Friday, Jan. 22, 2010
Country crooner in Myrtle Beach today
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closeUp-and-coming country artist Brantley Gilbert will perform at the Beach Wagon, Myrtle Beach tonight.
At only 24 years old, Gilbert, who recently signed to Nashville's Average Joe's Entertainment, reached No. 1 on the Myspace Music Charts for both country and southern rock, wrote the song The Best of Me which was recorded by country superstar Jason Aldean and has also collaborated with top-seller Colt Ford on the track Dirt Road Anthem off of his Billboard Heatseeker album, Ride Through the Country.
For Gilbert, finding success in the music industry isn't motivated by the typical desire of most artists. For him, it's a little more. After surviving a serious car accident about five years ago, Gilbert realized it was time to pursue his life-long dream with whatever time he's been given here on Earth.
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When: Tonight. at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: Beach Wagon, 906 S. Kings Hwy., Myrtle Beach
How much: $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Beach Wagon Card Holders, $5.
448-5918 or log on to www.beachwagonnitelife.com
Since then, the Jefferson, Ga., native who still has difficulty talking about his accident, has taken his "second chance" seriously and persistently pursued his dream of a becoming a successful country artist. He released his debut album, A Modern Day Prodigal Son, featuring hit singles G.R.I.T.S. and Whenever We're Alone and recently finished his second album, Halfway to Heaven, which will release in March.
Kicks caught up with Gilbert for a phone interview from his home in Athens, Ga., to chat about his new album.
Q:What's been going on? Why are you so busy?
A:We just shot our first music video the other day. We came in for a show in Augusta, Georgia the night before. I had about two hours of sleep and then we had the camera call. I'm still going on next to no sleep.
Q:So you shot your first music video! How exciting. Which song was it for?
A:Kick it in the Sticks, a song I wrote with a guy named Rhett Atkins and Ben Hayslip. He's a Nashville writer. He's got more cuts this year than anyone else I've heard of. He's really good.
Q:I read on your website that you had a contest of sorts to find a real "G.R.I.T.S." girl (Girls Raised in the South) to be in your video. Can you tell me about that?
A:We did. We invited anyone who submitted a video down and we chose one girl to be the main character. There's a little plot to the video. Her name is Paige Duke and she's a Clemson graduate. She came down and brought her friends and her sister with her and her sister's husband and they came down and hung out. She's a really cool girl. She was a lot of fun. She was awesome.
Q:Tell me about the video. What's the storyline?
A:Well I actually had to fight in it so I was pretty fired up about that. We decided to film it here, and of course I'm a biker so we had about close to 30 bikes come down. And there was a guy named Jason Coley who played the foe in the fight. He put on a collared shirt and popped his collar and he was hitting on Paige in the video, she was trying to get away from him. He grabbed her by the arm and when he does, I go to tell him "no" and he swings at me and then I get to knock him out. He's a singer-songwriter centered around this area, also.
Q:You've worked with Jason Aldean and Colt Ford. Did you start as a songwriter first?
A:I started out really young with a guy named Corey Smith. We played together for about two- and-a-half, three years. I would open up for him, definitely on a smaller scale than what he's doing now, and formed a following. He was definitely an instrumental person to where we are right now. Then I just started doing my own thing. I guess that's my story - been chopping wood ever since.
Q:You're releasing a new album in March. Tell me about it.
A:End of February, early March, called Halfway to Heaven. It's been a long time coming. A lot of hard work's gone into it. I produced it myself with the help of my entire band. A lot of times in Nashville they bring in studio musicians, but I just felt that we had a pretty unique sound and I thought the guys deserved to be on the record and they were more help than I could ever ask for. We cut it ourselves and pretty much every body put in a hand in helping producing it. The record really means a lot to us and we're definitely excited about it.
Q:Is there any significance to why you chose the title Halfway to Heaven?
A:Definitely. There's a song on the album called Halfway to Heaven. There's 12 songs on the album, and it's right there in the middle. I put the songs in an order to tell a story. If you read the bio I'm sure you read about the wreck and that song's about the wreck. It's been six years since I'd released an album so it covered a little bit before that album and then right up to the wreck and then the last bit of the record picks up right after the wreck.
For more on Brantley Gilbert, log on to www.brantleygilbert.com or www.myspace.com/brantleygilbertmusic
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