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NO ‘LUNATIC’ Upsahl explores breakup on new album

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski in Tempe on November 2. Tickets start Taylor Upsahl is living her best life. She lent her pen to a variety of future hits like Dua Lipa’s Grammy at $22. “I’m so excited,” says Upsahl, a Phoenix native who now lives in LA. “I’ve only played it one other time. It was where I went to be a fan when I was younger. Getting to be on the other side Award-winning “Good in Bed,” and is really, really exciting. “Happy Endings” by Mike Shinoda of “It’s cool that this hometown show Linkin Park and Iann Dior, which went kicks off the entire tour. It’s always Top 10 at alt radio. very surreal, full circle for me to play

In addition, Upsahl covered Dominic in Phoenix. We were playing shows Fike’s “3 Nights” for Amazon’s (early in my career) every weekend at “Original” series that’s featured on Valley Bar, Crescent Ballroom, the Amazon Music. Van Buren — all the venues. I get to

Now, she’s preparing to release her hang out with people and fans who full-length debut album, “Lady Jesus,” have been coming to my shows since I on October 8. She and Olivia O’Brien was 16.” will kick off their tour at the Marquee Her latest single is “Lunatic,” a popdriven anthem that channels her anger about an ex.

“I try to always write from personal experience,” she says. “The day we wrote ‘Lunatic,’ I saw something online. I didn’t want to see it. I almost canceled the session. I wanted to lie in bed and be angry at the world.

“Instead, I stormed into the studio with tears running down my face. I said, ‘We’re writing a banger today. I want to scream in the vocal booth.’ We finished writing the song in an hour. My whole day was turned around. The day started with me crying in the car to the session. It’s the perfect example how music or writing a song can fully turn the day around.”

The song is a reaction to seeing her ex, whom she did not identify, on social media. They broke up in the beginning of the quarantine. “Lady Jesus” travels with Upsahl on her journey from the breakup (“Douchebag”) to her personal rebirth (“Lady Jesus”).

“‘Lunatic’ is very early on in the healing process for me,” she says.

The writing of “Lady Jesus” was cathartic to Upsahl.

“I would have no other way to get my feelings out otherwise,” Upsahl says. “It’s very much autobiographical. Whatever I was going through I would write about in a song.

“I think I just got over being sad. It was way too long. ‘Lady Jesus’ was a clarity moment. It was such a therapeutic, vulnerable process.”

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Country Thunder festival is returning on a high note

Dustin Lynch

By Annika Tomlin

After a pandemic-dictated delay, Country Thunder is revving up to welcome headliners Dustin Lynch, Old Dominion, Luke Combs and Eric Church, preceded by noteworthy country artists like Ashley McBryde, Chris Janson, Mitchell Tenpenny and Hardy.

The headliner on Thursday, October 14, Lynch makes a return visit after appearing in 2015 as an opener. This is the first time he’s headlining the Florence mainstay.

“As a band, this is something that we have been manifesting and dreamed about,” Lynch says.

He vividly remembers the “pretty legendary” parties surrounding the 2015 festival, including those in the campgrounds that featured an “oversized giant drinking seesaw.”

“As an opening act, you always get up on that big stage and think maybe one day I can be like so and so that I’m opening for tonight, and here we are,” Lynch says. “You fast forward a few years and look up and we are able to headline and blessed to headline for the first time at Country Thunder. I am so excited.”

McBryde will prepare fans for the arrival of Luke Combs on Saturday, October 16. She calls opening for Combs “a big family event.”

Returning to the stage has been a blessing for Lynch and McBryde after the pandemic hiatus. Both are ready for the high energy that comes from

Ashley McBryde performing for a large audience.

“(The band and I) sometimes question if it’s too much because it just runs us into the ground every time we play the set,” says Lynch, whose audience will hear the hit song “Mama’s House.”

McBryde says she will never take her job for granted after the year-and-a-half break.

“If you had asked me in 2019 if I had ever taken any part of this for granted, I would have said ‘Absolutely not, I soak up every second of it,’” McBryde says. “But then you ask me in 2021 and I go, ‘Yep, there were things I took for granted.’

“How much I love catering on tour. I even missed tour showers, and tour showers are gross. This year everything is set apart because, even though we are always joyful on stage, there is so much more joy shining off of us and hitting the crowd right in the face. It’s tangible and it’s awesome.”

For Lynch, the hardest part about preparing for tour was mentally returning to his “go, go, go” travel schedule and making time to write.

“Physically, I was really working hard in the off season as a singer, and I’m running all over the place for most part of the show,” Lynch says. “In the off season, I was really trying to make myself sing and a lot of physical activity, cardio and stuff to be in the best shape that I can be.”

A former high school and college athlete, Lynch is used to the pressure of keeping fit, but being in “show shape is different than gym shape.”

“There was a lot of cardio and a lot of singing in the house to make sure that my vocals were going to be able to withstand such a long break from the road,” Lynch says.

As for McBryde, “at first it was creepy” seeing the large crowd again. She, too, felt the burn of touring.

“My legs aren’t used to running around on stage for 90 minutes anymore,” McBryde says in retrospect. “My lungs are not used to it anymore, and my throat was not used to it anymore. I started losing my voice every night.

“Those muscles hadn’t been used and abused and conditioned in that way in over a year. It took a minute, and I had to get some new habits.”

She quickly realized she needed to make lifestyle changes so she could finish the Combs tour.

“I used to drink before shows, but those people did not pay to see me drink before my show. They paid to see my show,” McBryde says.

