CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT
RODNEY ATKINS
Friday, December 7th, 2018
7:00 PM
Stifel Theatre
1400 Market St, St. Louis, MO 63103
Showing posts with label Rodney Atkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rodney Atkins. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
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The lead single and title track off his forthcoming fifth studio album features Atkins’ timeless twang while pushing boundaries through a thunderous beat and vocals from the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The historic a cappella vocal group consisting of students at Nashville’s Fisk University has performed everywhere from the White House to the United Kingdom, where Queen Victoria noted that such a talented group must come from the Music City of the United States - and thus Nashville’s nickname was born.
Atkins recently collaborated with the group at Music City’s iconic Ryman Auditorium and knew he had to include them on his album. The resulting song, called a “contagious country anthem” by The Boot and applauded for its “modern ‘anything goes’ style of production” by Taste of Country, serves as the perfect launching pad for Atkins’ return to country music.
“Listening to the Fisk Jubilee Singers with their hand clapping and foot stomping music is really a spiritual experience,” says Atkins. “When I heard ‘Caught Up In The Country’ I just felt like the two things had to come together. It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve recorded or released before and that also excites me."
Atkins’ new music follows a season of personal renewal for the platinum-selling artist, which he credits for helping him to take stock not just of where he had been but also where he is going. He married fellow performer Rose Falcon, with whom he welcomed new baby Ryder Falcon Atkins in December, and her impact - whether lyrically, in a duet or just in spirit - is evident throughout Atkins’ new music.
“I equated it to my bow and arrow moment," Atkins says. "I felt like I needed to stop, take a few steps back. Re-aim. Re-adjust. Get back on target, and to the level I wanted to operate on."
Atkins has continued to be recognized as a powerful voice on country radio throughout his hiatus, with his Platinum-selling No. 1 “Watching You” earning the top spot on Country Aircheck’s top-played songs of the decade list. Atkins was the second-most played artist of the decade overall and has amassed six No. 1 hits throughout his career. He has also sold over 13 million units and was recently awarded with a plaque celebrating his nine career Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum RIAA certifications to date.
For more information, visit www.rodneyatkins.com or follow online @RodneyAtkins.
# # #
Thursday, March 7, 2013
DARIUS RUCKER REVEALS HEADLINING TRUE BELIEVERS TOUR
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Award-Winning Country Star Announces Dates of the True Believers Tour Featuring Special Guests Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins and Jana Kramer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Capitol Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker
is calling all ‘true believers’ to meet him out on the road this summer
for his newly announced headlining tour in support of his upcoming True Believers album release this spring.
The True Believers Tour
kicks off on May 9 in Estero, Fla. and will work its way through more
than 20 cities across the U.S. before wrapping up in Clarkston, Mich. on
June 30.
Rucker will treat concert-goers to tunes from across all three of his country albums, including current critically-acclaimed single “Wagon Wheel” and any number of his five No. 1 hits like “Come Back Song,” “This,” “Alright” and more.
“This is going to be an exciting summer,” predicts Rucker. “I’ve got an album I can’t wait for y’all to hear and I’m hitting the road with a great group of artists. We’re gonna have a good time!”
Joining Rucker on select dates will be special guests RIAA platinum-selling Rodney Atkins, top-charting country singer Justin Moore, and 2013 ACM New Female Vocalist winner and New Artist of the Year nominee Jana Kramer.
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Rucker will be offering two pairs of tickets to each tour date through an auction on www.DariusRucker.com with proceeds benefiting both the Country Music Association’s “Keep The Music Playing” initiative and the Academy of Country Music’s “Lifting Lives” program. “Keep the Music Playing” supports music in our schools and has funded music labs and more than 4,000 instruments in 80 Nashville Metro schools. ACM “Lifting Lives” is dedicated to improving lives through the power of music - its beneficiaries include the Holston Home in East Tenn. where Atkins was adopted as a child, Pattinson’s Academy in Rucker’s hometown of Charleston, S.C., and ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp, students of which accompanied Rucker in a very special ACM Awards performance of a song written and recorded by the campers, “Music from the Heart.”
For more tour and ticket information, please visit www.DariusRucker.com.
