TABLE OF CONTENTS
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MAgAziNE
Volume 7 • issue 4 • April 2017
WRitERS: Scottie Brown • terry Canter Bob Cheesman • Corrina Drost Rachael Lamb • Dawn Lemay Shobha N. Lizaso • Marissa Puckett Liz Stokes • Keith Wilkins PhotogRAPhERS: Jordan Kruger • Neal Nachman
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Music News.............................3 April Scrapbook ..................13 Album Reviews....................19 Club Calendar........................22 Event Calendar......................23 PuBLiShER/EDitoR: Neal Nachman
DiRECtoR oF SALES & PRoMotioNS: Liz Stokes gRAPhiC ARtiSt: Neal Nachman
DiRECtoR oF MuLti-MEDiA PRoDuCtioNS: Kenny Moore ACCouNt EXECutiVES: Liz Stokes LEgAL CouNSEL: Shobha N. Lizaso
EDitoRiAL iNquiRiES: editorial@fullaccessmagazine.com
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Ed Sheeran Announces Massive 'Divide' Arena Tour Ed Sheeran has charted a massive North American tour in support of his new LP Divide. Sheeran, who announced the arena tour on Wednesday, will start June 29th at Kansas City's Sprint Center. The 59-date trek will conclude October 6th in Nashville, Tennessee. A pre-sale for the tour will launch March 13th on Ticketmaster, which will roll out its new Ticketmaster Verified Fan– a tech product that aims to ensure fans and not bots get in-demand tickets – for the event. A general on-sale will follow on March 17th. While Sheeran will play North American arenas this tour, the singer told Rolling Stone that he has even bigger aspirations. "I want to do stadiums everywhere," Sheeran said. "Like George Strait's level – he tours every four years, does a couple of stadiums and then fucks off again." Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey Announce Rescheduled Tour Dates Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey have rescheduled their All the Hits tour. The original run, which was to begin this month, was postponed in late February following Richie's recent knee surgery. "When you have been performing as long as I have it takes a toll on your body," Richie said in a statement at the time. "Unfortunately, my recovery from a knee procedure will not have me 100 percent ready to start the tour next month. I don't want to disappoint my fans, and I look forward to being back on stage so we can all be 'Dancing on the Ceiling' together again." The new tour launches on July 21st in Oakland, CA and wraps in Seattle on September 5th. As Billboard reports, the 35-date tour has been shortened, with shows cancelled in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, 3
Nashville and Charlotte. Lionel Richie's official website lists 22 rescheduled dates for the tour. Live Nation released a statement via Billboard that explained the rescheduling had to fit around the artists' tight schedules. "We had a small window between Lionel's continued touring plans overseas in the fall and Mariah's scheduled Las Vegas residency to fit as many dates as we could route," the statement said. Pearl Jam Invite All Five Drummers to Rock Hall Induction Ceremony Pearl Jam announced Saturday that they will invite all five of their drummers – Dave Krusen, Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abbruzzese, Jack Irons and Matt Cameron – to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Although only in Pearl Jam briefly, Krusen played on 'Ten,' which earned him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In a handwritten note posted on the band's Twitter, the group acknowledged that, with the April 7th date approaching, "we do feel fortunate to be recognized and provided the opportunity to reunite with everyone who has been part of the group." "Specifically the drummers who all left their distinctive mark on our band in the pre-Matt Cameron years," they added. When Pearl Jam's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was revealed, only two of the band's drummers – Ten drummer Dave Krusen (to his own surprise) and current and longtime drummer Matt Cameron – were named as inductees alongside Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and Jeff Ament. The Rock Hall's omissions especially drew the ire of Abbruzzese, who lobbied Pearl Jam to use their clout and have him inducted for his Vs. and Vitalogy contributions. He later questioned the band's integrity over the Rock Hall snub.
