New Music Video From Sawyer Brown - "God Bless The Road"

New Music Video From Sawyer Brown - "Get Me To The Stage On Time"

New Music Video From Sawyer Brown - "Desperado Troubadours"

New Music Video From Sawyer Brown - "Under This Ole Hat"

Interview Flashback - Ann Exclusive Interview with Bucky Covington

I have been blessed to write contributions/reviews/interviews/opinion pieces for several country music and roots-oriented websites and publications over the years including Saving Country Music, Nashville Scene, Country California, Country Weekly, American Noise, The 9513 and Engine 145. As a regular contributor to the last two in that list, I did close to a 100 interviews with different artists- and since both of those great sites have come down, I will reprint some of those interviews here to give them a home in perpetuity. This interview was originally published in April 2010 on The 9513.

It’s easy to think of Bucky Covington only at the crazy-haired blonde guy who finished in 8th place on Season 5 of American Idol. But after Covington signed a recording contract with Lyric Street Records, his self-titled debut became the best-selling debut artist of the country music class of 2007. It opened at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and became one of the best performing debut albums for any male country artist in recent memory. It produced three hit high-performing singles on the charts including "A Different World", "It's Good To Be Us" & "I'll Walk."

Bucky was kind enough to sit down and talk with The 9513 about what fans can expect on his upcoming sophomore album, I'm Alright, his new single, "A Father's Love," his recent USO tour and his thoughts on American Idol.

Ken Morton, Jr.: American Idol- how do you feel about it on your resume now four years later?

Bucky Covington: The year I was on it, it was a huge huge show. It still is. I didn’t realize just how big it was until I was in the middle of it. I’m still very proud of the show, I love what it does. But then I have people come up to me and ask why if someone wins, it isn’t always the best thing for you. I think my best answer for that one is while as a television show, it’s amazing, it’s still just a television show. But after the show, it becomes about selling music and making music and reaching people in a different way through radio and songs. I think there’s a big difference. But the show was amazing. The biggest thing for me was putting a name with a face with a sound within three months. I think any major label would take three, five, ten years to be able to do that.

KMJ: Has there been a stigma attached to you from the show or has it been all positive from your perspective?

BC: I would love to say that it’s been all positives. I think there are fans and certain people in the music industry that love you because you were on American Idol. You went up against all these people and while you didn’t come up on top, you came out doing very well. But I think there are people that really dislike you because you were on that show. Some people think that maybe you took a shortcut, that you maybe got it handed to you. There’s all kinds of ways to take it. But I think it has helped me. Definitely. But it really can make your blood boil when somebody’s already made an opinion of you, you know?

KMJ: What has Mark Miller of Sawyer Brown meant to your career?

BC: To put it in the shortest perspective possible, he’s been like a father-figure to me in the music business. When you’re on a show like American Idol, you learn a lot of things. With an audience that big, you can perform in front of anyone. But performing in front of a TV camera is different than performing in front of thousands of people. Well, maybe hundreds of people at the time. (Laughing) Luckily for me, it’s become thousands. You have to perform a little different on camera. So I learned how to conduct myself differently on stage. I learned how to conduct interviews. As famous as I thought I was, I had never really done an interview. Unless it was my hometown newspaper. Internet interviews. Radio interviews. TV interviews. One is different from another. When you come off of that show, it’s about music now. It’s about playing music and reaching people in that manner. And Mark helped me about immensely in every aspect of that. On American Idol, you don’t have to really deal with any radio. It’s all TV things that just kind of happen. When you come off of that television show, radio is it. That’s it. That’s your job. Mark Miller has definitely helped me in making choices like which label to go to, which management company I should go with, which booking agent I should choose. He has such a good general idea of how to make decisions.

KMJ: You’ve got an upcoming album on Lyric Street called I’m Alright that will be coming out later this year- how would you compare it against your first album?

