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Two of country music’s hottest young performers, Lee Brice and Chris Young, have teamed up for a string of co-headlining concert dates, which closes in Hawaii and includes a Castle Theater show in Kahului on Saturday. Young will also play a solo show on Friday.
Promoting his latest album, “I Don’t Dance,” Brice’s current single, “Drinking Class,” is currently climbing the charts, while Young’s latest single is “Lonely Eyes,” from his fourth studio album, “A.M.”
“Chris and I have been talking about touring together for a long time,” Brice told Rolling Stone Country. “He’s a blast to be on the road with, and I’m glad we were able to make this happen. We’re both pretty excited to get out there and see everyone – from New York to Hawaii.”
The duo previously performed together in 2013, when they opened Brad Paisley’s Beat This Summer tour.
“Lee and I had a blast when we were out with Brad,” Young told CMT News. “So we thought it would be great to join up for a co-headlining tour for our fans this winter.”
The country star who “stole the show” (USA Today) at last year’s Academy of Country Music Awards and won “Song of the Year,” Brice began his career as a Nashville song writer. His composition “More Than a Memory,” recorded by Garth Brooks, was the first single in the history of the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart to debut at No. 1.
The title track from Brice’s debut album, “Love Like Crazy,” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Country chart and set a record as the longest-charting song in that chart’s history.
In 2012, he topped his own success with “Hard 2 Love,” an album that went gold and featured three No. 1 singles, including “I Drive Your Truck,” which won “Song of the Year” at both the CMA and ACM Awards.
The hit song memorialized a U.S. Army soldier killed in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2006.
“The first time I heard it, it really broke me down,” Brice reported. “I had to listen to it over and over again.”
In 2014, he scored the year’s first platinum-selling country hit with the title track from his third album, “I Don’t Dance,” which was a gift for his wife on their wedding day.
His latest single, “Drinking Class,” is an anthemic salute to working-class Americans. “I wanted to pay tribute to the hard working men and women who get up every day and work hard to provide for their families,” he told Rolling Stone Country “It’s where I come from and where my heart is.”
Known for wining the “Nashville Star” singing competition in 2006, Young released his debut album the same year, which included the singles “Drinkin’ Me Lonely” and “You’re Gonna Love Me.”
Releasing his second studio album, “The Man I Want to Be,” in 2009, Young scored his first No. 1 country hit with “Getting You Home.” The album’s title track also went to No. 1.
Other songs on the album included a duet with Willie Nelson on “Rose in Paradise,” originally recorded by Waylon Jennings, and a cover of Tony Joe White’s “Rainy Night in Georgia.”
Young’s latest album, “A.M.,” has also been well received. Country Weekly praised: “The album really serves as a showcase for Chris’ soulful country voice, highlighted by his signature dips and growls. Few singers in today’s genre can match Chris as a pure vocalist, a notion that should be reinforced with ‘A.M.’ “
The album’s first single “Aw Naw,” quickly cracked the Top 20 on the country charts. “The biggest risk was leading with ‘Aw Naw’ as the first single,” Young reported in Country Weekly. “It’s a weird title, it’s up-tempo, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s a party song, whereas most of the singles I’ve released to radio were love songs. This is really different territory, and so far it looks like the right decision.”
Young most recently teamed with the Doobie Brothers singing on their “Southbound” album, rocking out on “China Grove.” “I was always such a huge fan of ‘China Grove’,” he told Classic Rock. “There’s just something about that chorus that just made you want to sing along with it.”
After their Hawaii shows, the two headliners will travel Down Under to play CMC Rocks, Australia’s biggest country festival, on a bill with Lady Antebellum, Big & Rich and Sugarland’s Kristian Bush.
“All of this talent in one show was phenomenal,” raved a Fuze Magazine review of their Syracuse opening tour concert. “The hits just kept coming. Chris Young sounded amazing live. His charismatic smile was infectious as he performed his hit songs ‘Getting You Home’ and ‘Tomorrow’ just to name a few. Lee Brice took the stage and it was all about the party with hit songs ‘Drinking Class and Parking Lot Party.’ “
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Our resident country icon Willie Nelson begins shooting a new movie this month at his Texas ranch. In the upcoming film, “Waiting for the Miracle to Come,” which also stars Charlotte Rampling, Nelson plays a retired vaudeville performer. The soundtrack will include a new song that was composed by U2’s Bono that Nelson will sing.
It’s being directed by Australian filmmaker Lian Lunson, who wrote and directed the 1997 documentary, “Willie Nelson: Down Home,” and she featured Bono in her 2005 documentary, “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man.”
In other Nelson news, he recently released the first album in his “Willie’s Stash” series, titled “December Day.” It’s a wonderful collaboration with his sister Bobbie Nelson, highlighting their guitar and piano playing, reprising many of his originals and covering favorites from Irving Berlin to Django Reinhardt.
Recorded at his home studio in Luck, Texas, the idea was to emulate the nightly jamming between the pair on Nelson’s tour bus.
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In other country music news, Kenny Chesney just released a new music video for his ballad “Wild Child,” which stars Maui musician Gretchen Rhodes.
The video was filmed on Maui with one of the signature songs on Chesney’s latest “The Big Revival” album. We see shots of the country star performing the song at sunset intercut with clips of Rhodes hiking, riding horses, surfing and skateboarding at locations from La Perouse lava fields and Hana’s Hamoa Beach to a Keanae waterfall and Kula meadows.
“It was extremely cool,” says Rhodes, whose starring role got a mention in Rolling Stone. “It was one of the best experiences of my life.”
Old friends since they hung out years back when she was living in the Virgin Islands, Rhodes was amazed when she got a call from Chesney to portray a free spirit in the video.
“The album has been out awhile and on a whim he thought about doing a video and wondered if I surfed,” she continues. “He wanted to represent the female character in the song. So he thought of me and called me up and we filmed for three days.”
Rhodes had previously worked with the country crooner when he invited her to sing the background vocals on his “Life on a Rock” album.
“We ran around with the same circle of friends on St. John, and we’d hang out whenever he came down,” she explains. “I sang on his last album on the song ‘Happy on the Hey Now’ about a friend who passed away.”
“Gretchen is as good as they come, has a voice that’ll stop you – and no matter what happens, she’s going to be making music, because that’s who she is,” Chesney has reported.
On Maui, Rhodes can occasionally be heard singing with Mick Fleetwood in variations of the Island Rumours Band.
She last performed at the legendary drummer’s restaurant on New Year’s Eve before Fleetwood headed out on tour.
But her primary musical passion is electronica. She’s currently excited about her work with the duo Embassy of Joy, a collaboration with DJ/producer Pio Marasco. She stars in her own new video for the cool, trancey tune “Addiction,” which was shot around the old Maui High School location on the north shore. The duo is working on an EP and will progress it to a full album.