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Tape Room Music has entered a strategic partnership with Red Light Ventures and Firebird Music, which purchased more than 350 songs from various Tape Room Publishing catalogs as part of the transaction. The catalog sale includes “Body Like a Back Road” (recorded by Sam Hunt), “Do I Make You Wanna” (Billy Currington), “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” […]
Collaborations continue to abound in this week’s batch of new country releases, with Country Music Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton teaming with ex-Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, while Luke Combs joins with Charlie Worsham and Old Dominion pairs with Megan Moroney on a new release. Meanwhile, Rhiannon Giddens offers a sterling new release, while bluegrassers Andrew Crawford and Brandi Colt offer a dark tale of one woman’s journey of adventures and misfortunes.
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Dolly Parton feat. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, “Let It Be”
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Here, Dolly Parton teams up with McCartney and Starr on this song from her upcoming album Rockstar, which pairs Parton with numerous rock and pop artists to record classic rock tracks. The project is out in November. Parton’s glorious soprano is powerful here as she takes on the Beatles’ themes of hope from their 1970 Billboard Hot 100-topper, her voice weaving the serene melody with a dedicated believability without sounding trite. The trio’s harmonies are magnetic, aided by the thick arrangements of McCartney’s stately piano playing, searing guitar from Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood on drums.
Old Dominion with Megan Moroney, “Can’t Break Up Now”
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Old Dominion teams with “I’m Not Pretty” singer-songwriter Moroney on this sultry realization that though two lovers are hitting a rough patch in their relationship, they’ve invested too much into the relationship — and are too embedded into each other’s lives — to shatter what they’ve built. He knows the exact kind of coffee she likes, they share the same friends and even his dog now likes her better. Sonically, the track is classic Old Dominion with its well-constructed lyrics and semi-pop sheen. Lead singer Matthew Ramsey’s voice is well-paired with Moroney’s honey-hued vocals. The song is from Old Dominion’s upcoming Memory Lane album.
Rhiannon Giddens, “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad”
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Written by Giddens and Dirk Powell, “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad” offers an empowered dismissal to a lover who has signaled their disloyalty through “too many lies/ too many alibis.” Plucky percussion, moody bass, horns and soulful harmonies layer behind Gidden’s unflappable vocals, drawing on classic soul and R&B. This song is included on Giddens’ Aug. 18-released, genre-traversing album You’re the One, in which Giddens wraps her mighty voice around a range of styles, including country, R&B, blues and jazz.
Charlie Worsham with Luke Combs, “How I Learned How to Pray”
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Singer-songwriter-session musician Worsham teams with reigning CMA entertainer of the year Combs for this song, which centers around learning to call on a higher power not through rote Sunday school learning or church sermons, but during the nadir of his life (wrecking his car and losing his freedom), though also the serendipitous moments (meeting a potential lover). Combs’ hearty, raspy vocal is nicely paired with Worsham’s relaxed, euphonious singing. Worsham wrote the song with Jeremy Spillman and Ryan Tyndell, and the song will be included on his upcoming album Compadres, out Oct. 13.
Andrew Crawford and Brandi Colt, “Wabash River”
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Back in 2021, Crawford issued his debut bluegrass album, but over the past year, this husband-and-wife duo have been steadily releasing a slate of bluegrass songs together. On their latest, they delve into a story of a young girl who grew up in high society, only to fall in love with a young man from the poorer side of town. Razor-sharp fiddle, spright mandolin and Crawford’s on-the-spot harmonies bolster Colt’s crystalline lead vocals, which grow moody as the story unfolds, with the song’s two lovers ultimately leaving behind nothing more than a note and muddy footprints along the banks of the Wabash River.
It was less than four months ago that Kid Rock got so worked up about Bud Light teaming with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney for its Bud Light Easy Carry Contest during the NCAA’s March Madness that the “Don’t Tell Me How To Live” singer tried to destroy 12-packs of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle as he yelled, “F–k Bud Light and f–k Anheuser-Busch.”
What a difference a few months make.
In July, CNN reported that despite his apparent animus for the world’s largest beer company, Rock, 52 — who didn’t specifically mention Mulvaney (or the word “trans”) in his video, or call for a boycott of products from Bud Light parent company AB Inbev — was still selling Bud Light at his Nashville restaurant; Newsweek additionally reported at the time that Rock’s restaurant/bar was selling Bud Light during the June 9-12 Country Music Association Festival and that a Twitter user told the magazine that a waitress at the bar said “they actually stopped selling it for a week right after [Rock’s video], then started selling it again.”