Darius Rucker – True Believers Tour
May 9, 2013 | Estero, Fla. | Germain Arena*
May 10, 2013 | Pensacola, Fla. | Pensacola Civic Center*
May 17, 2013 | Savannah, Ga. | Savannah Civic Center*
May 18, 2013 | Alpharetta, Ga. | Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park*
May 19, 2013 | Knoxville, Tenn. | Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum**
May 24, 2013 | Little Rock, Ark. | Riverfront Park**
May 30, 2013 | Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum Complex*
May 31, 2013 | Simpsonville, S.C. | Charter Amphitheatre at Heritage Park*
June 1, 2013 | Virginia Beach, Va. | Patriotic Festival*
June 6, 2013 | Morrison, Colo. | Red Rocks Amphitheatre**
June 9, 2013 | Grand Prairie, Texas | Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie**
June 13, 2013 | N. Lawrence, Ohio | Clay's Park Amphitheater**
June 14, 2013 | Buffalo, N.Y. | Coca Cola Field+
June 15, 2013 | Baltimore, Md. | Pier Six Pavilion**
June 20, 2013 | West Long Branch, N.J. | The MAC at Monmouth University**
June 21, 2013 | Bangor, Maine | Waterfront Park**
June 22, 2013 | Gilford, N.H. | Meadowbrook-US Cellular Pavilion**
June 27, 2013 | Toledo, Ohio | Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre**
June 28, 2013 | Highland Park, Ill. | Ravinia Festival**
June 29, 2013 | Normal, Ill. | The Corn Crib**
June 30, 2013 | Clarkston, Mich. | DTE Energy Music Theatre**
* denotes Justin Moore and Jana Kramer
** denotes Rodney Atkins and Jana Kramer
+ denotes Sheryl Crow, Rodney Atkins, Gloriana and Jana Kramer
About Justin Moore
Justin
Moore’s star has grown significantly since he was named Billboard's Top
New Country Artist of 2009. This southern country stylist has sold over
3 million digital downloads to date and his sophomore album OUTLAWS
LIKE ME hit the No. 1 spot the week it was released. OUTLAWS LIKE ME
includes the fastest-rising single of Moore’s career, “If Heaven Wasn’t
So Far Away” and "'Til My Last Day," both ascended to the No. 1 spot.
His debut album scored three consecutive smash singles (the No. 1 “Small
Town USA” as well as the hits “Backwoods” and “How I Got To Be This
Way”). He has been profiled by publications from The Washington Post, People Country and Billboard to USA Today. Additionally, his debut was recognized by the New York Times
as one of the best albums of 2009. National TV appearances have
included The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, NPR, WGN Midday News,
FOX, Associated Press and Better TV while his music has been featured on
NASHVILLE, Hannity & Colmes and NFL Rewind. Just last year, he hit
the road with Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Miranda Lambert and Blake
Shelton. Justin Moore will embark on his first headlining tour, OUTLAWS LIKE ME, this spring!
For music and more, visit www.MooreJustinMusic.com.
For music and more, visit www.MooreJustinMusic.com.
About Rodney Atkins
Award-winning
singer/songwriter Rodney Atkins has an impressive track record with
hitting on sentiments that strike a chord with the country listener.
Atkins has landed six No. 1 hits, including the most recent
platinum-selling chart-topper, "Take A Back Road," and has over five
million single sales in the past five years alone. The latest album,
TAKE A BACK ROAD, has helped propel Rodney to even higher heights with
the out-of-the-box smash, "Take A Back Road," along with father/son
themed “He’s Mine,” and the laid back cruiser, "Just Wanna Rock N’
Roll." In 2006, Rodney was named ACM's Top New Male Vocalist while also
garnering back-to-back recognition with Billboard's Most Played Song of
the Year Award for "If You're Going Through Hell" (2006) and "Watching
You" (2007). Since the start of his success, Rodney has appeared on the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson, The Early Show on CBS, Good Morning America, Fox &
Friends, CNN Headline News and many more. He is also the national
spokesperson the National Council for Adoption. For more information on
Rodney Atkins, visit www.RodneyAtkins.com.