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"The members of Pearl Jam have got to know what's the right thing to do. They can't justify ignoring my contributions. Like me or not. If there is still a part of that band that remembers how hard we worked, how much blood and how much sweat," Abbruzzese wrote on Facebook in October. "They will do the right thing." "Dave Krusen, Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abbruzzese and Jack Irons are each individually great players who gave their all to the early recordings and live gigs," the band continued in their Saturday statement. "Looking forward to seeing them and all the other musicians on the bill." Pearl Jam added that they wished H.R. and Perry Farrell were there to celebrate too, a nod to a hopefully future induction for Bad Brains and Jane's Addiction after the both bands were nominated in 2016. Asked whether Abbruzzese, Chamberlain and Irons would be inducted into the Rock Hall, a representative for Pearl Jam said the inductees are solely determined by the Rock Hall and not the band. Following Pearl Jam's invitation, a rep for the Rock Hall confirmed to Rolling Stone that only Krusen and Cameron would be inducted. Reps for Abbruzzese, Chamberlain and Irons did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Pearl Jam will be enshrined alongside Journey, Joan Baez, ELO, Yes and Tupac Shakur at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 7th.
Award-winning Duo Dailey & Vincent Inducted into Grand Ole Opry Multi-GRAMMY® nominees and threetime International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year Dailey & Vincent were formally inducted into the Grand Ole Opry last night by Opry members Old Crow Medicine Show and Jeannie Seely. The duo had been invited to join the Opry
by Marty Stuart during their 100th Opry appearance in December. Seely, who will celebrate 50 years of Opry membership later this year, presented an Opry Member Award to Jamie Dailey, while Old Crow lead singer Ketch Secor did the same for Darrin Vincent. “I had the honor of introducing Dailey & Vincent for their first Opry appearance,” Seely began. “I thought to myself that night, ‘I hope one day I get to see them become members of the Opry one day because they epitomize everything the Opry is on stage and off.’” “They honor the traditions and respect their elders, but most of all they entertain,” Secor said. “Tonight they join the ranks of country music’s greatest entertainers. … Welcome Dailey & Vincent to the first family of country music.” “We love the Grand Ole Opry. It’s in our DNA,” Dailey said as he and Vincent recognized family, friends, their band, and members of their organization who’d helped make the night possible. The duo closed their Opry segment with “I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You,” a hit by one of their musical heroes, The Statler Brothers. “We are very excited to welcome Dailey & Vincent into the fold,” said Opry General Manager Sally Williams. “Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent have been proclaimed the best in their field across the board, winning awards and media acclaim for their songs, their musicianship, and their one-of-a-kind live performances. Over the past 10 years and more than 100 Opry visits, they’ve brought crowds to their feet both with country, bluegrass, and gospel standards as well as their brand new material. We look forward to Dailey & Vincent being active, beloved Opry members as the Opry looks toward the century mark and beyond.”
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If you are a fan of country music, chances are that you heard Old Dominion’s music before you even heard of the band. They have written songs for famous country artists like The Band Perry, Keith Urban and Luke Bryan, but now they are focused on writing music and on performing the music themselves. Old Dominion is a five member band of country songwriters: Matthew Ramsey (lead singer), Trevor Rosen (guitar and keyboard), Whit Sellers (drums), Geoff Sprung (bass), and Brad Tursi (guitar). Matthew Ramsey sat down with Full Access magazine and talked about the secrets to maneuvering through the Nashville music scene, the band’s songwriting, and the band’s road to success. The band has its roots in Virginia, as 4 of the members are from there; those roots are reflected in the band’s name. Ramsey explained, “We wanted something that kind of would signify Virginia. Old Dominion happens to be the nickname for the State of Virginia…we were setting up for a show one night and I said, you know, the only thing I could find that’s not taken is Old Dominion and everybody looks at me and just says, well, ‘what’s wrong with that?’ So we said ‘alright, sounds good.’” Old Dominion also has a very simple, but distinct logo as well. “We wanted something … that was kind of memorable and that we