And over the weekend the rapper-turned-country rocker was pictured enjoying a tall cool Bud Light at Colt Ford show in Nashville according to TMZ, which caused a torrent of comments on Twitter (now X) about the apparent hypocrisy from the “Devil Without a Cause” star. “Damn, never thought I’d have to give Kid Rock the Bud Light treatment but here we are,” wrote one commenter. “Just shot up all my Kid Rock vinyl and CDs. I loved Kid Rock, but I hope Kid Woke goes broke.”
Another, Fred Guttenberg — father of murdered Parkland High School student Jaime Guttenberg and gun control advocate — had equally harsh words for Rock, writing, “It’s just hard to keep a good beer down and I LOVE BUD LIGHT!!! Apparently, so does @KidRock. To all of you hypocritical lunatics who actually started this bulls–t attack on my favorite beer, cheers to you.”
Billboard has not been able to confirm the veracity of the pictures of Rock drinking the Bud Light at press time and a spokesperson for the singer had not returned a request for comment.
At the time of CNN’s report, it was unclear if the band on Bud Light at Rock’s Music City establishment had been lifted, or if one had ever been put in place, but at the time of the Mulvaney controversy Rock appeared happy to jump on the bandwagon of ban-calling against Bud Light.
While country singer John Rich pledged at the time to pull Bud Light from his Nashville bar Redneck Riviera and Travis Tritt said he would remove the formerly best-selling brew in the nation from his tour rider in the midst of the transphobic backlash against the Mulvaney promotional stunt, Rock never specifically said he’d stop selling it at his Broadway district spot.
In the original Mulvaney clip from April, she revealed that the company helped her celebrate her “365th day of womanhood” with “possibly the best gift ever” — a commemorative can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face on the side that was not commercially available, but instead meant as a personalized one-off souvenir.
Check out some of the comments about Rock’s Bud Light moment.
I’ve seen multiple different sources. It’s confirmed. Without principles we are nothing. I choose to move on from Kid Woke but everyone else can make their own decision.— Anthony Carrey (@SocksMoney187) August 19, 2023
Damn, never thought I’d have to give Kid Rock the Bud Light treatment but here we are.Just shot up all my Kid Rock vinyl and CDs. I loved Kid Rock, but I hope Kid Woke goes broke.— Anthony Carrey (@SocksMoney187) August 18, 2023
It’s just hard to keep a good beer down and I LOVE BUD LIGHT!!! Apparently, so does @KidRock. To all of you hypocritical lunatics who actually started this bullshit attack on my favorite beer, cheers to you 🍻 https://t.co/DH0FUOpYLo— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) August 19, 2023
First, he doesn’t just vow to boycott Bud Light, he shoots a case of it on camera with an AR-15. Then, not only does he go back to immediately drinking Bud Light again but he does it in public and gets caught. Can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/vAbBJOKdyF— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 18, 2023
Over the past couple of weeks, singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony Music (real name: Chris Lunsford) has seen his name recognition surge as his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which criticizes various issues including greedy politicians, high taxes, low pay, and issues surrounding the welfare system. A performance video, posted by radiowv on Aug. 7, has earned over 25 million views, while the song itself has topped the iTunes country chart and the Spotify Top 50-USA chart and seems to be a contender for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it arrives on Monday (Aug. 21).
Anthony brought his live show to fans in North Carolina over the weekend. On Saturday (Aug. 19), he spearheaded a free show at Eagle Creek Golf Club and Grill in Moyock, N.C., a tight-knit community just south of Norfolk, Va., with a population of just over 5,000 people (as of the 2020 census).
Attendees began showing up to the venue around 11 a.m., as lawn chairs and blankets proliferated across the grounds, and people packed in close to the stage, standing shoulder to shoulder prior to the singer-songwriter’s afternoon set. Some members of security estimated the day’s attendance roughly between 6,000 and 8,000 attendees.
Prior to his set, a drone could be seen flying over the crowd, while camera operators filmed crowd footage, noting it was intended to be used for an upcoming music video. A merch stand featured T-shirts emblazoned with Anthony’s name, with some of the shirts also bearing crosses or scriptures. A few lawn signs emblazoned with “Oliver Anthony 2024” were scattered across the lawn, while some children were sporting “Oliver Anthony for President” shirts.
The “Rich Men From North of Richmond” hitmaker took the stage, which was decorated with American flags, and began his afternoon set in a unique fashion; not with crashing cymbals or jangly guitar rhythms, but with prayer. The crowd stayed quiet as Anthony followed by reading a biblical scripture.