About Jana Kramer
Kramer,
who’s self-titled album was named "Best of 2012" by Billboard and
iTunes, was also featured on Men’s Health recent Hot List. Kramer has
impressively sold over a million tracks, including more than 100,000 of
the new single “Whiskey” and over a half million of “Why Ya Wanna.” In
addition to her debut album premiering at No. 5, the success of “Why Ya
Wanna” also earned Kramer the title of highest charting debut single
from a new female artist since 2006 (previously held by Taylor Swift),
as well as making her one of the fastest rising debut artists of 2012.
Visit www.JanaKramer.com for more information.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
STARS SHINE FOR TONY LA RUSSA JANUARY 19
Retired Cardinals Manager Hosts Animal Rescue Foundation’s Stars to the Rescue in St. Louis
WALNUT
CREEK, California – December 10, 2012 – Please join host Tony La Russa
for the Animal Rescue Foundation’s (ARF) Stars to the Rescue fundraising
gala at 6:30 p.m. at the Peabody Opera House. This fabulous evening of
music and entertainment featuring the 5th Dimension’s Marilyn
McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., country singer Rodney Atkins, and country
rock performer Uncle Kraker is sponsored in part by Anheuser-Busch, Ameren Missouri, and Marcone Supply. Visit www.art.net for ongoing updates.
Hurry—don’t miss out on this special evening! Tickets
priced at $50 and $35 are on sale now, and are expected to sell out
quickly. Call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000 to purchase tickets today!
Tony La Russa is available for media interviews by calling 925-296-3116.
Proceeds from Stars to the Rescue
will benefit ARF and more than 20 animal rescue organizations in the
greater St. Louis area. “We are thrilled to elevate the status of pets
and provide much needed funds to local groups,” commented Tony La Russa.
ARF
saves the lives of dogs and cats who have run out of time at public
shelters, giving them loving care and another chance at life until a new
home can be found. ARF’s innovative People Connect programs strengthen
the human-animal bond for children, the elderly, and other people in
need. ARF allows people to experience the unconditional love and
acceptance of dogs and cats to fulfill our mission of People Rescuing
Animals...Animals Rescuing People®.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tonight! Tonight! Tonight!
RODNEY ATKINS SET TO PERFORM ON ABC’s
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
“Take A Back Road” Single Reaches Digital Platinum Status
Nashville, Tenn. (Tuesday, January 10, 2012) – Curb recording artist Rodney Atkins will be making a return appearance to the ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! stage Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 12:00 a.m. ET/11:00 p.m. CT. Atkins is set to sing the multi-week No. 1 single and title track of his current album, “Take A Back Road,” in celebration of its RIAA Platinum® Single Certification having surpassed the 1 million mark in digital sales. In addition, Atkins will end the show with a performance of his brand new single, “He’s Mine.”
“The last time I was on the show, Guillermo [Rodriguez] and I performed a little skit – or I guess song, if you can call it that – honoring our active and former military on Veterans Day,” shares Atkins, “so I’m looking forward to seeing him again as well as performing on the show.”
Atkins begins his year of touring this February with a stop in Verona, NY. His tour has him stretching the country from upstate New York to south Mississippi and western Oregon, including a USO visit with our troops.
To see when Atkins will be in concert near you, or for additional news, information, images, and more, please visit www.RodneyAtkins.com/tour.html.
# # #
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Rodney Atkins Builds on a Strong Foundation
By Lorie Hollabaugh
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Though he’s sold millions of albums, Rodney Atkins has endured some lag time between releases since signing to Curb Records back in the late ’90s. As a result, his image has become somewhat defined over time by his singles. This has been great for building a fan base, whose support has kept his batting average high for hit singles. But the flip side of this success is the tendency to get pigeonholed by the songs’ subject matter.
Atkins set out to change all that, with help initially from “Take a Back Road,” the first single and title cut from his fourth album, released Oct. 4. Written by Rhett Akins and Luke Laird, it’s a free-spirited tune about changing the scenery of your life. Though a bit of a departure from the subject matter addressed in some of his previous singles, it has struck a chord with fans, who made it the fastest-rising song of his career, averaging sales of around 40,000 copies a week after its August release.
“‘Take a Back Road’ is one of those songs that the first time I heard it, I thought, ‘Boy, that feels good,’” Atkins said. “It’s pretty catchy, something you want to just crank up. But then the more you hear it, you realize it’s not just a ditty. It’s about life. If you want it to be just summer ear candy, it can be that. But it’s also about getting right with your soul.”
