THE HALLMARK OF A HIT,” WHILE GOSSIP KING PEREZ HILTON CHAMPIONED HER FOR BEING “FEARLESS.” THE ACCOLADES CONTINUED WITH THE RISE OF “BURNING HOUSE,” WHICH ROLLING STONE COUNTRY CALLED “HAUNTING” AND “ONE OF THE MOST BUZZED-ABOUT TUNES OF THE YEAR.” AND THE WASHINGTON POST LAUDED BOTH “MY MISTAKE” AND “BURNING HOUSE,” NOTING THAT “THE TWO SONGS FEEL LIKE NIGHT AND DAY, BUT THEY ALSO SUGGEST RANGE AND DEPTH.”
SINCE JULY 6, 2015, THE OFFICIAL RADIO IMPACT DATE OF “BURNING HOUSE, NOT ONLY HAS CAM BECOME THE ONLY COUNTRY FEMALE TO ACHIEVE MORE THAN 1 MILLION DOWNLOADS OF A SINGLE THIS PAST YEAR, BUT, ADDITIONALLY, BOTH HER BREAKTHROUGH HIT AND DEBUT DISC MADE MULTIPLE “BEST OF 2015” CRITICS’ LISTS, INCLUDING ROLLING STONE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, THE WASHINGTON POST, ASSOCIATED PRESS, NASHVILLE SCENE, AMONG OTHERS. CAM ALSO BECAME THE MOST-NOMINATED FEMALE AT THE 2016 ACM AWARDS WITH SIX TOTAL NODS, AND, SHE RECEIVED A 2016 GRAMMY NOMINATIONFOR “BEST COUNTRY SOLO PERFORMANCE” FOR “BURNING HOUSE” AND 2016 AMERICAN COUNTRY COUNTDOWN AWARDS NOMINATIONS FOR “FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR” AND “BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR.” HER CAREER IS SHOWING PROMISE.
PROMISE IS PART OF CAM’S CHARM. EVEN IN “BURNING HOUSE,” A SPARE SONG ABOUT A CRUMBLING RELATIONSHIP, ONE CAN SENSE AN UNDERLYING POSITIVITY: HER PERSISTENCE AND HER DETERMINATION TO MEND A DEVASTATING FRACTURE.
IT’S A RARE GIFT, AND IT’S REFLECTED IN HER BOLD PENCHANT FOR YELLOW. SHE SPRINKLES THAT COLOR INTO SHOES, DRESSES, BRACELETS – SOMETIMES A COMBINATION OF ALL OF THEM – AS SHE VISUALLY CAPTURES HER INNER GLOW. THAT GOLDEN SIGNATURE LOOK WAS DEVELOPED OUT OF A CONVERSATION WITH HER MANAGER, LINDSAY MARIAS. CAM HAD RAISED A FAIR AMOUNT OF MONEY THROUGH A KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN AND WAS USING SOME OF THAT REVENUE TO FUND A VIDEO. WORKING LATE AT NIGHT DURING THE PRODUCTION, CAM MADE SOME COFFEE TO GET A LIFT, AND AS SHE GRABBED A CUP, SHE PURPOSELY CHOSE A YELLOW ONE OFF THE SHELF.
“I REALLY NEEDED THIS BRIGHT MOMENT TO BE ABLE TO JUST CONNECT WITH PEOPLE THROUGH THE VIDEO,” SHE EXPLAINS. “LINDSAY WAS THERE WITH ME, AND SHE SAID, ‘YOU ARE YELLOW.’ IT’S SO CHEERY AND FRIENDLY AND RELATABLE, AND ALL THOSE ADJECTIVES FIT SO WELL WITH ME AS A PERSON AND WHAT MY MUSIC IS ABOUT, SO IT JUST ALL CLICKED. THEN THE MORE WE INCORPORATED YELLOW, I STAND OUT IN PICTURES. PEOPLE SEND ME YELLOW THINGS, AND EVEN IF I’M TIRED OR IF IT’S A SUPER-COLD, SNOWY DAY, YELLOW LIFTS PEOPLE’S SPIRITS. IT KIND OF DOES HALF THE WORK FOR YOU.”