He began his set with “I Want to Go Home,” before offering up “Ain’t Gotta Dollar,” “’90 Some Chevy,” “I Gotta Get Sober” later performing his main draw, “Rich Men From North of Richmond.” No pyrotechnics, no flashy stage lights, no choreography; Anthony primarily stayed close to the microphone, playing a set heavy on mid-tempo songs. Though he noted at one point that his grizzled voice was a bit tired, he sounded strong as he rolled through a slate of songs he’s released over the past year or so.
Though some conservative-leaning media personalities were among the many sharing the song, initially helping it to gain traction, the artist himself made no political statement during the show, keeping his music front and center. He kept his comments to the crowd brief, primarily thanking them for their support of his music. At one point, the crowd began chanting “USA! USA!” and at another moment, a crowd member attempted to begin a “Let’s Go Brandon” anti-president Biden chant that quickly fizzled, even drawing criticism from some attendees seated farther from the stage. Other attendees held up American flags during the performance.
Though Jamey Johnson previously showed up as a surprise guest during one of Anthony’s previous shows; the Moyock show had no special guests, but the artist did reprise a performance of Johnson’s “In Color,” welcoming one of the day’s opening acts to the stage.
Here, we look at five standouts from the day:
A Canine Affair
In his first major interview, Oliver Anthony’s co-manager Draven Riffe talked to Billboard about the whirlwind that has surrounded the Virginia country singer over the past week-and-a-half since his everyman anthem “Rich Men North of Richmond” went viral and record labels have clamoring to sign him.
On Saturday (Aug. 19), near a playground in front of the venue before Anthony’s afternoon show at Eagle Creek Golf Club and Grill in Moyock, N.C., Riffe explained how he met the singer-songwriter and why Anthony’s newly assembled team is “taking it slow” when it comes to weighing the multitude of offers coming his way, even those from high-profile artists. During the conversation, thousands of fans flocked to a nearby outdoor stage surrounded by a few food and beverage trucks, waiting for Anthony, whom Riffe said was saving his voice and, therefore, declined to speak with Billboard.
Riffe only became aware of Anthony (whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford; his stage name is in honor of his grandfather, Oliver Anthony) within the past month. A Missouri friend of Riffe, from the manager’s days as a touring musician, sent him Anthony’s music. Riffe knew it was perfect for radiowv, the YouTube page Riffe co-launched in 2018 that highlights unsigned Americana and country musicians from the Virginia/West Virginia region.
“I listened to Oliver’s music and I just knew he was special,” Riffe tells Billboard. “Normally, it’s ‘OK, this person has a good song and I want to help them out and get them on the channel.’ With Oliver, I called on my friends and family and, on my way to record him and also on my way back, to tell them how special [he was].”
Riffe recorded Anthony outside on his farm in Virginia, where both had the feeling they were embarking on something bigger than just posting the artist’s music. “Personally, I feel like God had a hand in Oliver’s music,” Riffe says. “Me and him, we prayed before the session. Me and him together. We both prayed before we recorded ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ We both had an interesting experience the whole weekend. We just felt like it was for a purpose that was way bigger than us, just two old regular dudes, you know what I mean?”
“Rich Men North of Richmond,” which takes on politicians, taxes, welfare and other issues from a struggling working man’s perspective, exploded after radiowv posted it Aug. 7 and has since garnered more than 24 million views on radiowv’s YouTube page. By Aug. 11, the song had reached No. 1 on the iTunes Country chart, outpacing the former chart leader, Jason Aldean’s controversial track “Try That in a Small Town.” The song is a contender to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 that arrives Monday (Aug. 21). Other songs from Anthony, who has been recording music since 2021, also climbed up iTunes and Spotify’s charts, including “Aint Gotta Dollar” and “I’ve Got to Get Sober.”
“In our opinion, God has chosen to speak through Oliver and to speak to all Americans through his music, all around the world,” Riffe says. “We’ve gotten comments from Zimbabwe, every country you could think of.”
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Riffe, who manages Anthony with businessman Brian Prentice, says the push has been organic.
“There was not a whole lot of planning involved,” he says. “We just knew if we got the video out there people were going to love the song and it would resonate with a lot of folks. There wasn’t some big massive planning team around this. I had a few friends who helped us push the song out there, like my friend Josh [Baer], who has a page called Country Central. We all coordinated and Oliver’s following as well, we just tried to push it out there all at once with our little group of friends and that’s how it happened.”
