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A Canadian country singer/songwriter opening for Alan Jackson in Sudbury says he was "floored" when he was asked to be a part of Alan Jackson's cross-Canada tour.
Jackson plays Sudbury Community Arena tonight at 7.
"I couldn't believe it," Ryan Laird said. "He's like a living legend in country music so I had to tell my agent, 'Are you sure you got the right guy?' Of course, I was really excited and told them 'Yes, of course I want to do the tour with Alan.' "
Laird describes himself as a country pop-rock artist and says the songs he will be playing tonight are from his newest CD, including his latest single, Girl Crazy, as well as his Top 10 debut single last year, I'm Your Man.
Girl Crazy, a "summer-fun song," will be sent to country radio stations across Canada this week and the video will be out on CMT next week.
Laird says the single was actually the first song he wrote in Nashville.
"It came when I was out with my good friends and we were out one summer just having the best day of our lives right on the beach. There were lots of pretty looking girls hanging out around the beach and the title just came into my head and it turned into me going home and coming up with this fun, summer kind of song."
Laird just signed a record deal with On Ramp Records and EMI Music Canada, which will be releasing his latest album June 5 across Canada and the U.S.
Laird says he's excited about coming to Sudbury, since it will mark his first time playing in the Nickel Capital.
The 28-year-old has been touring for 15 years -- "I've been doing a fair bit of touring over the past couple years," including touring with George Canyon in Canada over the past year.
"I've got a rush right now, and I guess the butterflies are fluttering around a little bit, but I'm probably more excited than anything."
He says the audience can expect him to move around a lot while playing the guitar, as well as plenty of interaction with the crowd.
"I really like to share a piece of myself with the crowd, so I will be doing some storytelling and tell them about some of the inspirations and background of the songs."
His other dates include opening for Alan Jackson at the John Labatt Centre in London on April 20 and the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton on April 21. In Alberta, Laird will be touring with Emerson Drive and making appearances at the Casman Centre in Fort McMurray on May 11 and at the Slave Lake Field House in Slave Lake on May 12.
He will also be making appearances in the country music festivals in the summer as well as Countryfest in Dauphin, Man., on June 30.
Laird is from Fergus, Ont. Through his teens, Laird says he had a family band with his younger brother (drummer) and sister (keyboard).
His parents would drive the family band around and went across a lot of southern Ontario and "that's kinda where I put my musical chops together."
It was in his teens, while he was playing folk and pop music, that he realized he had a voice for country.
"I kept getting fan response and even friends and family saying, 'You know, you kinda got a voice for country music.' I started listening to what people were telling me and over the next few years, it grew on me."
He says the family band split up and from there, he pursued his musical career and ended up moving to Nashville at age 19 to pursue his country singing and songwriting aspirations.
In short, he says, country music "just took my life over."
With country music, it's really just about the song and "being a songwriter, that really hit home for me and now it's primarily all I listen to and play now and it's just a great genre and a lot fun."
After a few years living in Nashville, Laird wanted to get noticed as a musician, so he put up a big billboard in 2008, asking Taylor Swift if she would produce his album for him.
"It got a lot of media attention and Taylor herself took notice and checked out my music and endorsed it on E! News."
Talk shows led to his record deal, which led to the recording of his album.
"It's been sort of a long journey, but I've been trying to enjoy the ride along the way."
For more information on Laird, visit his website, www.ryanlaird.com
Recent News
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Alan Jackson isn’t what you’d call a showman.
He doesn’t fly off the stage and into the crowd like Keith Urban has been known to do. Nor does he levitate off the back of a pickup truck and circle her fans a couple of times like Carrie Underwood did the last time she stopped by Hamilton.
Jackson has a more relaxed approach.
Sure, there’s a high-tech video screen at the back of the stage, but even that is used mostly to show home videos — wife, kids, dear old dad, that sort of thing. (OK, there’s also that bug floating in a margarita and those girls in the shoestring bikinis ... but you hardly notice them.)
But, by and large, attending a Jackson concert is like going to a small town country barbecue, except in a hockey arena, of course, with 7,000 other friends.
