Brooks & Dunn 'Cowboy Town Tour' stops in Tampa
Article published on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 |
TAMPA - Brooks & Dunn, with special guests Rodney Atkins and James Otto, bring their "Cowboy Town Tour" to the Ford Amphitheatre on Friday, July 25, 7 p.m.
Reserve seat tickets are $58.50 and $33.75 for festival lawn. Tickets are available at the Ford Amphitheatre Box Office, online at www.livenation.com and all Ticketmaster locations. To charge by phone, call Ticketmaster at 727-898-2100 or 813-287-8844.
Brooks & Dunn, the highest selling duo in the history of country music, have sold more than 30 million records, have had 23 No. 1 hits with songs like “Brand New Man,” “Boot Scootin Boogie,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone,” “My Maria,” “Only In America” and “Red Dirt Road” and have won over 80 major industry awards.
Brooks & Dunn currently hold the record for number of awards won at both the ACM and the CMA Awards and continue to be a driving force in the music industry. Their latest album Cowboy Town was released in October 2007 and landed at No. 4 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. The record has spawned country hits "Proud of the House We Built" and "God Must Be Busy."
Despite what its title may suggest, the album is not about rodeo cowboys or the inhabitants of a mythical West. It is about anyone who gets up and stands tall after taking a hit. Anyone, in other words, who weathers the storm. It’s an attitude, Dunn says, that takes shape where “the Rolling Stones meet the cowboys out there across America and everywhere else.”
As always, Cowboy Town evokes the wide world as Brooks & Dunn see it. It’s a place where the hard times don’t discount the good times – in fact, the hard times make the good times that much more enjoyable.
“I love playing, singing and writing,” Brooks says simply. “The fact that I walk away from shows and people tell me what a great time they had, that gives me a lot of joy. We’re doing what we want to do and people are enjoying it, so I like to think that everybody’s winning.”
Rodney Atkins had delivered a world-class release with Honesty back in 2003, but even then he was searching for something that would bring his music home to his heart and his memory and his love for the people and the values that guide his life.
That’s what makes his new project different. The voice is still there, deep and strong, a little rough to the touch, like a fence in a field, but also tender and simmering with quiet feeling. It’s a voice that’s lived a bit since we last heard it.
That difference can be heard on the new album’s first single, the title track, “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before The Devil Even Knows)” his fourth No. 1 hit. He has also been nominated for six Academy of Country Music awards including “Top Male Vocalist” and “Album of the Year.”
Atkins understands that country music, the way it ought to be played, isn’t just about life – it is life.
“It’s about what people face every day. That’s what they want to hear in country music. And that’s what I draw on, what brought me here, every time I sing,” he said.
Standing an easy 6 feet 5 inches tall with a frame more akin to an NFL lineman than an entertainer, James Otto’s mere presence is enough to garner your attention. And his voice? Maybe even bigger.
John Rich of the country duo Big & Rich often introduces Otto as “The Biggest Voice in Country Music,” a claim few refute upon hearing him sing.
Currently riding high with his new album Sunset Man, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Charts, life wasn’t always so smoothduring the years leading up to his success. The saving grace during this difficult period became Otto’s association with MuzikMafia, the loose, music-first alliance of friends and creators that built a local and eventually national following. Otto became one of the group’s most respected musicians and performers, leading to a musical revival for him.
Touring and writing with his friends, Otto began to really evolve, immerse himself in songwriting, perfect his live performance skills, and hone in on the kind of music that reflected the musician he had become. Those lessons quickly find application on Sunset Man. Otto wrote nine of the 11 songs on the album, revealing his depth not only as a stand out vocalist, but also a seasoned writer.
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Article published on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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