The first single set the stage for the changes Atkins is pursuing in his music as well as his presentation. “I wanted this album to be different, and it is in that it’s got more edge on it,” he said. “It’s got a lot more dive-bombs. It’s a smaller band this time, which is why songs like ‘Back Road’ feel like they’re right in your face and not affected. And it’s a more soulful album. My last album, It’s America, didn’t talk enough about the real world. It lost some grit for me.”
For Atkins, a naturally shy, quiet, deep thinker who comes alive the moment he steps onstage, the challenge now is how to bring the grittier, real-world essence of his new songs to life. “The biggest thing in trying to do this is first of all to be authentic,” said his manager, Greg Hill, President, McGhee Entertainment Nashville. “That’s the most important thing for any artist. With that, nobody is one-dimensional. So how do you show other sides of an artist while still making people realize it’s authentic and real? For us, it’s also been about how do you let people see you evolving without totally disenfranchising your fan base? One of the most important things that come across any time you grow an artist and evolve is maintaining a connection with your core, but also how do you grow that core? And part of how you grow that core is to let people see more sides of you.”
In Atkins’ case specifically, Hill acknowledged that “we live in a world where people think of Rodney as a Country guy. But he’s not just that. He grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd as much as Merle Haggard and Charlie Daniels. We’re trying to play off of what people see live. It’s the energy, the aggression. Rodney jokes that he lets his shadow come out and play onstage. How do we get that across in music? How do you do the unexpected that’s still Rodney, the Rodney I know, that his friends know? Sometimes that’s about approaching it differently.”
“Evolving as an artist, I think that’s just a part of life,” Atkins reflected. “I don’t know if it has as much to do with being an artist as your life just changes. The way I have always tried to approach pretty much anything I’ve ever done is, I love to read up on people and watch people and how they become successful in what they do. You never have a chance if you don’t take a chance. I’ve been told the reasons things won’t work way more than why they will work. That goes back to Little League. My team was in last place. We wound up switching coaches, and the new coach was this coal miner that would show up in his pickup covered in coal dust and pick us up in the back of his pickup. He spent the time focusing on teaching us not only baseball and the little nuances that matter on the field, but also to not be afraid. He always talked about the three D’s: drive, discipline and determination. I learned a lot from him.”
Those lessons guided Atkins as he worked on Take a Back Road. He recorded several love songs for the album, including “Cabin in the Woods” (Jim Collins and David Lee Murphy), something he’d never done previously. And he took some chances on the marketing side, doing some unusual promotional photos and even appearing for the first time in a while without his signature baseball cap. Hill explains this all as being part of a campaign to present Atkins as a “broader person.”
“We want to let people keep seeing who he is, which is engaging, intelligent, funny and talented,” he continued. “We want to let people see how much time he takes in mixes. He’s very engaged in the creative process. There’s an artistic side to him that I don’t think people have seen yet. For Rodney, it’s not about being a star. He loves to make music. He’s an artist. He loves to have his music connect with people. And to get his perspective and his personality across is the point of all this.”
During one downtown shoot, for example, Atkins traded in his usual T-shirt, jeans and cap to show a different side, even crouching in a fountain with water spraying all over him. “If you’re a relatively normal human being, particularly a male, you don’t like having your picture taken,” Hill noted. “It’s going to make you feel uncomfortable, so we had to push Rodney outside of his comfort zone on that. It was important to get the sides that we know about him, that he’ll do for us when the camera isn’t around. If you only do photo shoots every two years on an album cycle, a change is going to be perceived as more shocking than if you are around it every day.”
“I almost didn’t want to do it because of the suit,” Atkins recalled. “They had me sitting in a fountain pond. It’s the most unnatural thing for a guy to be on the other side of the camera. If you see the Christmas pictures at our house, I’m probably in very few of them because I’m the one taking them. That’s normal. But Greg laid out pics one time of red carpets and then of me playing live. He said, ‘Did you see the look on your face at the red carpets? OK, now look at your face when you’re playing live.’ It was drastically different, so you’ve got to figure out how to deal with that stuff.”