It’s relaxed, easy going and a little slippery on the fingers. The seven members of Jackson’s superb band, The Strayhorns, are even free to sit down if they get overcome by the pace. These guys are just so good, they make all that pickin’ and fiddlin’ and pluckin’ seem easy.
Jackson is an old school country star, a traditionalist. He likes to let his songs do all the work. He’s got plenty of them, after all.
On Saturday night at Copps Coliseum, he served up 24 of them, almost all of them No. 1 hits. He could have kept on going, too. He’s put more than 50 songs in the Top 10.
“We’re gonna play songs about love and heartache and drinkin’ and dancing,” Jackson told the crowd, “all the things that make country music so good.”
There was no disagreement from the audience. They seemed to know every one of the songs by heart. Good Time, Small Town Southern Man, Country Boy, Drive, Don’t Rock the Jukebox, Remember When, Chattahoochee, Where I Come From, Mercury Blues, Little Bitty, Who’s Cheatin’ Who, I Don’t Even Know Your Name, It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, Where Were You? (When the World Stopped) and more.
Jackson, 53, is a giant of a man, with a big white hat to match, lumbering across the stage, making hand-to-hand contact with the fans, casually throwing out picks and T-shirts, while singing his hits with a golly-gee grin.
During his more than 20 years in the business, Jackson has carved out a unique place in country music. He’s a traditionalist who doesn’t mind crossing over into the main stream. He’s George Jones, Jimmy Buffett, Tom T. Hall and Hank Williams rolled into one.
Jackson has a new album due out in June, called Thirty Miles West. Judging from the first single — So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore — he plans to keep it traditional. He’ll serve up a few more songs about love and heartache and driving down the Dixie Highway, which cuts through his native Georgia.
And his fans will love him for it.
Opening the show was a young up-and-comer by the name of Ryan Laird, a native of Fergus. He’s got charm to spare, Keith Urban good looks, and a voice to match. Laird scored a hit on the Canadian country charts last year with a song called I’m Your Man, and has his first album set for release through EMI next month.
Saturday night’s show was by far Laird’s biggest to date, and he showed a lot of courage by choosing to come out solo, just himself, his guitar and a little looping gizmo he called “R2D2.”
There were a couple of missteps, but he managed to win over the crowd.
Laird is someone to keep your eye on.
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Singer-songwriter Ryan Laird performs at Sunshine Montessori school.
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A break from grinding it out in the country music trenches
FERGUS — Remember that skinny kid from Fergus who, a few years back, went down to Nashville at the age of 18, wrote a couple of hundred songs, published some of those songs and scraped together enough money to take out a billboard on Music Row in Nashville asking country star Taylor Swift to produce his album?
Remember that brash young man?
Still pretty skinny, with a mussed-up haircut and a penchant for plaid, Ryan Laird is now 27, has written many, many more songs, including a country chart climber or two, is touring around North America accompanied by his beloved Larrivée acoustic guitar that he bought years ago at a Guelph music shop, and he’s on a first-name basis with Swift.
With his single I’m Your Man breaking the top 10 in Canadian country charts in 2011, and with an album coming this year, Laird is back in the Centre Wellington-Guelph area for some rest and relaxation, and to share his insights about making it in music with local school kids.
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Ryan Laird's single "I'm Your Man" has been nominated for a CRMA in the "Country" category! Ryan co-presented the award in 2011 with Tara Oram.
The Canadian Radio Music Awards is pleased to announce the nominations for the 15th Annual edition. The awards, celebrating first-time top charting Canadian artists, will honour nominees across eight distinct categories during a gala luncheon at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto on Friday, March 23, 2012, 12:30pm.
This year's music categories include: Mainstream AC, Hot AC, Rock, CHR, Dance/Urban/Rhythmic, and Country. Nominees comprise artists who have hit the Canadian charts for the first time
and who have achieved top airplay in different formats based on radio "spins", as recorded by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) in 2011. Votes cast by program directors, music directors, and on-air personalities determine the winners.