The Eli Young Band is a bit of a rarity these days in country music, as they are an autonomous unit that has stayed together as a band for over a decade.
A lot of countries have acts of a singer or singing group, backed by several musicians hired hand coming and going from album to album and tour to tour. But that’s not the case with this group, which performs at Big Sandy Superstore Arena at 7 pm on Thursday, May 15 Jake Owen opening in his 55 – city “Golden Days “ Tour.
The Eli Young Band quartet known as the University of Texas around 2000. They built a local and then regional groups, producing some independent albums before being discovered by machine Music Nashville. His first major label album, 2011 “Life at Best”, scored two No. 1 hits with “Crazy Girl” and “Even if your heart breaks. ” Their second major label album, “10000 Towns, “was another No. 1 song “Drunk Last Night “.
Composed by Mike Eli, James Young, Jon Jones and Chris Thompson, the group began as an informal group of musicians who came together to play rock music, while at North Texas State University. Over time, and of course, the quartet took the next step and the long road to success was on.
“James, our guitarist, Jon, our bass player, and I met our freshman year of college, and Mike came one year after that,” Thompson said. “So, Jon, James and I were playing together just for fun and would play songs from Weezer and The Smashing Pumpkins and that sort of thing. So when Mike came to school, James and Mike began playing country songs together because James was a big fan country.
They went to cut some independent recording the songs they had written together. Because the three of us were stuck in the past, James and Mike asked Jon and me to play on that record.
Cut four songs in this type of basement, basically, in Texas, and each time James and Mike would play a show, Jon and I get on stage and play these four songs with them, and then going to play the rest of the acoustic set. A couple of months after that, we were a band and we were doing shows. ”
Once we were officially a working group and decided to go the route of country music, the Eli Young Band worked hard to build a fan base and create a reputation as a great live act.
“We had a regional audience in the South and Southwest,” Thompson said. “There is a music scene in Texas where kind of go in Oklahoma and Texas for life and have a decent life can be, and that’s what it is.
Had we done all that and wanted to get bigger and we had a song called “When It Rains” was getting some radio play across the country. But we do not have a record label or a promotional team or any of that stuff. Thus record labels started calling and in the end we took the meetings. ”
When single “Crazy Girl “by the band rose to the top of the charts, great things began to happen. That included found in one of the legendary stadium tours for Kenny Chesney summer.
“That was the coolest thing ever,” Thompson said. . “We had six months to think about it and talk about it we got the news that he was inviting us to go on tour and said: “Ah, this is great.
We will spend the summer in NFL stadiums playing in front of 60,000 people every night! “We talk a lot, but I do not think I ever really realized what we would be doing until the moment we stepped on stage at the first concert in Tampa.
We left at this stage of the stadium in the NFL, and I think 40,000 people were there at the time, and I remember it took me three songs just to get our bearings. We were like, ‘ Oh my God, this is really happening. ”
“It was the funniest books I’ve done,” continued Thompson. “Kenny is a great guy. Were really impressed because a lot of guys who ‘ve been touring with the stay on his bus all day , or fly and fly through the show and yes maybe a meet and greet and hang out a little.
But Kenny is there all day, every day, and would be hanging from the moment he got up until bedtime. For someone who is at that level and be accessible which is amazing. ”
When Eli Young Band got together to choose songs from their latest album, “10000 Towns,” trying to avoid being pressured by too many outside influences to make those decisions.
“It’s a democracy, surely a vote of four tracks in the band, and these days these arguments and discussions are the most serious we have as a band,” Thompson said. “We know we have built our group touring and playing live. That’s what we like to do.
So , if we choose a song we put on a record that is not what we write, or if it’s one we wrote , there the possibility that we will be playing this song live , every night for the rest of our lives.
Thus do not want to choose something that both of us cannot stand, or three of us or one of us we cannot bear. Seated, talk about it, we hear it, and then take it to the studio and get back with him and see what we can do with it. If you do not love him, is not enough. “