IT’S A SIGN OF CAM’S BOLDNESS. HER DEAL, HER MUSIC, HER PHILOSOPHY – EVEN HER NAME: EVERYTHING ABOUT HER STANDS OUT. IF YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED CAM, YOU SIMPLY WEREN’T LOOKING.
Russell Dickerson will be performing live at The Bluestone on Friday, February 17th, 2017
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Opening artist: TBA
Tickets are $15
Tickets on-sale Friday, November 4th at 10am
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Josh Abbott Band
live at
The Bluestone Thursday, November 16th
as part of their
“Until my Voice Runs Out tour”
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Opening Artist: TBD
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of show
PURCHASE HERE
RESERVED LOFT TABLE SEATING
RESERVED TABLE PURCHASE DOES NOT INCLUDE ADMISSION TICKETS TO THE SHOW.
Admission tickets must be purchased separately
The loft is located on the second level of The Bluestone
- Loft Lower Tier: $250 (seats four people-no exceptions)
- Prime view of stage!
- Includes first bucket of Miller or Coors Light
- Server
- Exclusive Private Bar access
-
Loft Upper Tier: $200 (seats four people-no exceptions)
- Includes first bucket of Miller or Coors Light
- Server
- Private Bar Access
- May be Obstruction in View
*All Reserved tables located in the loft area
ALL SALES ARE FINAL
When Josh Abbott Band recorded “Ghosts” for its fourth album, Front Row Seat, Abbott expected to redo the vocals. The final chorus had some technical imperfections, and he figured he could improve on the performance once his heart settled down. Producer Dwight Baker, one-half of the Austinbased duo The Wind and The Wave, wouldn’t let Abbott retouch it.
“I was actually crying my eyes out during that last chorus, and that’s why there’s a couple of notes in the beginning of that section that don’t really explode like normal,” Abbott says. “Dwight was like, ‘We’re keeping that. That’s real.’”
Real is the operative word for Front Row Seat, a 16-track song cycle that represents the most ambitious and emotionally challenging project yet for JAB, a highly melodic six-piece ensemble that’s managed to keep a foot in both the Texas music scene and the national country world. The band won four times during the inaugural Texas Regional Radio Awards behind an upbeat brand of country that still leans on classic instrumentation – particularly banjo and fiddle – to effect a raucous, roof-raising attitude.
The band has lobbed three singles onto the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart – including “Oh, Tonight,” the first charted track to feature Grammy-winning Kacey Musgraves – and nabbed a Top 10 album with the 2012 release Small Town Family Dreams and reached No. 12 with the 2014 EP Tuesday Night.
But Front Row Seat steps beyond the band’s honky-tonk inclinations for a more personal journey as the album traverses the emotional course of Abbott’s first marriage and subsequent divorce. It was not his original intention to depict his private life in a public way, but as he wrote the songs for Front Row Seat, beginning before the split actually occurred, he naturally mined his emotional life for a set of songs that were profoundly honest and revealing. It was only as they began recording the material at Baker’s Matchbox Studios outside of Austin, that they realized they had the germ of a tangible plot.
“We started looking at the music we’d done and had a whole bunch of other songs that we really loved and we were like, ‘Man, we could put this together and make a really neat story out of it,” fiddler Preston Wait recalls. “Especially with the song ‘Front Row Seat,’ we basically just made it kind of like you’re watching a movie and it’s your front row seat to this life.”
Owing to that silver-screen character, JAB employed screenwriting technique by assembling the project with the five elements of plot structure: the exposition, or beginning; an inciting incident; the climax; a falling action (in this case, a breakup); and the resolution.
