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Sunday, 17 April, 2011 12:36 PM
Jason Aldean: His Kind of Party
(CMA)
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Photo
by James Minchin III
Jason
Aldean |
| By
Bob Doerschuk |
| ©
2011 CMA Close Up News Service |
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No matter how talented
you are and how much industry muscle you’ve got, it’s
never easy to reach the top in Country Music. But few young artists
have faced odds so long and yet come so far as Jason Aldean. Born
and raised near Macon, Ga., he absorbed the feel of red clay and
dirt roads, mixed in an appreciation for rock, rap and other diverse
influences and hammered it all together on regional gigs into a
potent and personal sound. Three years after graduating from high
school in 1995, he followed that timeless trail to Music City and
began looking for opportunity.
He came close a few times,
but several major record label deals fell through despite his persistent
efforts. Then destiny beckoned from Broken Bow Records (BBR). The
partnership ignited like a backwoods bonfire and shot both artist
and label onto the fast track. Three of his four albums, Jason Aldean,
My Kinda Party and Wide Open, were certified Platinum; a fourth,
Relentless, has gone Gold. The most recent, My Kinda Party, burst
from the gate in November, selling 193,000 units in its first week,
going Platinum in only 11 weeks, with the title track, written by
Brantley Gilbert, hitting No. 2 on Billboard and the corresponding
video topping the charts on CMT and GAC. By year’s end, Aldean
was named the No. 1 Male Country Artist and the Top Independent
Artist of the Year by Billboard.
There are many reasons
why the combination worked, but the most important is Aldean’s
no-nonsense presentation. His vocals combine expressive nuance with
a Southern-inflected conversational quality. His performances can
rock the biggest arenas yet feel as if he’s still working
the honky-tonk circuit, singing to party-goers a foot from the stage
or packed onto the dance floor.
Aldean understands and
embraces his appeal. His No. 1 singles, including “She’s
Country” (written by Danny Myrick and Bridgette Tatum) and
“Why” (Rodney Clawson, Vicky McGehee and John Rich),
as well as “Big Green Tractor” (Jim Collins and David
Lee Murphy), “Crazy Town” (Clawson and Brett Jones),
“Hick Town” (McGehee, Rich and Big Kenny) and his other
hits, draw from his personal history and, through his interpretation,
speak directly to, as Aldean put it in a recent press release, “the
kids who live in the sticks, drive pickup trucks, wear John Deere
hats and like their Country on the rockin’ side.”
That impression resonates
throughout My Kinda Party as well, from the raw but nostalgic imagery
conjured on “Tattoos on This Town” (Neil Thrasher, Wendell
Mobley and Michael Dulaney) and in the panoramic rap of “Dirt
Road Anthem” (Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford), the spacious
heartland hymn “Fly Over States” (Thrasher and Dulaney)
and even amidst soaring strings in his duet with Kelly Clarkson,
“Don’t You Wanna Stay” (Jason Sellers, Paul Jenkins
and Andy Gibson).
That demographic, though,
is growing and changing with the times, a fact that didn’t
slip past Aldean and his team. Their promotions for My Kinda Party
included autographed pre-release copies of the album sold exclusively
at www.JasonAldean.com;
his first-ever live video chat on his Web site, Facebook and Ustream;
as well as opportunities on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter for
fans to “check in” at concerts and retail locations
in hopes of winning an iPad loaded with the new album, digital gift
certificates and a complete Wrangler wardrobe.
“I think there’s
a stereotype that all those kids are still out there using rotary
phones,” Aldean explained. “These guys go out, they
spend money on their trucks, jacking them up and fixing them up.
But they’re as much up to date as anybody. Nowadays it’s
hard to find somebody that doesn’t have a computer or an iPhone
or some sort of Internet gadget. ‘High-tech rednecks,’
man — that’s the whole deal.”
They’re also a
big part of the consumer base targeted by BBR, Aldean’s management
at Spalding Entertainment and the distributors at RED. Their efforts
are apparently paying off, according to Rick Shedd, Senior VP of
Operations, BBR, who noted, “On our last album, the first
week’s percentage of full-album digital sales was 14 percent,
which was kind of average at the time. This time, we felt that should
be higher because of who Jason appeals to. With all the efforts
that everyone put into it and the growth in that market in general,
we boosted that up to 24 percent.”