Almost immediately, social media jumped on the song. Even though Anthony said in a video that “I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics and always have,” among those amplifying the song were right wing pundits and politicians, including Joe Rogen, Matt Walsh, Breitbart and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, through posts on X (formerly Twitter) and other outlets. Anthony’s followers have also soared, reaching 743,000 on Instagram and nearly 400,000 on X.
High-profile artists — including John Rich, who offered to produce his music, and Jamey Johnson joined him onstage last weekend at a free show in North Carolina — have also provided support.
“There have been other artists who have reached out, honestly just to be a mentor,” Riffe says, namechecking Brent Smith of Shinedown, Jelly Roll, Ryan Upchurch and Randy Travis’ team. Johnson, who Riffe says showed up unprompted last weekend, meant a great deal to Anthony. “He got to talk to Jamey, which was sentimental to Oliver because he grew up burning the speakers up on his vehicle listening to Jamey, so to get up there [on stage] your first time — that was special to Oliver.”
Riffe says, “We’re literally open to working with everybody,” but that no decision has been made as to when and with whom he will enter the studio.
Similarly, though record labels and booking agents have aggressively chased Anthony — one label head told Billboard, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before” — Anthony posted on Facebook on Thursday (Aug. 17) that he was in no rush to sign a deal. “People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers,” Anthony wrote.
Riffe affirms that Anthony plans to do as much as he and his team can themselves. “As far as taking things slow, people act as if it’s so complicated, but really, it doesn’t have to be,” Riffe says. “He could play a stadium show tomorrow, but it’s about the music and it’s about making sure it’s right… we just want to take things slow and we’ve built a tight-knit team.”
Taking it slow entails booking their own shows, including an Oct. 7 concert at Big River Outdoors Campground in Irondale, Mo. From Anthony’s standpoint, the idea is to lift other artists and friends as his own star ascends.
“Oliver’s very passionate, not just about getting his message out, but helping a lot of other musicians [get] their message heard,” Riffe says. “That’s a key part of it. Yes, he can play some big shows with big musicians, but he’s very passionate about bringing other unknown, unheard musicians up and helping them get their music out as well.”
Riffe says that help extends to providing jobs for those in Anthony’s community. “We’re doing all the booking ourselves,” he says, adding the Anthony is booked through the end of the year. “We’re trying to keep everything in-house as much as we can… If we could have a hand in helping get a person a job they’ll love then we want to do that rather than contracting it out to something that we don’t even know where the money is going.”
Though Anthony is in no hurry to sign any major label deals, that doesn’t mean more music isn’t coming. Riffe says there are five more acoustic videos to roll out from the sessions radiowv recorded at Anthony’s farm that will hit radiowv’s YouTube page and streaming platforms soon.
“That way they’ll get to see the actual live performance and then a more cleaned up version of the song that they get to listen to that’s from the video they’ve seen,” he says.
Assistance provided by Melinda Newman
Bailey Zimmerman posts his third straight career-opening top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Aug. 26), as “Religiously” rises 11-9. In the Aug. 11-17 tracking week, the song increased by 8% to 19.1 million audience impressions, according to Luminate. The song, co-written by the 23-year-old, is from his LP Religiously. The Album., which arrived […]
Nearly a decade after earning a 10-week No. 1 run atop Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart with “This Is Amazing Grace,” California native and worship leader Phil Wickham has been enjoying a solid run of radio hits over the past few years.
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In 2021, he had two multi-week chart toppers, with “House of the Lord” and “Battle Belongs” each spending four weeks at the chart’s pinnacle. This year he returned to the Christian Airplay chart’s pole position for two weeks with “This Is Our God,” from his forthcoming 10th studio album, I Believe, out Friday (Aug. 18 on Fair Trade/Columbia).
He recently made a strong showing when the GMA Dove Awards nominations were announced, earning four nominations including the coveted artist of the year category, as well as a song of the year nod for his role in writing the Casting Crowns hit “Then Christ Came,” and a worship song of the year nod for “This Is Our God.”
“It’s an honor,” says Wickham, who last year picked up two GMA Dove Awards trophies. “It’s just God’s grace. It feels like God taking some loaves and fishes and multiplying it to a place where someone would say, ‘This is worth recognizing,’ which is crazy.”
Wickham has become a standout in a new generation of worship leaders in the Contemporary Christian Music space, though his roots in the genre are familial and deep, as the son of members of the 1970s Christian band Parable.
