Song:Young & Crazy
Album:Sunshine & Whiskey
Frankie Ballard broke through in a big way when he scored three top ten country music hit singles from his 2014 CD Sunshine & Whiskey. His new CD will be released next month. He was born Dec. 16, 1982 in Battle Creek, MI. He was good enough at baseball that he played at Western Michigan University. Meanwhile he got into music and started playing local clubs. He decided that music had more potential than baseball. In 2008, he entered Kenny Chesney's Next Big Star competition. He won in Michigan and opened local Chesney shows. Then he moved to Nashville and signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV Music. This led to a record deal with Warner Bros.' Reprise label and the release of his 2011 debut CD Frankie Ballard. It was produced by Michael Knox who discovered Jason Aldean. He is the son of Rock 'N' Roll legend Buddy Knox. The album did OK but there were no hit singles. For his 2014 CD Sunshine & Whiskey, Reprise Nashville was closed and Ballard was moved to Warner Bros. This probably meant he got a bigger promotion budget. He continued to work with Knox but he also worked with Scott Hendricks and his current producer Marshall Altman. He also produces Eric Paslay. It looks like Warners was looking for a producer who would really click with Ballard. The album sold a lot better and Young & Crazy was one of three top ten country music hits. The song was written by Nashville veterans Rhett Akins, Ashley Gorley and Shane McAnally. After his success as a recording artist in the 90s, Akins is now a very successful songwriter. Gorley has co-written several hits for Carrie Underwood. McAnally produces Kasey Musgraves. Ballard's other top ten country hits were Helluva Life and Sunshine & Whiskey. There are certainly several drinking songs on the album. Last year he toured with Florida Georgia Line. So that's the audience Warners is targeting. This approach continued when It All Started With A Beer was the first single from Ballard's new CD El Rio to be released on June 10. He is currently on tour and he will tour Europe in the fall. The praise for him is that he is an old school country singer. We'll see if he is distinctive enough to follow the success of Sunshine & Whiskey. Here's the video for Young & Crazy by Frankie Ballard.
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