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Natalie Stovall and The Drive at Music in the City 2014

Natalie Stovall

Natalie StovallNote from Nashville Rocks: Natalie Stovall and the Drive appearing at Music In The City by Nashville Lifestyles Magazine. I’m so excited for Natalie, having worked with her in the past in another capacity. She is truly an amazing musician and worth going out to see. Check out this article and make sure to get your tickets to support this great band!

Natalie Stovall and The Drive

Show-stopping singer Natalie Stovall’s high-energy, take-no-prisoners live performances and relentless, barnstorming global tours have earned her the attention she deserves from those who matter the most to her — the fans. Natalie has been playing professionally since she was ten, and by the time she graduated high school she had already performed everywhere from the Grand Ole Opry to the Oprah Winfrey Show. And since she put her first band together in 2007 while studying at Berklee, things have really taken off as they are wrapping up their debut album with famed producer Paul Worley (Dixie Chicks/Lady Antebellum/Big & Rich).

Natalie Stovall Stovall, a Tennessee native, has amassed more than 200 dates each year across college campuses, clubs and military bases around the globe. In 2012, she won the coveted Campus Activities Magazine Entertainer of the Year Award, marking the first time a female performer has received the honor in more than 20 years. The Drive includes band members James Bavendam, Joel Dormer, Zach Morse and Miguel Cancino. Blending country/roots background with a strong rock sensibility, Natalie Stovall and the Drive’s fiddle-shredding shows are bred for wide audiences, and this year that mainstream popularity is paying off in a big way with a record deal and a new album on the way.

natalie Stoval and the driveKeep watching as we’ll be announcing each Music in the City artist over the next two weeks.

Get your tickets for the 2014 Music in the City showcase!

– See more at: http://nashvillelifestyles.com/entertainment/music-in-the-city-lineup-#.UrCrBywvSrY.email

 

Written By:  Nashville Lifestyles

Photographers:  Provided

– See more at: http://nashvillelifestyles.com/entertainment/music-in-the-city-lineup-#.UrCrBywvSrY.email


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Kayla Calabrese – New Artist Spotlight – CMA Close Up interview

kayla calabrese

Kayla CalabreseYou can thank the CVS drugstore chain for getting Kayla Calabrese excited about Country Music. After all, she was born in Pine Beach, N.J., far from the nearest ranch or honky-tonk. Her family is pure Italian-American. Though she definitely enjoyed singing, Calabrese grew up dreaming more of being a doctor than a Country crooner.

All of that changed when she and her mother took part in a scavenger hunt for tickets to a Martina McBride concert in Reading, Pa. Amazingly, they beat everyone else to the CVS pharmacy where the prize was hidden behind some greeting cards. With that, a new dream took shape.

At 17, Calabrese made the pilgrimage to Nashville. There, she earned a nursing degree from Belmont University, worked at Baptist Hospital and taught gymnastics. She also met Kent Wells, who mentored her as she began writing songs and produced her as she recorded her debut EP.

The self-titled results were released digitally by Go Time Records in September. As co-writer on all six tracks, Calabrese shows that she knows how to come up with a hook and, as a singer, drive it home. With McBride and Carrie Underwood evident among her influences, she shines against powerful instrumental backdrops.

On the power ballad “Kiss Me,” which she wrote with Tami Hinesh, the message rolls out over muscular guitar arpeggios. It’s Calabrese’s buoyant delivery that bats this single all the way from the Jersey shore into the heart of Country.

kayla calabreseIN HER OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO

“Martina McBride.”

ALBUM ON YOUR PLAYLIST

“Right now, it’s Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest.”

DREAM DUET PARTNERS

“Martina McBride and Idina Menzel.”

MOMENT YOU WISH YOU COULD RELIVE

“I don’t really believe in regrets. Everything happens for a reason. I am where I am today because of the decisions I have made.”

TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Believe. It’s my favorite word.”

On the Web: www.KaylaCalabrese.com

On Twitter: @KaylaCalabrese

 

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2014 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.


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BRENNEN LEIGH AND NOEL MCKAY – New Artist Spotlight – CMA Close Up

Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay

Brennen Leigh and Noel McKayBefore the World Was Made is a delicious mix: raw, retro Country plus sweet irony. That’s apparently the specialty of Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay, the Austin-based duo whose debut, on their B&N imprint, is hilarious, sentimental and profound, usually all at the same time.

Produced by Gurf Murlix, with only one of its 12 tracks penned by an outside writer, this album draws from Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams, the Louvin Brothers and, perhaps unconsciously, Nichols and May. Backed by a bare-bones band that consists of a drummer playing mainly snare, an acoustic bassist and occasional guests, they ponder love’s absurdities. A theme emerges in their titles alone. “Breaking Up Is Easy” is followed by “Breaking Up and Making Up Again,” in which McKay intones, “I forgot that you’re a bore,” and Leigh responds, “And I forgot how loud you snore,” both singing with a delightfully flat, deadpan delivery.

And who could resist the wisdom of “Let’s Go to Lubbock on Vacation,” which reasons that if they survive a week or so there, they’ll know they’re in love? Or “The Only Other Person in the Room,” a forlorn pickup song involving the last two folks in the honky-tonk at closing time?

But then they close with “Great Big Oldsmobile,” an unexpectedly touching pledge of lifelong adoration. “I’ll be deafer than a post and grayer than a ghost, but you’ll still steam my glasses up when you’re 92,” McKay promises — and we believe him.

For more on Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay, visit www.CMACloseUp.com.

Brennen Leigh and Noel McKayIN HER OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO

BRENNEN: “Jim Lauderdale.”

NOEL: “Guy Clark.”

ALBUM IN YOUR PLAYLIST

BOTH: “Guy Clark’s My Favorite Picture of You.”

DREAM DUET PARTNER

BRENNEN: “Melba Montgomery.”

NOEL: “I sing with my dream duet partner nearly every night.”

PET PEEVE

BRENNEN: “Everything.”

NOEL: “Tailgating.”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

BOTH: “Train!”

ACTOR WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A BIOPIC

BRENNEN: “Jackie Chan.”

NOEL: “Brigitte Bardot, of course.”

MOMENT YOU’D LOVE TO RELIVE

BRENNEN: “Getting to play mandolin and sing with Charlie Louvin.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD

NOEL: “Peanut butter and strawberry sandwiches that Brennen makes while I’m driving.”

On the Web: www.BrennenLeighAndNoelMcKay.com

On Twitter: @BrennenLeigh; @McKayNoel

 

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2013 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.