It’s especially challenging to evolve the image of a particularly cerebral artist in a 10-second sound-bite world. “We’re not at the next level of where Rodney deserves to go,” Hill admitted. “We jokingly call Rodney a flyover artist, not unlike Tim (McGraw) or Kenny (Chesney), who Nashville for so long didn’t understand how they were connecting with Middle America. People in New York and L.A. understand the flashy cool, but they don’t realize that here’s a guy who’s connecting with people in the heartland and singing their anthems.
“We’re trying to focus on quality over quantity with media this time,” he continued. “In our format, you want to talk to everybody, so it’s ‘here I go with a 10-minute phoner.’ For us to get the message out, sometimes you need longer. That goes with the evolution of showing other sides of an artist. Everything we’re focusing on with this record, from the music to the images to the interviews, has been ‘let’s do the unexpected.’ For example, rather than have lyrics or little snippets from each song on this album, Rodney wrote a page on the process of making this record — what he thought, how he felt, not specifically to the songs but on the overall body of the work, to let people a little bit inside of his world and into his thought process. People want to relate to artists. It humanizes both the artist and the listener. And there’s a realness when people look at Rodney. They want to connect the song with the music with the image."
But no matter how he adjusts his image or amps up his music, for Atkins it will always be about connecting with his fans. “I’m just low-key,” he said. “I get excited onstage, but if I walked in here being like that I’d feel like I was being fake. You just be yourself in the moment. I’m very much a thinker. Now you call it ADD, but I’m hyper-focused. I was that way even when I was little. I drive my wife crazy because she says I never talk. But I do, I just try to process things.
“If I didn’t have the outlet of playing live, I’d be frustrated a lot,” he added. “Music was definitely my savior. It’s a way of saying things that hopefully, because it’s in the form of music, it’ll stay around awhile. You have to take risks if you’re going to compete. Michael Jordan said, ‘I didn’t come here to be average.’ I love the challenge of being inside a song, writing a song, having a song that gets people excited about the music. It’s about finding those kinds of songs and fitting them into the landscape of Country Music. I’m very proud to sing Country Music, but the ultimate goal is finding what sets you apart.”
On the Web: www.RodneyAtkins.com
By Lorie Hollabaugh
© 2011 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Though he’s sold millions of albums, Rodney Atkins has endured some lag time between releases since signing to Curb Records back in the late ’90s. As a result, his image has become somewhat defined over time by his singles. This has been great for building a fan base, whose support has kept his batting average high for hit singles. But the flip side of this success is the tendency to get pigeonholed by the songs’ subject matter.
Atkins set out to change all that, with help initially from “Take a Back Road,” the first single and title cut from his fourth album, released Oct. 4. Written by Rhett Akins and Luke Laird, it’s a free-spirited tune about changing the scenery of your life. Though a bit of a departure from the subject matter addressed in some of his previous singles, it has struck a chord with fans, who made it the fastest-rising song of his career, averaging sales of around 40,000 copies a week after its August release.
“‘Take a Back Road’ is one of those songs that the first time I heard it, I thought, ‘Boy, that feels good,’” Atkins said. “It’s pretty catchy, something you want to just crank up. But then the more you hear it, you realize it’s not just a ditty. It’s about life. If you want it to be just summer ear candy, it can be that. But it’s also about getting right with your soul.”
The first single set the stage for the changes Atkins is pursuing in his music as well as his presentation. “I wanted this album to be different, and it is in that it’s got more edge on it,” he said. “It’s got a lot more dive-bombs. It’s a smaller band this time, which is why songs like ‘Back Road’ feel like they’re right in your face and not affected. And it’s a more soulful album. My last album, It’s America, didn’t talk enough about the real world. It lost some grit for me.”
For Atkins, a naturally shy, quiet, deep thinker who comes alive the moment he steps onstage, the challenge now is how to bring the grittier, real-world essence of his new songs to life. “The biggest thing in trying to do this is first of all to be authentic,” said his manager, Greg Hill, President, McGhee Entertainment Nashville. “That’s the most important thing for any artist. With that, nobody is one-dimensional. So how do you show other sides of an artist while still making people realize it’s authentic and real? For us, it’s also been about how do you let people see you evolving without totally disenfranchising your fan base? One of the most important things that come across any time you grow an artist and evolve is maintaining a connection with your core, but also how do you grow that core? And part of how you grow that core is to let people see more sides of you.”