“There’s a service and a thoughtfulness to the listener in worship music,” he says. “I’m not writing this just to share my story. I’m writing in a way that this is everybody’s story, and to give them a new prayer to sing back to God, this is something for us to do together.”
I Believe finds Wickham delving deeper into songwriting and collaboration, alongside his frequent collaborator Jonathan Smith, who is the sole producer on the entire project — an increasing rarity these days.
“It was such a partnership, from choosing songs to getting hyped about the vision for the album,” Wickham says. “We worked on the album on and off for over a year. He wrote on ‘I Believe,’ ‘Sunday is Coming’ and ‘The Jesus Way. I’m kind of sporadic when it comes to making albums and I want to hear every option before I decide on something, musically, which is a producer’s worst nightmare, in a lot of ways. But I love working with him so much because he’s the same way—he wants all the options in front of him.”
Nearly two years ago, Wickham, Smith and others visited the Charlotte, North Carolina campus of the multi-site megachurch Elevation Church, known for the hit worship ensemble Elevation Worship. Wickham and company met for a two-day writing retreat with fellow singer-songwriter Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship pastor/songwriter Steven Furtick. They made the most of the short duration, writing for over 12 hours each day.
“I don’t think we even left to eat,” he says. Numerous songs on the 14-track album came from those sessions, including “This Is Our God,” “Praise the Lord,” and “Relationship.”
“Steven is a writer on so many songs that have just blanketed church music across the world. He understands how to dig deeper to find new ways of phrasing things. But a lot of the songs end up coming from an initial seed of an idea that I have. I just don’t want to go into a session and be like, ‘Gimme your best ideas.’ Like with ‘The Jesus Way,’ I had all the verses and the chorus and was like, ‘I need a bridge.’”
“The Jesus Way” originated in 2020, as a poem that would come to serve as both reminder and self-challenge to live his life with love, grace and forgiveness. “Jesus met people where they are at. He met the poor, visited with sick people that no one else wanted to be around,” Wickham says. “For years, I thought the poem was just for me, but earlier this year, I just felt like people should hear it.
He was so moved by the song’s challenge that he hesitated to record it. “I was reading the lyrics and realizing how far I was from that being the reality of my life,” Wickham says. “I can be selfish and quick to be impatient with people. I’ll think, ‘God’s been so gracious to me and I’m not showing grace right now.’ I hesitated to record it because it’s like, I know how much I fall short of it. But it was written and it felt right, but it was a three-year process to write that song.”
As collaborative in the recording process as he is the writing room, Wickham features two women performers on the album: Tiffany Hudson on “Psalm 23” and Naomi Raine on “Holy Moment.” “Psalm 23” takes the biblical chapter and sets it to music and melody and originated from a plan for a project that would incorporate as many phrases directly from the Psalms as possible.
“I thought it would be fun to put out a Psalms project, making the music feel non-traditional and more singer-songwriter, moodier. I wrote like four or five Psalms, and the project just didn’t happen.” Wickham later came across some of his old voice memos and realized the song would make a perfect fit for his project, a moment of “beauty, and sincerity and sweetness,” he says, “and I knew Tiffany’s voice would sound perfect.”
His collaboration with Naomi Raine on “Holy Moment” came by way of an inspired moment, after the two musicians had been on the same tour. “I wanted another moment on the album where you hear more than just my voice and I thought if I could have anyone on the album, it would be Naomi,” he says.
He didn’t even have a song written at the time he asked her to record with him, but when they looked at their calendars, by happenstance, they both had the same evening open in Nashville (“It was crazy because neither of us are from Nashville,” said Wickham, who still resides in California).
They set up shop in a studio and a conversation about holiness evolved into singing and Wickham estimates they had the song written within an hour or so. “We had no title for it, we didn’t know what we would end up creating, but it became such a song in itself, a holy moment in the studio, we had to call it ‘Holy Moment.’” Wickham says.
Wickham, who is repped by WME, is incorporating several of the album’s songs while on the road on his recently-launched Summer Worship Nights Tour, co-headlined by Lake, with KB offering direct support. Wickham and Lake met years ago, when a mutual friend recommended Lake’s music to Wickham. The two began co-writing together and formed a fast friendship. They now share the same management home, Breit Group.
“We share a lot of the same team members and we wanted to go on the road together and throw a praise party, with as many people as possible,” Wickham says.
On Friday (Aug. 18), singer-songwriter Warren Zeiders, who first broke through with his 2021 hit “Ride the Lightning,” issues Pretty Little Poison — his debut, full-length major label project on Warner Records. But a scant four years ago, Zeiders had his sights set on a sports career, not music.