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by Shobha N. Lizaso
could kind of slap all over everything…we were looking at a lot of beer logos and a lot of like micro-brewery logos, and we just kind of liked the impact that they made,” Ramsey reflected as he described the origin of the band’s logo. With their band name and logo, they moved to Nashville to chase the songwriter’s dream and found that it might take 10-15 years to acquire the ingredients needed for success. Ramsey explained,” It’s just like going to school when you move to Nashville, and the talent pool there is the best of the best writers and musicians from all over the country… that’s who you’re competing with… and it just takes that long, to stay after it, learn the game, get in the circles, do all the networking, and learn how to write for the radio and for what’s next on the radio; not for what’s on the radio now. A lot of people move there and they chase what’s on the radio now, but those songs were written three or four years ago; so you’re already late to the game if you’re doing that.” The band learned a lot while writing songs in Nashville. Ramsey continued, “Everyone hates the word “formula,” but there is sort of a formula to a hit song: there’s a big hit chorus, there are hooks, and finding ways to write these hooks in a new way… so you learn how to navigate around those things while still write what’s in your heart,
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it’s a balance, and these choices become second nature to you.” With thousands of songwriters relocating to Nashville all of the time, chasing the same dream, one would think that the Nashville music scene would be cold and cut-throat. Ramsey described it quite differently,” I’ve been in Nashville for probably twelve, thirteen years now, and I have yet to see anything cut-throat about it… it’s competition for sure, but it’s healthy and supportive competition …everyone there loves a great song; that’s why they’re there…and when they recognize a great song, then they’re happy to let that song succeed…the ones that are cut-throat won’t make it, because it’s a very supportive business.” However, it takes more than talent and connections to get noticed in Nashville. “Some of it is luck… there are so many amazing people out there that will never see success and that’s a shame. There are people out there that are way better than us, that will probably never see success; there’s a big part of it that is just waiting your turn, being patient, keeping a positive attitude, and knowing that you have to constantly work to get better,” Ramsey added. Through this commitment, Old Dominion’s songwriting and performances has earned them recognition in the country world. For example, they were invited to perform at the Grand Old Opry. “It’s a huge badge of honor to be invited by the Opry to come and play because it’s been around so long, and it’s such a staple in country music that when you get tapped for it, people start turning their heads.” A few months ago, Old Dominion performed at the CMA Music Festival kick off concert. Ramsey recounted, “Award shows, I think, are always great because fans from everywhere come to those and there’s always like a certain energy that those fans bring. Country music fans in general are very loyal to not just one artist, but to the genre of country music…so when they
show up and they travel for a show like that, they’re coming to celebrate the entire genre and every artist that’s there…so you really can feel a lot of love from those crowds.” Old Dominion has been recording in the studio finishing up their followup to their first full-length album on RCA Nashville. RCA has given them full reign to express their musical and songwriting skills without creative interference. The album has accents from various genres of music sewn throughout. The band recognizes that the lines between the genres of music have been blurred, so the album has a little rock, rap, and hip hop in the country songs. Ramsey described the album as sounding, “Very fun with a sad undertone through the whole thing.” Old Dominion will be returning to Florida to perform at the Hard Rock Live at Universal Studios City Walk in Orlando, on April 8th and at the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale on April 9th.