BC: I’m very very proud of my first album. I think it did great and wonderful. But we were pushed for a little time on that one. When you come off of a show like that, you want to hit the ground running. When you come off of a TV show, you’ll be remembered only as long as until the next season comes out. Then it’s a whole new thing. We had to get to work quick and we were able to get that one out. But one thing I absolutely love about country music is that while in pop music, you couldn’t take a 80’s sounding song and do anything with it, you can take an 80’s sounding country song and today, go number one with it. I love how country music kind of grows that way. It has some pop that’s grown into it, there’s a rock edge in it, but it can still do the straight country and western songs. I love that. And this album has a variety of country music like that on it. There’s some soulful songs on there. We have a song on there called “Hold A Woman” that my 60’s side if you will. We have upbeat songs. There’s one on there called “Evil Knievil.” We’ve got the title track which is “I’m Alright.” It’s one of my favorites and it’s a very traditional country song. I really love it. And we had a lot more time on this album. I thought I was done with it and we were waiting to put it out and last minute, we had this song cross our desk called “A Father’s Love.” It was one of the songs that we went, “Hold on, hold on. Stop the presses!” We cut it and sent it out to radio within two weeks. That’s one nice thing about this particular album is that we took more time to invest in it.

KMJ: Talk to me about that next radio single, “A Father’s Love.” Any correlation to your relationship with your own father?

BC: Without a doubt. I’ll give you an idea about what it’s talking about. A father will do anything and everything. For example, you’ll buy a new house and he’ll come over and whip out his tool-belt and fix everything in the house that’s broken. He’ll fix this and fix that without ever saying, “Hey, nice house,” or, “You know I love you, right?” Most dads won’t say that. They show it. The show it by making sure your house is fixed or making sure your car is maintained. My stepfather, when I was growing up, was very good that when I stepped out of line, he didn’t ask me to get back in line. He knocked me back in line. For me, that was helpful because I didn’t listen so well. But he would do stuff like that and “I love you” wasn’t a big thing to come out of his mouth. If you were a buddy of mine and you came over to our house growing up and were there for three hours, you’d go outside and he would wash and wax both of our cars. He would care for us in different ways. One of my favorite lines in the song is “I knew he’s stiffen up, but I hugged him anyways.” Even today, my real father will say, “I love you” only now. That’s something that’s happened in the last five years. I think the song is very relatable to a lot of folks.

KMJ: Do you have a firm album launch date yet?

BC: We do not have a firm one yet. We’re guessing fall. If I told you anything else, I’d be lying.

KMJ: You did a USO tour recently. How did that go?

BC: It was a very cool thing, man. I have to be honest. I absolutely loved it. We first went to Kosovo and then we went over to Amsterdam and then we spent three days in Germany. I have to say that my favorite was Kosovo. It’s a third world country. It was a good lesson learned I think. Amsterdam was pretty cool too, from what I can remember of it. (Laughter) But Kosovo was amazing. Eleven years ago, Bill Clinton was President. We’d hear on the news about bombings for this reason or that reason. But while I was there, I was talking with the locals and what happened was they were not just run out of their homes, but run out of their country. They had to go into Germany. They were forced into a different culture where nobody knows what you’re saying, you have to find a new job, and that’s only if your wife and kids weren’t raped or murdered on the way out. It was a horrible thing that was going on. Bill Clinton said that’s not cool, dropped a bomb on them, leveled the place and the Kosovo countrymen were able to come back and rebuild their lives in freedom. And we put an American base in there to make sure that everything was cool. And to hear the locals. Wow. When I left Kosovo, I was never more proud of being an American.

KMJ: That firsthand experience has to be pretty amazing. Was there any strange requests or song covers that you did for the troops over there?

BC: Not so much song covers or anything like that but we did have a crazy request. This is my first time ever in another country. The first country we went to is Kosovo. And it’s a third world country. And when you get off the airplane, they’re holding assault rifles. Nobody steps out of line. You get the picture. A couple of the Army guys came up after the show and wanted to know if we wanted to go back to the barracks and drinks some Crown Royal. And this is a completely dry base. These guys are used to hanging out and using AK-47’s. I told them this time, I was going to fly the straight and narrow. (Laughing) I think that was the first time somebody asked me to have a drink and I had to deny them. 

KMJ: Thanks a lot for your time today. I have one last question for you. What’s country music to Bucky Covington?

BC: That is a great question. I do have to say, I’ll have to rob Trace Adkins on this one. Before I went into country music I was in bands for about ten years. It was a lot of rock music. At the age I was at, I was self-teaching myself guitar and everybody I met was in rock. At that time, it was the thing. But what the heck, I learned. I played drum in bands. I played base guitar. And I sang. But when I started singing, I loved the energy of a rock show. But when I was singing, I didn’t know what the songs were about. Country music was something I knew about from the first song. I knew what it was talking about. It was talking about things I’ve done, things I think. You know what I’m saying? It speaks to me. Country music speaks to me. I understand it.