“I just felt that that had been rude and I had taken it for granted. I had to make a lot of changes, and one of which is making sure that I warm my throat up every day just to talk, because if not, it’s going to be even harder to build that endurance back up.”

Outside of Country Thunder, McBryde was recently nominated for three CMA Awards, including female vocalist of the year, and single of the year and song of the year for “One Night Standards.”

When describing what it meant to receive the nominations, she says, “It’s like stepping in a boxing ring and then getting your bell rung real good. Then, right after that, you get your bell rung two more times. Just bang, bang, bang. I was very frickin’ excited.”

She initially thought that “something happened, someone is sick, someone broke a bone” after seeing text messages from various people including her manager.

“Of course, I jumped right out of bed and started screaming, and the dog thought that something was wrong at that point,” McBryde says. “It’s always very exciting getting nominated at all in any category but especially to be on there for three nominations.”

Lynch and McBryde are eager to hit the Country Thunder stage and to get out of the humidity of the south. They say they’ll enjoy being among passionate country fans.

“Those Country Thunder fans are my kind of people,” Lynch says. “It’s who I would hang out with on off days here in Nashville.

“Folks be on the lookout for (me and the band) to come through the campgrounds. Me and the guys are already planning on coming out there and hanging out with everybody. Have a beer ready for us.”

As for McBryde, she says, “I just can’t say in big enough words how much joy comes off on us on stage and how much joy comes off from Luke and his guys. Even if you don’t like country music, you should go to Country Thunder just to experience the level of joy that’s going to happen.”

Country Thunder

WHEN: Various times, Thursday October 14, to Sunday, October 17 WHERE: Country Thunder Arizona, 20585 E. Water Way, Florence COST: $99 to $200 INFO: countrythunder.com/az

THE ENTERTAINER! MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2021

17 ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The trail to Country Thunder is paved with locals

By Annika Tomlin

Country music is a staple in Florence.

Before the likes of Dustin Lynch, Old Dominion, Luke Combs and Eric Church appear at Country Thunder, Downtown Historic Florence will present Road to Country Thunder from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, October 9.

Hosted in partnership with Country Thunder and sponsored by KMLE and Hensley Distribution, Road to Country Thunder serves as the kickoff event for the four-day main event.

“We’ll have future Nashville stars as well as inflatables on Main Street,” says Alison Feliz, Florence’s recreation superintendent. “We’ll have a kids zone until 8 p.m., a beer garden during the event, vendors and food trucks.”

Among the food trucks are Chef on the Go, Rory’s Tacos, Chinos Grill and Maui Wowi.

Like previous years, KMLE will give away tickets to Country Thunder to attendees at the free Road to Country Thunder, which was founded in 2015.

Road to Country Thunder is an outdoor event so COVID-19 restrictions will be minimal, Feliz says.

“We will just do a few things to try and space people out and have handwashing stations,” Feliz says. “It’s an outside event, so they are not going to be required to wear a mask, just cooperation with social distancing.”

Keeping their distance on the stage is the list of performers including Shari Rowe, Jaty Edwards of North Phoenix, Ryan and the Renegades, and Tom Wagner.

Rowe grew up in Glendale with country music ingrained in her everyday life.

“I have been singing since I was little,” Rowe says. “I come from a musical family, so I can’t remember a time when we weren’t singing songs, playing music or finding harmonies.

“The backdrop to my life has always been country music. I listened to all of the classics, and I remember hearing Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, classic country, which, in my opinion, was one of the best backdrops growing up in Arizona.”

Rowe splits her time between Arizona and Nashville to meet “the kindest and most encouraging people in the industry” to help her create music that she has been performing for nearly a decade.

She has performed for the main event Country Thunder in Arizona four times, but “this is the first time playing the Road to Country Thunder,” according to Rowe.

“I’ve seen it advertised and I’ve seen the lineups for the past years, and it just seems like a great event,” Rowe says. “I think being in Florence and being in the hometown that hosts Country Thunder is going to be a special event and a chance to really connect with everybody on a more personal level.”

As live events are returning after a year-and-a-half hiatus, Rowe intends to make sure the crowd is amped up.

“I think this event is going to be really high energy, so we are going to make sure that we bring some of our biggest hits that will get the crowd going and get everybody excited for the following weekend main event,” Rowe says.

“I had a song that I haven’t released yet that I’m going to be releasing in the spring. We’ve actually never played it live.”

That will change when Rowe hits the stage October 9. Rowe also intends to play “The Heavy,” which she released in the middle of lockdown.

“I didn’t write more about this time that we are facing in the world, but my co-writers and I wrote (‘The Heavy’) with different intentions,” Rowe says.

“It ended up being one of the most appropriate things to release during this crazy time. I feel like that is still such a reality for us, and it’s still such an encouragement. I know I can’t pass up the opportunity to share that again.”

As several performers are gracing the stage for the first time in 18 months, Rowe “can’t even tell you how great it feels” to be singing in front of an audience again.

“I think there is an appreciation on both side for those moments that we took for granted a little bit,” Rowe says.

“So, to see people together and to have the relationship with the crowd again, that is something that has always driven me. I love writing and I love recording, but playing songs for people, making the eye contact and meeting people afterwards at the merch table. Just those moments that you have with the crowd, there is just nothing that comes close to that. My heart is full to be able to do that again.”

Road to Country Thunder

WHEN: 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, October 9 WHERE: 440 N. Main Street, Florence COST: Free INFO: florenceaz.gov