In Atkins’ case specifically, Hill acknowledged that “we live in a world where people think of Rodney as a Country guy. But he’s not just that. He grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd as much as Merle Haggard and Charlie Daniels. We’re trying to play off of what people see live. It’s the energy, the aggression. Rodney jokes that he lets his shadow come out and play onstage. How do we get that across in music? How do you do the unexpected that’s still Rodney, the Rodney I know, that his friends know? Sometimes that’s about approaching it differently.”
“Evolving as an artist, I think that’s just a part of life,” Atkins reflected. “I don’t know if it has as much to do with being an artist as your life just changes. The way I have always tried to approach pretty much anything I’ve ever done is, I love to read up on people and watch people and how they become successful in what they do. You never have a chance if you don’t take a chance. I’ve been told the reasons things won’t work way more than why they will work. That goes back to Little League. My team was in last place. We wound up switching coaches, and the new coach was this coal miner that would show up in his pickup covered in coal dust and pick us up in the back of his pickup. He spent the time focusing on teaching us not only baseball and the little nuances that matter on the field, but also to not be afraid. He always talked about the three D’s: drive, discipline and determination. I learned a lot from him.”
Those lessons guided Atkins as he worked on Take a Back Road. He recorded several love songs for the album, including “Cabin in the Woods” (Jim Collins and David Lee Murphy), something he’d never done previously. And he took some chances on the marketing side, doing some unusual promotional photos and even appearing for the first time in a while without his signature baseball cap. Hill explains this all as being part of a campaign to present Atkins as a “broader person.”
“We want to let people keep seeing who he is, which is engaging, intelligent, funny and talented,” he continued. “We want to let people see how much time he takes in mixes. He’s very engaged in the creative process. There’s an artistic side to him that I don’t think people have seen yet. For Rodney, it’s not about being a star. He loves to make music. He’s an artist. He loves to have his music connect with people. And to get his perspective and his personality across is the point of all this.”
During one downtown shoot, for example, Atkins traded in his usual T-shirt, jeans and cap to show a different side, even crouching in a fountain with water spraying all over him. “If you’re a relatively normal human being, particularly a male, you don’t like having your picture taken,” Hill noted. “It’s going to make you feel uncomfortable, so we had to push Rodney outside of his comfort zone on that. It was important to get the sides that we know about him, that he’ll do for us when the camera isn’t around. If you only do photo shoots every two years on an album cycle, a change is going to be perceived as more shocking than if you are around it every day.”
“I almost didn’t want to do it because of the suit,” Atkins recalled. “They had me sitting in a fountain pond. It’s the most unnatural thing for a guy to be on the other side of the camera. If you see the Christmas pictures at our house, I’m probably in very few of them because I’m the one taking them. That’s normal. But Greg laid out pics one time of red carpets and then of me playing live. He said, ‘Did you see the look on your face at the red carpets? OK, now look at your face when you’re playing live.’ It was drastically different, so you’ve got to figure out how to deal with that stuff.”
It’s especially challenging to evolve the image of a particularly cerebral artist in a 10-second sound-bite world. “We’re not at the next level of where Rodney deserves to go,” Hill admitted. “We jokingly call Rodney a flyover artist, not unlike Tim (McGraw) or Kenny (Chesney), who Nashville for so long didn’t understand how they were connecting with Middle America. People in New York and L.A. understand the flashy cool, but they don’t realize that here’s a guy who’s connecting with people in the heartland and singing their anthems.
“We’re trying to focus on quality over quantity with media this time,” he continued. “In our format, you want to talk to everybody, so it’s ‘here I go with a 10-minute phoner.’ For us to get the message out, sometimes you need longer. That goes with the evolution of showing other sides of an artist. Everything we’re focusing on with this record, from the music to the images to the interviews, has been ‘let’s do the unexpected.’ For example, rather than have lyrics or little snippets from each song on this album, Rodney wrote a page on the process of making this record — what he thought, how he felt, not specifically to the songs but on the overall body of the work, to let people a little bit inside of his world and into his thought process. People want to relate to artists. It humanizes both the artist and the listener. And there’s a realness when people look at Rodney. They want to connect the song with the music with the image."