New Live Performance Music Video From Mac McAnally- "All These Years"

Sawyer Brown's Mark Miller Writes and Produces First Film

Ring The Bell, the first feature film from Mark A. Miller, begins production on Monday, March 5. Miller is the lead singer and founder of the country music group Sawyer Brown, and is taking a break from the band's 30th anniversary tour to produce the film.

Here's the skinny:

When slick high -powered agent Rob Decker arrives looking for his next major league prospect, he finds more than he bargained for at the Cooke Boys Ranch. As he works to secure Shawn Hart, the top high school baseball prospect in the country, he encounters a cast of characters who value happiness and common sense over dollars and cents. Filled with music, laughter and faith, Ring The Bell is a transforming story of how one fast-paced executive learns the true meaning of success.

The film features a host of well known Christian music artists: Mark Hall and Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman and Matthew West all play a role in this inspirational drama There are also several former Major League Baseball stars who will be featured in the film, including ESPN analyst John Kruk and Cy Young Award winning pitcher Rick Sutcliffe. The script was written by Mark A. Miller and Thomas Weber, and Weber will direct the production. Ring The Bell is the first release from Whitney Beach Pictures.

Provident Films (October Baby, Courageous, Fireproof) is a partner in the marketing and distribution of the movie. Specific plans and timing will be announced at a future date.

Whitney Beach Pictures is a partnership between Steve Williams and Mark A. Miller's Beach Street Music, the label behind platinum-selling Christian recording artist Casting Crowns. Ring The Bell is the first in a slate of faith-based films to be produced by the independent studio.

Sawyer Brown Releases Travelin' Band Today

Sawyer Brown is  releasing their long-in-the-works new CD, Travelin' Band, today. The 11-song album is now available for pre-order on Sawyer Brown.com for only $9.99 or for digital download on iTunes, with Amazon, Rhapsody, Spotify, Napster and many others coming very soon. 

"We've been working on this album so long that they were still called albums when we started working on it," jokes lead singer, Mark Miller, who also produced the CD. Travelin' Band features new songs by Miller and bandmate Hobie Hubbard, as well as songs by Tom Douglas, Jeffrey Steele, and Love and Theft's Stephen Barker Liles.

 

"We've been blessed to be making records for about 26 years now," Miller said, "and the great thing about taking some time between the last CD and this one is that it gave us more time to write and to listen to a lot great songs from our songwriting buddies. And, as we've found out over the years, there's no better place to try out new songs than on the road--and you know we've never been shy about going on the road." 

Country Music News Round-Up- Vince Gill's New Album, Roy Acuff 20 Years Later & Sawyer Brown Has New Music

"That crossover of whether it's entertainment or news is the biggest crock of b.s. in television today, because it's all entertainment." - Vince McMahon

* The big news of the day is that Vince Gill has a new single titled "Hitting Me With Heaven" that will be hitting country radio late this summer and will be releasing an album entitled Guitar Slinger shortly thereafter. From the press release:

Gill co-wrote “Threaten Me With Heaven” with his wife, singer/songwriter Amy Grant, Dillon O’Brian and Will Owsley.

“Since the song was recorded, my friend Will Owsley took his own life, so the song has a profound impact on me now,” Gill laments.  “In my lifetime, ‘Go Rest High On That Mountain’ has been the song that helped a lot of people through their grief. I think this one will in turn hopefully do the same thing. It’s a powerful, powerful song.  I feel like it’s the crown jewel of the new record.”

And that’s quite a statement, considering that this album includes some of the most poignant and moving songs of his career, such as “Bread and Water” and “If I Die.” But the album also features fun, upbeat songs as well, and serves as a wonderful showplace for his guitar playing.  Gill wrote every song on the album, which was the first project recorded from start to finish at his new home studio.

“I feel like the emphasis has been on the songs and the songs have gotten better,” he says. “They really run the gamut of what they are about, how they feel, how they sound. It’s not an all-traditional record, it’s not an all-contemporary record; it’s all over the map, like I kind of have always been. But it doesn’t feel out of step with anything I’ve done previously.”

Guitar Slinger is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed four-CD, 43-song box set, These Days, which was certified platinum, won the 2006 Grammy for Best Country Album and received an overall Grammy Album of the Year nomination. “That never feels anything but great,” he says of the album’s overwhelming reception.