Old Dominion will be performing at the Hard Rock Live in Orlando on April 8th and at the Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach on April 9th. Tickets are still available for both shows. Full Access Magazine
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by Bob Cheesman
If you like to laugh-really laugh-then comedian Brian Regan is a “must-see” for you! Regan brings his style of comedy, a very sarcastic and a self-deprecating take on life and every day observations, to Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, September 21st at 7:30 pm. Brian recently spent time with Full Access Magazine to talk about his career, some of his hilarious experiences and his “clean-approach” at sharing his anecdotes with his audiences. “When I first started, I didn’t have any agenda. I was always mostly “clean” anyway, that’s just how I think comically. I think of everyday things. I didn’t want to be 95% anything, so I made a point to be 100% clean and see if I could get people to laugh without using certain words. I don’t think of it as clean, I just think of it as everyday stuff,” Regan explained. “My show is a little bit of everything. Its life experiences and it’s also just observations about things that really have nothing to do with me sometimes. Sometimes its things I have gone through or read about or whatever…” Regan, now 58, has been doing comedy since his college days in the early 1980’s. During his career, Brian has performed on the “late-night” circuit and has appeared on countless tv shows. His stand-up act has been featured on HBO and on Comedy Central. In 2007, Regan signed a deal with
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Comedy Central to star in two one-hour specials, release them on DVD and to headline a theater tour, “Brian Regan in Concert: A Comedy Central Live Event,” which began later that year. He has appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” 8 times. Brian talks about the highest accomplishment, in his mind, that can be achieved by a stand-up comedian, appearing on The Tonight Show and the emergence of social media on the world of comedy. “When you’re doing Letterman, when I did it, it was as a stand-up comedian. That’s the expectation in the air that you’re going to come out and be funny. I always hoped it would go well and the audience gets “hooked-in.” But its pressure to be funny, I seek it out, it’s a blast. You want to be in position to perform and for it to go well. There’s pressure, but it’s exciting,” Brian said. “The social media thing for me is weird because the world has changed so much since I first started doing stand-up. When I first started, the idea was to get on tv. “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson was still happening and it was every comedian’s goal to get on The Tonight Show. There really was no other huge goal, that was the thing. And if that happened it was kind of like ‘being knighted’ like ‘now you are a successful comedian,’” Brian added.
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“Now, there are so many ways to get comedy to the people. People can just make a clip at a local bar that has a comedy night and post it on YouTube. There are so many venues, good and bad. I try to utilize it, but not as much as a lot of other people do. That’s how I feel about twitter. I might post a comment every now and then. If I have shows I might post that, but I don’t want to be one of those guys, ‘hey, remember me! Don’t forget about me! I’m still here!’ It’s like, ‘calm down buddy!’” Brian originally had the goal of being an accountant as his career choice while enrolled at Heidelberg College in Ohio in the late 70’s and early 80’s. After attending some stand-up shows in his native Florida, Brian eventually dropped out of college during his last semester prior to earning his degree to pursue a career in comedy. Brian recollects this time in his life. “I dropped out of college with about ten credit hours to go to try this “comedy thing.” Thinking if it didn’t work out, I could always come back and get my degree and do whatever. I was passionate about it and hoped it would work, and fortunately it seemed to work out for me. I think it was 1980 when I started out at a comedy club in Ft. Lauderdale and they had an open-mic night and I auditioned there and auditioned about five times before they ‘passed me.’ I knew I wanted to do comedy, but the only places I knew where there were comedy clubs were in New York and Los Angeles. I thought I was going to have to move to New York,” Brian explained. “Then I saw an ad in the Miami Herald for the grand opening to The Comic Strip Comedy Club in Ft. Lauderdale. It was unbelievable for me. Growing up in Miami, I could drive an hour and audition at this club. Then clubs started opening up all over; maybe in 1981 or 1982 it started exploding. I was fortunate that when I was good enough to start going on the road, clubs were popping up all over the place.”
“I certainly like the hours. When I was in college, a comedian performed in our school and his show started at 8:00 pm at night and I always had trouble waking up for my classes and I remember thinking, ‘wow, I could get up by 8:00 pm, so if I had a job that started by 8:00 pm, maybe I could function in this world.’ Making people laugh feels good and I like when the shows start, “Brian added. By combining some of his own life experiences with that in which he sees in everyday life, Brian puts a hilarious spin onto just about everything he comes across. One of the most-memorable catch-phrases from his act has been answering back to someone with the response, “you, too” when it definitely doesn’t apply. “I recently did that again. I was in an airport and the ticket-counter lady gave me my boarding passes and said, ‘have a nice flight.’ I said ‘you, too….oh wow, that was stupid,’ and she said people do it all the time. I told her, ‘no, you really don’t understand...if anybody shouldn’t be making this mistake, it’s me.’ She had no clue what I meant, so I just shook my head and walked away.” Be sure to check out the always spot-on and hilarious Brian Regan on September 21st at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater at 7:30pm. You can also keep up with Brian on his website, on Facebook and Twitter.
