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Sunday, 25 September, 2011 6:50 PM
CMA New Artist Spotlight: 'Brett
Eldredge'
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Photo
credit: Kristin Barlowe
New
country artist Brett Eldredge
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| By
Bob Doerschuk |
| ©
2011 CMA Close Up News Service |
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Some people were born
Country. Brett Eldredge came to it a little late — but once
he got there, he dug in deep and made it his home.
Growing up in Paris,
Ill., Eldredge spent a lot of time hanging out at the local lake.
He played baseball, basketball and football in high school. He enjoyed
all music, especially big-band swing. Hearing Brooks & Dunn
when he was 16 put Country in the center of his map, but the full-blown
conversion didn’t occur until his sophomore year at Chicago’s
Elmhurst College, when he visited Nashville for the first time.
Eldredge went to the
Station Inn to hear his cousin Terry Eldridge, now a member of The
Grascals, with The Sidemen. Called to sit in, he sang “Amarillo
by Morning”; when he stepped down from the stage, his dreams,
his passion and his future had all transformed.
Transferring to Middle
Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Eldredge spent his spare
time going to songwriter circles and hooking up with other writers.
Two years after graduation, he found his break when Byron Gallimore
caught a performance. Soon afterwards, he became the first artist
signed to the newly revived Atlantic Records Nashville imprint.
Eldredge’s self-titled
debut, produced by Gallimore, connects a wide range of moods through
the excellence of his co-writing on 10 of 12 tracks as well as his
extraordinarily communicative vocals. His first single, “Raymond,”
exemplifies all that’s right in modern Country: Written by
Eldredge and Brad Crisler, it shares a deeply emotional narrative
with sensitivity and power. This quality persists in the evocative
small-town imagery of “Signs” (Eldredge, Bill Anderson
and Crisler) and every other moment created and captured here.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
MUSICAL HERO
“Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.”
PHRASE YOU SAY OVER
AND OVER
“That’s just one of them deals.”
FAVORITE MODE OF
TRANSPORTATION
“Nikes — I love to run.”
LUCKY CHARM
“Socks that don’t match — it’s a weird new
lucky charm I discovered after playing my first Grand Ole Opry show
in mismatched socks. It went great.”
TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“I’m Just as Surprised as You Are.”
On the Web: www.BrettEldredge.com
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