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Growing up in Pennsylvania, Zeiders’ childhood was focused on lacrosse games, tournaments and practices. Outside of the occasional tinkering with a guitar he picked up in sixth grade, there were none of the childhood musical outlets that singer-songwriters typically espouse, such as church choirs or high school bands. He continued playing lacrosse while studying at Frostburg State University, until a series of sports concussions ultimately sidelined his sports ambitions in 2019, swiftly followed by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which forced him to find a new outlet.
“I had an identity crisis when I had to give up lacrosse,” Zeiders tells Billboard, calling from a tour stop in Montana. “I was a collegiate athlete; that’s what me and my family had worked for — the money invested, the travel, the tournaments and leagues. They were always at sporting events, traveling with me, meeting with colleges and all that. So going through seven concussions, I went through a bit of depression, because concussions are not easy to go through. I had a really severe one my freshman year of college. I was confined to a black room for a while, missing classes, missing exams. I could barely watch TV, because of how jacked up I was.”
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he began posting acoustic cover songs on TikTok, reengaging with his love for music. The videos’ views began soaring, and soon, listeners were asking for original material.
Zeiders grew up in a business-oriented household; his parents were entrepreneurs; his mother was a CFO, with an accounting background. Meanwhile, his father sold insurance and investments. So when fans began asking Zeiders to post his own original songs, he says, “I had that business mindset of, ‘If they want this from me, maybe I should start marketing myself,’ because I was starting to build traction.”
In December 2020, Zeiders released his original track “On the Run.” Soon after, Underscore Works’ Charly Salvatore signed Zeiders as one of his flagship management clients at the company. Zeiders came to Nashville for a series of co-writing sessions, resulting in “Ride the Lightning,” which he wrote with Rob Crosby and Eric Paslay.
“Ride the Lightning” surged on TikTok, while Zeiders issued an acoustic covers project and The 717 Tapes EP. By the time Zeiders revealed he had signed with Warner Records in January 2022, he was also celebrating an RIAA Gold certification for “Ride the Lightning.”
The song proved a showcase for his grainy, full-throated voice, something he says he painstakingly worked on throughout his upcoming project, produced by Ross Copperman, Bart Butler and Ryan Gore.
“There was a heartache with doing this, because I’m such a perfectionist, and I think most artists are in our own ways,” Zeiders says. “I must have sang ‘Pretty Little Poison’ a thousand times in the studio. I wanted the instrumentation to be perfect, to fit the vibe of what this song is saying. Each individual song has its own life and its own story to tell. I believe it needs its own character for each song, and you can sing a song a million different ways. I wanted to be in the mindset of that character to convey each story with absolute truth.”
He wrote the album’s title track last summer, with Jared Keim and Ryan Beaver; the song has now cracked the top 40 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
“I remember when we got [to the writing session], I said, ‘I want to write a love song, in Warren Zeiders’s terms.’” Zeiders recalls. “It was minor keys, and a dark twist on a love song, because the lyrics are really about someone’s who you know isn’t great to be in a relationship with, but you keep going back to them. Ryan had the concept a possible title called ‘Pretty Poison.’ I added the word ‘Little’ to it, and once we had that concept and title, we were off to the races. We wrote the song in just over an hour, maybe two hours and I was like, ‘I need that demo as soon as possible.’ They got it to me the next day, I sent it to my manager and it went to A&R, the label. Everyone felt it was going to touch a lot of lives.”
Elsewhere on the album, homage to his Pennsylvania roots in “Pittsburgh Steel” and leans on his faith in “God Only Knows.” He reunited with his “Pretty Little Poison” co-writers to craft the album’s closer, “Cowboy Rides Away.”
Zeiders is a co-writer on nearly every song on Pretty Little Poison, with the lone exception being “What Goes on Inside Your Head,” written by Chris Stapleton and Lee Thomas Miller.
“I remember meeting Lee at our listening party a couple of months ago, after the record was recorded,” Zeiders recalls. “Lee thanked me for recording the song and was like, ‘You have no idea how many years this song has been passed around town and how many ‘Nos’ we’ve gotten.’ I was like, ‘How would no one want to cut this song? It’s beautiful.’ And he was like, ‘You’d be surprised. Some people can get scared to cut it after they listen to a Chris Stapleton demo.’ But I loved the song and I wasn’t trying to do Chris Stapleton’s version — I wanted to do my own version. I loved recording it and I was like, ‘This is one I will sure as hell sing the crap out of.’”