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Brian Regan will be performing at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on September 21st. Tickets are still available for this show. Full Access Magazine
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Kevin Costner is one of Hollywood’s most famous men. He is best known for his roles in Field of Dreams, JFK, The Bodyguard, and The Untouchables. The multi-award winner, actor, producer and director, Kevin Costner found his own rock band ten years ago Kevin Costner and The Modern West to reconnect musically, and to connect better with his fans. I spoke with Costner about what the band has been doing, comparing it to his acting career, as well as where his musical talents stemmed from. Costner says his music interests began as a child, “I have always done it (play music). I grew up in a church, so my mother and grandmother were in the choir and all of that kind of stuff. So I would always follow what they were doing. Then I was playing classical and playing the piano. I was in traveling choirs and then I gave up music when I was in college. I was thinking about what I was going to do. Then acting came along. I got with some of my friends and we started playing music again, actually two of the friends I started with outside of college are actually in this band now, Modern West, and we’ve been doing that for 10 years now.” Costner described when filming movies he may be away from home for two or three months at a time. He started the band to connect better with fans while he was on location filming movies. “I wasn’t having any
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by Corrina Drost
authentic relationships with the people that I’ve encountered. I don’t like just signing autographs and having my picture taken, I love playing music and I thought if I were able to play once or twice that would be fun. It would be a way to be in the community. I missed music and wanted to play it while I was making a movie. I also wanted to play original music, not covers.” Costner says the inspiration for their original songs come from their own experiences, or things that are happening around them. “We write age appropriate songs and sometimes we write about our past. The relationship between men and women or situations happening right in front of us. We have a song called Five Minutes from America. I was making a couple of movies and we had hurricane Katrina down in New Orleans, so that song is about that moment in time. So we just write about what we feel and usually it is about relationships in a way and sometimes it’s the state of the world. I wrote a song about soldiers coming back from Iraq and Iran. It was guessing on how they’re feeling. The songs don’t come from one source.” Kevin Costner and Modern West is often labeled as a country band or country rock, but Costner says the band is often mislabeled as country. “I’m not attracted to country music. I’m attracted to all kinds of music. I
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think we play a lot of rock ‘n roll and we’ve been mistitled. He added, “ I deal with the press a lot and once they put a tag on something you can not change it. If you listen to our music, there’s a country tone for certain songs and other songs are straight rock ‘n roll.” Expectations or plans were not something Costner had for his band when they were first starting out. “I had no idea I would take this band around the world. I didn’t think we would make a single record; we made four. There was no plan. There are some people in Hollywood who still don’t know I have a band. I don’t rely on a lot of publicity, I just go play.” Over the past ten years, they have toured world-wide. He talks about playing at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. “I’m very satisfied with what we’ve done. I’m very surprised when I look back with where we’ve played. We’ve played at the Kremlin. It’s kind of crazy and unbelievable to think we’ve played three times at the Grand Ole Opry. It was not a plan, I don’t need to be more famous, I don’t need to do anything other than to satisfy creatively what I enjoy doing.” He describes the connection he gets between him and his fans by performing his music. “You don’t have a great musical outing unless there’s people in front of you. Then the people that go to hear your music don’t have a good experience unless they think the band is really playing for them. In this instance, we’re not playing songs that they know, we’re playing new original music and there’s a whole group of people who explore original music. It’s a natural thing, people who love music come to people who love to play it. You meet them at these clubs across the country.” Costner has won numerous Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Emmy’s. He says he doesn’t need awards to feel successful in his
music career. “I don’t, I really don’t. I’m not going out to radio stations and trying to expand my audience in a way where I need to do this. The band really has grown naturally. More and more people know about us and we’ve always been kind of just playing. You can look up where we play and you’ll find a few things. I just like to play and play for people.” He has starred in numerous films and is most well known for his roles in Field of Dreams (1989) and Dances with Wolves (1990), which he starred in and directed and has won seven Oscars for. He compared acting and producing to performing music. “It’s wildly different. You have to be ready. Performing a role takes a whole day, producing a movie is putting a lot of parts together, and playing a band you have to show up at a specific time and you go, the drums start, the guitar starts, and it’s a certain amount of time your playing. It’s wildly different you can’t redo anything. Its very spontaneous and only happens one time during those two hours. It’s a really authentic relationship. You get to talk to the audience, they’re talking back to you, it’s a fun thing to do.” He says the best part about touring and playing music is spending time with his friends. “I really enjoy seeing them. I enjoy that moment when the band starts 1-2-3 BANG and the drums hit. There’s just something about that moment, it just feels really electric to me and feels really alive.”