The story begins with “While I’m Young,” in which a college-aged Abbott lives a typically carefree existence, spending much of his discretionary income in bars and living for the moment, an ideal that’s captured authoritatively in the anthemic “Live It While You Got It.” As the album progresses, he meets a woman who commands his attention for more than one evening, finding himself by track 7, “Crazy Things,” mulling what it is that would make a woman who’s dang-near perfect fall for someone so flawed.
By the time the album concludes, his once-ideal relationship has turned sour, and the two are no longer one. The fracture becomes apparent through the resignation of “Born To Break Your Heart,” and he discovers in “Ghosts” that all the memories that once lived with such passion and revelry continue to haunt his memory, taunting him with whispers of a past he can never reclaim. As Front Row Seat closes with “Anonymity,” Abbott sings a spare dirge with acoustic guitar and fiddle, fantasizing that he could return to the start of the relationship and live it out right.
The Cadillac Three will be performing live at The Bluestone on March 8th, 2018
Opening Artist: Austin Jenckes
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 day of show
This show is SOLD OUT!
PURCHASE HERE
The Cadillac Three LIVE at The Bluestone
THE CADILLAC THREE
It may be a ballsy move for The Cadillac Three to name their new album LEGACY, but if any country band has the shared history to lay claim to such a weighty title, it’s the longhaired trio of Nashville natives.
Singer-guitarist Jaren Johnston, drummer Neil Mason and lap-steel player Kelby Ray have known one another since they were teens and have been sharing stages together for nearly 15 years. This summer, they’ll headline their hometown’s most famous venue, the Ryman Auditorium, just a few blocks from where Johnston and Ray sat in high-school math class daydreaming about one day playing the legendary hall. Johnston’s connection to the Ryman goes back even further: his father has been a drummer at the Grand Ole Opry since Jaren was a child. And now he has a son of his own, who, like his old man, will be well-versed in all the sounds that make up both Music City and The Cadillac Three, from country and blues to rock & roll.
So, yeah, “legacy” looks good on this band.
“We’re trying to build something and do it our way, which is always harder,” says Johnston. “If you’re going to leave something that people are actually going to remember, you can’t take the easy way. So we took all of our history, mixed it with the energy of The Cadillac Three and put it into a record that makes sense of where we’ve been and where we’re going.”
After nearly a full year on the road in support of 2016’s BURY ME IN MY BOOTS, their first full-length album recorded for Big Machine Records, the group returns with a more mature perspective. Johnston, Mason and Ray have experienced a lot on tour, whether opening arenas across the country on Florida Georgia Line’s Dig Your Roots Tour or headlining their own consistently sold-out string of sweaty club and theater shows in the U.K. and Europe. As they prepare to head back in November for another big run, for The Cadillac Three, the old saying really is true: this band is huge overseas.
“Europe showed us that we should bet on ourselves. It was a big gamble the first time we went over there,” says Mason, “but the shows and the fans have continued to grow.”
“And going overseas reinforced that we wanted to get more music out more quickly,” adds Ray. “They go through singles really quickly over there. They want more, more, more and that encouraged us to go into the studio, knock this album out and keep going.”
All that travel, from city to state, country to continent, could decimate a lesser band, but it only served to creatively inspire the mighty TC3. They wrote many of the 11 songs that make upLEGACY on the road, cut the tracks on rare days off in Nashville and then recorded all of Johnston’s vocals – one of the most “country” voices in the genre – in the back lounge of their bus in between shows, adding a crackling sense of vitality to LEGACY. They also produced the album themselves.
“We knew what we wanted to do with this record. Instead of putting it together in bits and pieces, we started with a batch of songs and then picked a single,” Johnston says. “That’s how this shit should be done.”
That back-to-basics approach to making music yielded the band’s most infectious single to date: the woozy sing-along “Dang If We Didn’t.” Written, as is most of the album, by Johnston and Mason (here, with Jonathan Singleton; other times with songwriters like Laura Veltz and Angelo Petraglia), “Dang If We Didn’t” teases fans with its ambiguous title, before revealing what the guys actually did in the chorus: get drunk last night.