Gill didn’t have any specific thoughts or themes in mind when he began creating the songs for Guitar Slinger. Instead, he just let his creativity flow. “I had no expectations of what it would sound like in my home studio,” he says. “I’ve never recorded in my house before. So I discovered an awful lot about how the rooms sound, and it’s a real warm record.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s so different than most studios in that there are windows all the way around the room. You look out and see trees. There’s such a great spirit running around in the house and in the rooms that all the musicians have raved about the vibe. It’s real low key; it’s not commercial-feeling at all.”

Guitar Slinger epitomizes coming home for Gill for several reasons. Not only did he record in his home, but he is joined on the album by his wife, Amy Grant, and their daughters Jenny, Sarah and Corrina. “Corrina makes her debut at nine on this record in a very dark song,” he says of “Billy Paul.” “It’s a song about a friend of mine who took his life after he took someone else’s life. It’s very, very dark, but I love that in music. I was always drawn to music with those kinds of things.”

* Roy Acuff's passing is coming up on twenty years and CMA and IBMA member Charles Haymes has done a great little feature on one of the greatest country artists this generation knows nothing about. Check it out HERE.

Throughout the Opry’s storied past, no artist’s name has been more often linked with the famed radio show than Roy Acuff. Whether it was as a performer, songwriter, publisher or spokesman, he is one of the most towering figures in the history of country music.

* Nearly four years after their last album and radio single, the boys from Sawyer Brown have come back with an island-themed single called "Smokin' Hot Wife" that has been sent to radio and will be available digitally early next week. It is scheduled to be the first official release from their Travelin' Band album. You can listen to the new single HERE.

* New music from LeAnn Rimes as well:

TNS Video History- Sawyer Brown- "All These Years"

New Mac McAnally CD "Down By the River" Set For August 4th

Nashville longtime musician, songwriter, producer and recording artist Mac McAnally will release his latest album Down By The River on August 4th. The 11-song collection of new original material is also his 11th release as a solo artist and his debut for Show Dog Nashville. The self-produced album showcases McAnally, one of music's most respected creators, on acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric piano, harmonica, ukulele and percussion.

McAnally is one of the most respected guitar players in the world. He's played behind or sang harmony for artists including Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., Amy Grant, Jimmy Buffett, Travis Tritt, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dolly Parton and many more. As a producer, he's helmed successful projects by Sawyer Brown, Chris LeDoux and Little Feat, among others. In addition to the hits he has penned for artists, McAnally received his first No. 1 single as an artist and sixth as a writer on his collaboration with Kenny Chesney, "Down The Road." The song penned by McAnally and recorded by Chesney, who invited the acclaimed music maker to sing on the track with him, also led to an ACM Vocal Event of the Year nod for the collaboration.

Track Listing:

1. Blame it on New Orleans
2. Down by the River
3. If You Hang Around Long Enough
4. On Account of You
5. (Nothing Like A) Sunny Day
6. Over and Out
7. You First
8. Unresolved
9. Bound to Get Down
10. Big Disappointment
11. Until Then

Sawyer Brown 25th Anniversary Leads To Unique Fan Involvement

In 2009, Sawyer Brown will celebrate 25 years as a band- a remarkable feat in the fickle world of music. They have a lot of stuff in store for next year and want their fans to be involved! The band is looking to use fan photos as part of a brand new website...and need your help! Gather up your personal photos from any Sawyer Brown shows, and send them to the band. It's easy to enter, just find your photos and email them to the guys at support @ musiccitynetworks. Place "SAWYER BROWN CONTEST" in the subject line. Attach your photos to the email and they'll go through our entries and determine the "best" photos, based on the quality of the photos and which photos capture the true essence of Sawyer Brown! Winners will be notified on or around January 31, 2009.

Winners will be chosen to win an autographed copy of Sawyer Brown's new holiday album, Rejoice!
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Sawyer Brown Releases New Holiday CD Exclusively Through Christian Store

Lifeway Christian Stores has released a new Sawyer Brown Christmas CD titled "Rejoice". The CD is being released exclusively with Lifeway Christian Stores and can be found in Lifeway Christian stores now as well as on their website at http://www.lifeway.com/e2/shop/?R=824734. The album features 6 traditional tunes and two that Mark and Hobie wrote specifically for this album.

BUY "REJOICE" IN THE ONLINE STORE >>

Speaking of Sawyer Brown, rumor mill says that a 25th Anniversary Project is in the works.
Mark and the rest of the guys will find themselves back in the studio this month working on a new studio project to be released on Curb Records to celebrate their 25th Anniversary! Look for it to be released fall of 2009.