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Michael W Smith is one of the most popular and most successful singer-songwriters in the world of Contemporary Christian music. Almost always touring, Michael W Smith will bring his inspirational and entertaining sound to Florida on March 5th to the Youkey Theatre in Lakeland. Michael W recently spent time with Full Access Magazine to talk about his musical longevity, his joy of performing and his ever-growing family. “I always make family first. I made a ‘twoweek rule’ that I’m never gone for more than two weeks. I was playing for years where I would come off stage, a car would take me to the airport, then I’m on the jet, on the midnight, then I’m back home the next morning. I did that for years. It was expensive, but it paid off,” Smith explained. “All my children now are married and they all have kids, which is mind-boggling. We just had our eleventh grandchild…crazy. They have all just turned out amazing! We are all so close, so to me, to measure success, all the Grammy Awards and the millions of records sold, all that…I have this amazing family that is the greatest achievement of my life, by the grace of God.” Smith has had his share of success during 15
by Bob Cheesman
his career, which started almost 35 years ago. He has sold over 15 million albums and is a three-time Grammy Award winner. From his 14 Gold albums and 5 Platinum albums, 29 of his songs have gone to number-one. He is also a writer, having 12 books published. Now in his mid-fifties, Michael W talks of adjustments made during his career to keep his energy level up with his demanding schedule. “I think I’ve just sorta been pretty positive and energetic my whole life. As you get older, you have to work at it just a little bit harder. The days of eating pizza on the bus after a show is over for me. I take care of myself. I eat pretty well and I exercise. I have a trainer and keep my body in shape, everything from your body and mind, emotionally and spiritually trying to keep a balance,” Smith said. “You have to put the work into it as you get older and I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling like my best work is yet to come. I’m excited about the World Tour this year. I have a lot going on. I get asked a lot: ‘when are you slowing down?’ It doesn’t seem like I am.” It doesn’t seem he is slowing down at all. In 2014 alone, Smith released three albums, “Hymns,” “Sovereign” and his fourth Christmas album, “The Spirit of
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Christmas.” He loves to tour and play all across the globe, finding joy and inspiration while he feels a connection to his fans. “I feel like I’m connecting with people every single night. You watch a song really connect and know that it was a part of the fabric of their life somewhere. I sing a song like “Friends” and there’s somebody crying out there. They’ve either lost a brother or lost a loved one or a son or a daughter or a friend. That stuff doesn’t get old for me,” Smith explained. “I love to sing in places like Bucharest and Budapest, places that were under communist rule forever. They have only been free for 25, 26, years or so some of these countries, that’s pure joy for me! It doesn’t get any better than that. They’re on fire and they think they’ve died and gone to heaven because I came all the way over there to sing for them…it’s just a totally different thing than in America. That’s just a couple of instances where the music is connecting. That’s pure joy for me every single night and it doesn’t get old.” Smith’s career started in the early 1980’s when he was a writer for successful singers such as Bill Gaither and Amy Grant, among others. Soon after, he began to tour with Grant as her keyboardists before eventually being her opening act. By the time he released his second album in 1984, he was headlining his own tours. Smith talks about some of the differences in his audiences now that maybe he hadn’t seen in years past. “The audience is not as young! There’s still a lot of teenagers out there as well, which is fun. The big difference is, and I don’t see this too often, I see families every night, the mom and dad listened to my music in high school and now they turned their kids onto my music,” Smith noted. “The kids are into it, so that’s pretty rare. I’m not saying that happens across the