But no matter how he adjusts his image or amps up his music, for Atkins it will always be about connecting with his fans. “I’m just low-key,” he said. “I get excited onstage, but if I walked in here being like that I’d feel like I was being fake. You just be yourself in the moment. I’m very much a thinker. Now you call it ADD, but I’m hyper-focused. I was that way even when I was little. I drive my wife crazy because she says I never talk. But I do, I just try to process things.
“If I didn’t have the outlet of playing live, I’d be frustrated a lot,” he added. “Music was definitely my savior. It’s a way of saying things that hopefully, because it’s in the form of music, it’ll stay around awhile. You have to take risks if you’re going to compete. Michael Jordan said, ‘I didn’t come here to be average.’ I love the challenge of being inside a song, writing a song, having a song that gets people excited about the music. It’s about finding those kinds of songs and fitting them into the landscape of Country Music. I’m very proud to sing Country Music, but the ultimate goal is finding what sets you apart.”
On the Web: www.RodneyAtkins.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Crown Royal® and Country Music Star Rodney Atkins to Unveil Winner of Naming Rights to NASCAR Race
Fans to vote on NASCAR.com to select which of America's finest to take center stage at Richmond International Raceway
Before the green flag drops for the most celebrated race of the NASCAR season at Daytona International Speedway®, the racing world will be tuning into country music star Rodney Atkins to hear whose name will be splashed on the Richmond race this season. Today, the makers of Crown Royal Canadian whisky, a subsidiary of Diageo plc (NYSE: DEO), ask fans to visit NASCAR.com now until February 13th to decide which of five American heroes will receive naming rights to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, April 30th, 2011. All five finalists from various branches of the military have been selected to receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Daytona to attend a special performance where country music star Rodney Atkins will unveil the grand-prize winner. The finalists, in no specific order, are:
- Richard Coffland, U.S. Army & Army National Guard (retired), Grand Coulee, Wash.
- Matthew Hansen, U.S. Marine Corps, San Marcos, Calif.
- Casey Traxler, U.S. Army (retired), Mooresville, N.C.
- Cindy Shelton, U.S. Air Force (retired), San Antonio, Texas and
- Mark Brown, Knob Noster, Mo.
Atkins will use his award-winning vocals to unveil the winner of the Crown Royal "Your Name Here" 400 contest by incorporating the winner's name into one of his songs. Those in attendance of the event could hear the country crooner sing "It's a welcome home parade for Richard Coffland," or "Cindy Shelton grew up down by the railroad tracks," it will be a surprise until the performance.
The finalists were selected from nominations submitted by friends, family and fellow comrades that illustrated what makes them a hero. Their stories include a female trailblazer in the Air Force's information technology field, a twin who continues to serve even after his other half was killed in the line of duty, and a service member who selflessly protected members of his unit when their base was under attack. Fans of legal drinking age are encouraged to visit www.NASCAR.com/CrownRoyal to read a complete background on the finalists and to cast a vote. Voting ends Sunday, February 13th.
"Crown Royal has received such positive feedback from NASCAR fans on the 'Your Name Here' program over the years, so it is only fitting that we let the fans decide which American hero's name will appear on the race at Richmond," said Yvonne Briese, Crown Royal Brand Director. "Whether at home or overseas, this year's finalists have gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve their country, and are truly remarkable human beings. We're rolling out the "purple carpet" at Daytona to thank them for their service, and can't wait to see the grand-prize winner's face when Rodney Atkins sings their name."
Along with all the activities surrounding the race in Richmond and its sponsorship of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford Fusion, driven by 2009 Daytona 500 Champion Matt Kenseth, Crown Royal will continue to fully integrate its "Please Drink Responsibly" messaging into all of its NASCAR-themed initiatives, including its signature "Safe Rides Home" designated-driver event that has provided thousands of race fans rides home throughout the years.
"The partnership with Richmond International Raceway and Crown Royal's 'Your Name Here' contest has been a huge success and this year is going to be even better than ever," said Doug Fritz, president of Richmond International Raceway. "We look forward to continuing this great tradition by honoring another American hero at an exciting weekend at America's Premier Short Track, April 28-30."
The winner will be announced from Daytona on February 18th. In addition to Rodney Atkins, NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth and representatives from Crown Royal and Richmond International Raceway will be in attendance.
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