“When you’re a songwriter, you can be critical of song titles,” says Johnston. “But with ‘Dang If We Didn’t,’ I thought it was a little bit mysterious. It makes you wonder, ‘Dang if we didn’t do what?'”
“Eat pizza last night,” quips Mason. “It could be anything.”
“American Slang” rivals “Dang If We Didn’t” in its grandeur. It’s a huge song, akin to Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'” or The Cadillac Three’s own “Graffiti,” off BURY ME IN MY BOOTS. Lori McKenna (Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush”) began writing the tune with the intention of having The Cadillac Three finish it. “We are vampires on Hollywood Boulevard / angels and sinners of our hometown streets,” go the lyrics, painting a picture of life’s rebels, before a massive country-radio chorus kicks in: “We are the back roads, dirty water shore banks…we are born and raised on American slang.”
The constant throughout LEGACY, however, lies in the players: as on all three of The Cadillac Three’s albums, only Johnston, Mason and Ray are the musicians. There’s no guest keyboard player, no second percussionist and certainly no bassist. Ray holds down the low end on his lap steel.
Especially on the standout LEGACY track “Take Me to the Bottom,” which features Johnston reaching high for a breathtaking falsetto. “‘Take Me to the Bottom’ has the best bass sound of anything I’ve ever done,” says Ray, who also keeps things greasy on the intense “Tennessee.” A thrashing love song, it evokes the stomp of ZZ Top – a favorite of TC3 – and features a lyrical shout-out to progressive country hero Sturgill Simpson, a kindred spirit of the band.
No matter the influence, though, the trio stays faithful to their own unique sound throughout LEGACY. “Hank & Jesus” glides along with Tennessee twang; “Demolition Man” is distinguished by the space between the notes; and the swaggering “Cadillacin'” is a band anthem. “We don’t put anything on our albums that we can’t re-create live,” says Mason. “If there is a TC3 rule, it’s that: keep it honest.”
Honesty, or authenticity, is a favorite buzzword around Nashville. But few artists come to it as naturally as The Cadillac Three. These guys couldn’t fake it if they tried. In the album’s title track, they offer a heart-on-the-sleeve testimony to what’s really important at the end of one’s days: love and a family tree.
When Mason and Ray heard “Legacy,” co-written by Johnston, they flipped, and pushed for it to be the title of the record. “We’re far enough along in our careers where doing an album called LEGACY doesn’t feel presumptuous to me,” says Mason.
Not when you run through The Cadillac Three’s milestones. It’s all there, from boundary-pushing albums, Grammy-nominated No. 1 songwriting across genres and fan-favorite singles to sold-out club shows and massive festival gigs alongside Aerosmith.
“With this album, we’re continuing to build this thing we’ve created. We’re touring nonstop, headlining shows in the U.K., playing the Ryman, and putting out a new record,” says Johnston. “Shit, that’s a pretty good legacy so far.”
Country Fuzz presents: The Cadillac Three LIVE in Concert February 13th
Doors for the show will open at 7pm
Opening Artist: TBA
Tickets are just $27.50 in Advance and $32.50 day of show
Tickets will go on-sale Friday, November 22nd at 10am
PURCHASE HERE
Singer-guitarist Jaren Johnston, drummer Neil Mason and lap-steel player Kelby Ray have known one another since they were teens and have been sharing stages together for nearly 15 years. This summer, they’ll headline their hometown’s most famous venue, the Ryman Auditorium, just a few blocks from where Johnston and Ray sat in high-school math class daydreaming about one day playing the legendary hall. Johnston’s connection to the Ryman goes back even further: his father has been a drummer at the Grand Ole Opry since Jaren was a child. And now he has a son of his own, who, like his old man, will be well-versed in all the sounds that make up both Music City and The Cadillac Three, from country and blues to rock & roll.
So, yeah, “legacy” looks good on this band.