board, kids listen to all kinds of crazy stuff these days…its interesting. Some of it I don’t understand, but it is fun when you see families out there. Like I said that’s pretty rare.” Smith says he seems to always have a melody pop into his head and is always inspired to share with fans. He keeps his iPhone handy to record any new sounds he may have while he’s away from his piano in his studio. He explains his process of writing new songs, which sometimes includes inspirations from world events, as well as the impression he tries to make on his fans. “I just really write what’s in my gut, what I’m dealing with. There’s certain times I’m inspired by events. I wrote a song called ‘This Is Your Time’ that was inspired by the Columbine Tragedy. I wrote ‘Friends’ for friends of ours that was leaving town or ‘There She Stands’ about 9/11. Once in a while there are certain events that you just have to write about. Most of the time, I never know what’s gonna come. I’m not very good at saying ‘today at 9 o’clock, I’m gonna sit down with one or two country writers and try to write a hit song,’ I’ve never been very good at that,” Smith explained. “I think if it’s the first time that they have seen me, I hope that they would say ‘what took me so long to get to the Smitty Show?’ You always want to surprise people. I see every night there’s someone that feels like someone just drug them along. They don’t even know who I am. Usually I’m fine with that, but we have about 225 songs from our catalogue to play. I just think if we play all of these songs that people have never heard, you’re hoping those songs are gonna connect. I say this with all humility, but I obviously want to ‘wow’ people to a certain extent.”
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Obituary Obituary Relapse Records ggggf by Michael Pementel
This self-titled release (Relapse) marks the tenth album from Floridian death metal gods Obituary. These guys are among the top tier of bands that ushered in a new chaotic age of ferocity and aggression. With each record Obituary has proven that they have no intension of ever slowing down. The new album contains all the best parts of the band, revving the excitement and adrenaline all the way. Both Kenny Andrews and Trevor Peres bring in corpse crushing grooves, with Andrews ripping sick solos at times. Terry Butler makes for some funky lines throughout, and Donald Tardy delivers drumming with blistering precision. John Tardy provides solid vocals that aid flow and blend screams and grueling lows. “Brave” begins and takes off with a standard drive. It’s a fun way to start the album and get the muscles warmed up in the pit. “Sentence Day” kicks things up a few notches thanks to some brilliant guitar moments. Andrews adds in little moments of flair that come through like lighting, all backed by berserk drumming. Towards the end Andrews goes off on this absolutely fucking wild solo that soars, swooping in at the right time to bring a crunching end. “Lesson In Vengeance” mixes up styles of the first two titles, taking its time in pace. One of the more forward jam tracks, it pops from time to time with electric excitement. “End It Now” is a balls to the wall thrash out fest. Harsh vocals pounce through crunching speeds, at times dropping into brutal growls. In “Kneel Before Me” we get more of the same ideas found in “End It Now”. Obituary surely has their stunning moments of technical mastery, but the attitude here is more one of an immediate punch to the face. The album embodies aggression through varying means of relentless speeds, or with 19
a slow heft that crushes the listener. From time to time there are even elements of horror like tones surrounding the music, noticeable towards the end of “Kneel Before Me”, and the beginning of “It Lives.” Picking up with some brighter notes that carry some swing to them is “Betrayed.” It feels good with a band to let the bass get some attention, and while the record does that well in general, it came through strong here. Not only does the guitar find its way into another cool solo, but there is a funky rhythm that flows throughout, adding a splendid switch up to the chemistry. “Turned To Stone” also caters to a beat down structure, and while this structure is common, it is never repetitive. It helps that the material at its core is full to the brim with excitement and solid fun. The two closers “Straight To Hell” and “Ten Thousand Ways To Die” set off the fire works for a terrific ending. With a range of variety in sound, both keep the listeners on their toes, while tearing at their eardrums. Obituary have put out one hell of a record. With everything to please fans and old school death metal heads, the self-title Obituary is a killer jam. Structure can become a little common, but not once does it ever take away from the pure bliss of rage. Devastating drive, flying solos, and harsh vocals create a whirlwind of death metal chaos that will please everyone from the beginning to the end. Ed Sheeran Divide Atlantic Records gggff by Zoe Camp
So much for “nice guys finish last.” Less than five years into his career, 26-year-old singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has achieved popotheosis, completing his evolution from a corner-pub troubadour (and occasional Taylor Swift collaborator) to a Platinumselling everyman. Don’t let dude’s awshucks temperament fool you. A global
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ascent this rapid necessitates Machiavellian tactics: deploying basic chord progressions, hummable hooks, and easily-relatable tales of breakups and makeups in order to satisfy his audience’s insatiable hunger for musical and lyrical ethos.