These figures impress
even more, given the trimmed-down products in recent album charts.
But on My Kinda Party, brimming with 15 tracks, Aldean stands up
for the format. “I would hate to see it get away from artists
making full-length albums,” he stated. “Singles sales
are huge; I get it. But the coolest thing, when I was starting to
play music, was buying records and learning all those songs —
even the B-sides. To me, six songs is not an album. It’s something
I did when I was playing clubs, just to get a few songs out there
for people to hear, which we sold for 10 bucks at our shows. If
I go and buy an album that’s got six songs on it, I feel like
I’ve been ripped off. They can sell it to me for $5 all day,
but I still feel like I’m kind of getting cheated. So instead
of giving people less songs for the same or a little bit less money,
let’s give them twice as much for less money. Give them 15
songs and charge what we would for a 10-song album. People will
still go and buy an album if it’s something they want. For
us, it’s about figuring out how to get them interested in
doing that versus just buying the singles.”
Aldean’s plan is
simple: Make the best music you can and present it as the kind of
unified package that was essential to him as he was growing up.
On My Kinda Party, as on his earlier albums, his first step was
to go for a live feel by building the lineup of players on his touring
rhythm section. Guitarist Kurt Allison, bassist Tully Kennedy and
drummer Rich Redmond have been with Aldean since 2000, when his
producer Michael Knox recruited them at SIR (Studio Instrument Rentals)
Nashville to back different artists on showcase performances. They
ended up playing about 40 such auditions before BBR signed him,
after which they began their ongoing run as the bedrock of his band.
It also involves expanding
Aldean’s range a bit, while never losing his identity as an
artist. “We’ve been working together for 12 years, and
each album has brought him up a little bit,” said Knox, who
has produced all of Aldean’s albums to date. “People
might call it taking chances, but he’s just gotten more comfortable
to do more of his roots. That’s where ‘Dirt Road Anthem,’
‘My Kinda Party’ and even ‘Don’t You Wanna
Stay’ come into play. Jason’s feeling more comfortable
to pull these things off.”
That last track was performed
live by Aldean and Clarkson on the 2010 CMA Awards in November,
with immediate results in sales. “We hadn’t even gone
to radio with it and it went Top 30,” said Shedd. “We
had ‘My Kinda Party’ at No. 5 and ‘Don’t
You Wanna Stay’ at No. 28. It wasn’t one coming up and
the other coming down; it was two going up. Obviously, radio embraced
‘Don’t You Wanna Stay’ because of that great performance
on the CMAs.”
Sales may have also gotten
a boost from Aldean’s commitment to keep ticket prices low
for his “My Kinda Party Tour,” which kicked off in January
and features Eric Church and the JaneDear girls. The main incentive
was to give back to those who have supported him, based again on
what he remembers about living with tight budgets not so long ago.
But there are practical reasons too, boiling down to building long-term
fan loyalty and freeing up a little extra for souvenir purchases.
“When our first
daughter was born, for us to go and do anything as a family, you
had to be very conscious of that stuff,” he recalled. “If
we wanted to take her to the circus, it was a big expense. I’d
rather make my concerts affordable to where a husband and wife can
bring two or three kids and not worry about whether they’ll
make a house payment that month. To me, that’s how you make
fans long-term. You make it affordable for them to come. You blow
them away, whether it’s by the show or the production or the
opening act or all of it together. And hopefully they’ll keep
coming back.”
Achieving success has
also empowered Aldean to raise awareness for causes in which he
believes, including the fight to find a cure for breast cancer.
For five consecutive years he has designated one of his shows a
“Concert for the Cure,” with all proceeds donated to
Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In 2010, the event took place in October
at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Ind., with additional donations
accepted via a link on www.JasonAldean.com
as well as Aldean teaming with www.TicketsForCharity.com
to offer his fans special access to sold-out floor seats and other
great locations, with ticket sales benefitting the cause.
The hard times he and
his family weathered instilled a commitment in Aldean to share his
good luck. “Now, when I sing or talk, people are more apt
to listen than they might have been six years ago, when nobody knew
who I was,” he mused. “People want to listen. That can
be a powerful thing, and it’s our responsibility to use that
in the right way.”
On the Web:
www.JasonAldean.com
Photo
by James Minchin III
Jason
Aldean
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