With the hit songs have come a surge of performances; in May, Zeiders played his first stadium show — ironically, opening up for Stapleton and Little Big Town during George Strait’s show at Ohio Stadium. In June, he joined Jelly Roll onstage during the Tailgates and Tallboys festival, for a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” Jelly Roll also recently gave Zeiders a shoutout on social media. This fall, Zeiders will return for the second half of his own headlining Pretty Little Poison tour.
Zeiders’ strong familial bonds continue now in his music career — his mother has taken on the role of his business manager, while his father will be joining him on the road this fall.
“He just wants to help out any way he can, so he might be selling merch or whatnot,” Zeiders says. “He just likes seeing the shows and meeting the fans. They are actually moving to Nashville as we speak, packing everything up in Pennsylvania, which is crazy to think I won’t be back home to say goodbye to my old house.”
Zeiders may not have spent his entire life performing onstage, but says his extroverted personality and the discipline he learned on the sports field have been assets.
“I’ve always had a big personality; I was always the talker in my family and had a marketing and sales background. I sold cars for two years. I just have always loved connecting with people. After I played my first show, it just felt like this is what I was made to do. I try to keep myself in a good position, physically and mentally, because people who come to shows are giving their time, their money, getting babysitters for the night, doing what they have to do to be at shows. My job is to be the best version of myself to put on a show, so I can welcome them into what I’m building and hopefully keep them as fans.”
On Aug. 18, 1978, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty’s “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. A story of long-distance love with the Mississippi River in between, the hit was authored by Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen. It was released as the lead single from Lynn and Twitty’s same-named album, their first […]
At 88, Herb Alpert has had one of the most illustrious and celebrated careers in American popular music. As leader of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and as a solo trumpeter, he has won 9 Grammys and sold more than 72 million albums. He co-founded A&M Records with the late Jerry Moss, bringing the work of Janet Jackson, the Carpenters, The Police, Peter Frampton, Cat Stevens and many more artists to the public.
Until July when Taylor Swift tied his record, Alpert had been the most recent artist to have four albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart simultaneously, and on Sept. 15, he’ll release his 49th studio album, Wish Upon a Star. The album’s first single is “East Bound and Down,” an instrumental remake of the Jerry Reed hit that Reed took to No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart in 1977 and then revived for the 1980 film Smokey and the Bandit.
It would seem that Alpert has done it all, but there are still some firsts ahead of him. He’ll check off a big one tonight (Aug. 18), when he plays the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville for the first time. Also on the bill is Carrie Underwood.
He may be making his Opry debut, but Alpert has some long relevant ties to Nashville and the country community that he shared with Billboard. He also admits that it took him some time to come around to Willie Nelson, and makes clear that he has nothing but kind words for Swift. The conversation, condensed and edited for space and clarity, took place Aug. 15, one day before Moss died.
So here you are at 88, doing something that you have never done before by playing the Opry. Has this been on your checklist?
I never thought about it. It just never crossed my mind. I did this tune from [1980 movie] Smokey and the Bandit that was written by Jerry Reed, who was in the movie as well, but I never got that tune out of my brain. I saw [the movie] maybe 20 years ago. And I always remember that melody, and I tried to see if I could play that melody in my style and make some sense out of it. And it seemed like the I had a favorable reaction.
So one thing led to another and I was asked to perform and they seem to be very excited. I’m going to not only do [“Eastbound”] with the Opry band, but I’m bringing my band and we’re going to do a Tijuana Brass medley. I don’t know what to expect, but I hear great things about being there.
Have you ever been to the Grand Ole Opry?
Not inside. I’ve been to Nashville many times. I had a show in the museum with my artwork. And we’ve played on various venues in Nashville.
All the artists are mingling and hanging out in the hallway instead of staying in their dressing rooms. It’s an incredibly friendly atmosphere.
I have heard exactly what you just stated. I’m excited. You know, it’s not that easy for me because I’m an introvert, so I’ve got to lose my feeling of being uncomfortable around new people. I’m gonna be there.
In John Scheinfeld’s excellent 2020 documentary on you, the film talks about your picking up the trumpet when you were eight years old because you were so introverted. The trumpet is the way you communicate.
“That’s the way I communicate” is exactly right.
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Since you’re headed to Nashville, let’s talk about some of your connections to country music. One of A&M’s first signings was Waylon Jennings in 1964, long before he became a country legend and in the early years of A&M.