Taken in context alongside the bloated fantasies pushed by his competitors (The Weeknd’s coke-fueled bacchanals, Bruno Mars’ 24-karat Don Juan escapades), Sheeran’s barfly narratives represent a rare, honest view from the top: safe, low-stakes escapism courtesy of a Nice Guy with a guitar. Contrary to its title, ÷ (pronounced “Divide”) – Sheeran’s third album and first since 2014’s breakout release x – doesn’t push his art into new territory. Instead, it relocates the Sheeran show to a bigger, brighter stage, doubling down on its predecessor’s quirky folk-pop without challenging the listener’s preconceived sensibilities (with regards to both his own music and pop praxis writ large). If you’ve got any lingering doubts that the artist’s swinging hard forat the fences this time, a glance at the roster of veteran producers (Benny Blanco, Mike Elizondo, and Ryan Tedder) and guest performers (Jessie Ware, John Mayer, and Eric Clapton, the last of whom is credited as “Angelo Mysterioso”) should do the trick.
Sheeran spends the entirety of ÷’s 12-song track listing (16 if you count the deluxe edition) flipping between two styles: rousing pop anthems destined for radio success (“Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill” have accomplished this already) and snoozy ballads destined for rotation in the aisles of your local CVS (“Dive,” “How Would You Feel (Paean)”). Needless to say, the former mode proves far more interesting than the latter, the album’s sole source of enduring impact. “Shape of You” and “Galway Girl’s” marimbas and violins, respectively offer refreshing breaks from the standard fouron-the-floor fare; “Eraser” nods to late ‘90s pop, with syncopated percussion, drum machine flourishes, and Sheeran’s
Timberlake-esque croon on the chorus. It’s too bad he situates that compelling hook within a stiffly rapped, trope-laden reflection on his newfound success. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “I think that money is the root of all evil, and fame is hell.”)
It’s one of the most sacrosanct tenets of sonic physics and album construction — every sugar rush inevitably comes crashing down, so seamless transitions are a must. If Timberlake’s classic Futuresex/Lovesounds represents the pinnacle of pacing for a contemporary pop LP, then ÷’s the nadir, a record saddled with a persistent case of musical hypoglycemia. Each spike of upbeat pop inevitably nosedives into down-tempo, treacle balladry. The stomping “Castle on the Hill” kowtows to “Dive”’s tired blues; “Shape of You” breaks the lethargic spell shortly thereafter – but only momentarily, before we’re shooed off the dance floor for “Perfect,” another slow jam.
These dynamic oscillations aren’t just grating. Each passing cycle saps a little more life from the record, until we’re left with background music, fluff that goes in one ear and out the other. That includes the lyrics, which run the gamut from sentimental (closer “Supermarket Flowers”, which Sheeran wrote in memory of his grandmother, paints a vivid portrait of bereavement with all the mundane details, right down to packing up the “Get Well Soon” cards and throwing away the hospital flowers), to rote (“We could change this whole world with a piano”), to downright creepy (“My bed sheets smell like you”). Then again, considering how much of the album Sheeran spends in friend-zone woe-is-me mode (“Nursing a bottle and telling myself/ You’re happier, aren’t you?”; “You used to hold my hand/ And when we sipped champagne out of cider cans/ I guess if you were Lois Lane, I wasn’t Superman”), perhaps that’s a benefit in disguise.
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