We signed Waylon, and I used to go down to Arizona to record him. I did this one record called “Four Strong Winds.” [RCA label head and musician] Chet Atkins heard the record and he made some overtures to Waylon about, when he gets out of the contract with A&M he’d like to talk to him — which he shouldn’t have done, because Waylon was under contract to us. It seemed like he was jumping over our bones a bit. But I loved Chet. He was certainly a brilliant musician, as well as administrator.
Waylon really wanted to be a country artist. Waylon’s voice was really unusual, because he could sing just about anything and it sounded darn good — he had something in his voice that just resonated right into the heart. I wanted to take him a little more pop, and he really wanted to be a country artist. He told me confidentially about Chet Atkins wanting to see him. So my partner Jerry Moss and I decided to let Waylon out of his contract so he could go with Chad and RCA.
Waylon couldn’t believe that we were willing to do that. But I remember the day that Jerry and I signed his release. I looked at Jerry and I said, “Man, this guy’s going to be big star.” And Jerry said, “I know it.” I got goosebumps thinking that, “Man, if we could be that honest with people with our artists, we’re gonna be a big success.” It was really a pivotal moment for me and my feelings about A&M Records and what we were doing.
What memories do you have of playing with the Tijuana Brass in Nashville?
When I played in Nashville with the Brass in 1967, Johnny Cash came backstage and I had a nice conversation with him after, and he seemed to really love the music that I was making.
Any other memories from other times that you’ve played Nashville where country artists came to your shows?
I met Marty Stuart when I was exhibiting at the art museum. I don’t remember the year. The museum gave me 7,000 square feet, and I was putting up sculptures and paintings [one of Alpert’s sculptures is permanently installed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville]. Marty was a friend of David Conrad, who was running our publishing company Almo Irving. I like his artistry and just him in general.
A&M also signed the Flying Burrito Brothers, who were absolutely pivotal in the evolution of country rock. You released their 1969 album, The Gilded Palace of Sin. What did you see in them?
Jerry signed up. When I heard them, I thought they were going to be much larger than what actually happened. They had something special, I felt, but nobody knows what a hit record sounds like or what the public is going to take to in a big way.
In 1964, you and the Tijuana Brass has a hit album called South of the Border, which took its name and the title track from the Gene Autry country movie classic of the same name. How did that song influence you?
Before A&M records, I was earning a living playing on weekends with various bands, and I had a little backlog of songs that I could just play out of the blue because I had the gift of if I hear a song on the radio, I can just about play it back. So “South of the Border” was probably one of those songs that I had in my stockpile. I tried to do songs when they’re known to others in a way they haven’t been done before. That’s one of my goals.
I’ve never tried to make a hit record. I always tried to make records that felt good. And the honest truth of it is, at 88 years old, I make records for myself. I make records that make me feel good. I’m not trying to make a record that’s going to trump somebody else. I feel like if they can touch me, and it can make me feel good, possibly. I worked with Sam Cooke. [Alpert co-wrote Cooke’s hit and now classic, “Wonderful World”.] He came out of the gospel field and just was so authentic as an artist, and as a person. Loved the guy. He taught me a lot. There was something about him that just gave me the feeling of “Man, you gotta be real. You can’t fake it. You can’t pretend you’re one thing and do another.” I always tried to make records that just really reflected who I was as an artist and I’ve been darn lucky.
In the ‘70s, there was a very successful act called Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, which was a country version of the Tijuana Brass. They won the Grammy for best country instrumental performance in 1970 and snagged several CMA Awards. Did you hear them?
I didn’t get it. I mean, that’s just that’s like trying to take advantage of what I did.
Were there country artists that you had admired?
Like everyone else, I love Dolly [Parton]. I love her as a person. I love her as an artist. I think Kris Kristofferson had a big mark, big effect, on country music. He was writing songs that really had provocative meaning and I think he took it to a different level. He was just really special.
Willie Nelson was also an influence on me. When I first heard Willie, it was probably 1959-1960. He was recording for Liberty Records. A friend of mine was working at Liberty and would send me his records. I was listening to him and thinking, like, “Wow, I don’t get why this guy is popular. I don’t get that voice of his.” And all of a sudden, through the years, I transitioned with him and I ended up really loving him. I think he’s a major artist. I think he’s like a jazz artist. He’s very spontaneous. He’s of the moment. And I’m so used to that voice now that it’s part of me. I really love what he does.
We most recently wrote about you last month when you posted a very sweet TikTok to Taylor Swift, congratulating her on tying your record for four albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Did she respond to you?
Somebody that worked for her did, but that’s okay. I didn’t need a response [from her]. I mean, she’s good. I think she’s real good. She’s the real thing.