The small ski town of Telluride, Colorado represents hard work, excitement, and passion, just as Nashville, Tennessee represents a breeding ground of determined, talented musicians of all genres. A new group from Nashville, TelluRide, is taking all of those ingredients to create a new brand of country music, rooted in harmonies, musicianship, and high-energy stage shows. The four young men who make up the band accomplished more before their Four Square Miles debut album release than most groups on their second or third album.
Four Square Miles is currently available from online retailers as a digital download. Rex Schnelle, who produced 11 of the 12 songs on the album, aptly recreated the energy from TelluRide's live shows and infused that energy into the project. The album not only showcases the band's vocal harmonies, but also the skilled musicianship of each member. The members of TelluRide are formally trained musicians and each plays on the entire album.
The band's debut single, "Pencil Marks," tells the story of a young boy growing up through the pencil marks on the wall. The touching song is striking a chord with country music fans across the country from radio stations in Seattle and Sacramento to Nashville and North Carolina. Written by TelluRide's lead singer Adam Craig, along with Dillon Dixon and Michael Howard, "Pencil Marks" has been listed as one of Play MPE's Top 5 downloads.
"This is a very personal song that I feel everyone can relate to," said Craig. "I'll never forget leaving my parents' house when I moved to Nashville and seeing the pencil marks on the walls of me growing up. I knew it was a song I had to write, and I'm excited about the response we're getting at radio."
TelluRide formed in 2006 when Washington state-natives Adam Craig, who also plays lead and rhythm guitar, his cousin/keyboard player Ryan Jones and drummer Brian Smith hooked up in Nashville with South Carolina-native, bassist Jimi Hendrix (his real name.) The band's name came not from the picturesque Colorado ski town, but from a Tim McGraw song of the same name.
"The song 'Telluride' is about a poor kid moving up to the mountains and working ski lodges," said Craig. "We really identified with the song growing up in the mountains in Washington."
Their strong work ethic, tight harmonies and stellar musicianship lead to opening gigs with the likes of LeAnn Rimes, Billy Ray Cyrus, Little Big Town, Lonestar, and others. The band has even opened for such legendary rock groups as Foreigner and REO Speedwagon. The band has developed a large and loyal following through constant touring and an active internet presence.
The group's infectious sound also caught the attention of thousands of fans, which helped launch the popularity of the band's "Phone Song." The video was accepted into the CMT.com Music City Madness 2 competition in the fall of 2007 and was voted into the top 8 out of 64 video's by the band's active and rapidly growing fan base.
In 2008, TelluRide appeared in Country Weekly magazine, performed the national anthem for NASCAR at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago White Sox, and the Country Music Association listed them as "the group to watch."
In addition, the band was invited to perform at a fundraiser for the Riley Children's Foundation, which supports the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. The Foundation was so impressed by the band's talent and caring attitude that they asked the group to write a song to be used for the Foundation's fund raising campaign for the hospital. Within days, "Hope Happens Here" was written and recorded, and the guys found themselves back in Indianapolis, performing the song for the Foundation's supporters, including Mayor Greg Ballard, Governor Mitch Daniels, and the owners of the Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis Colts. The powerful video is on the homepage of www.rileykids.org.
Ultimately, TelluRide knows that hard work and dedication to making and performing great music brings success. They've earned their successes one show and one song at a time. They love to play, they love to write, and they love to perform for fans. Most importantly, they love to be a part of a very new and unique brand of country music. Their infectious harmonies, catchy lyrics and driving grooves already have country music fans singing out loud.
And that makes quite a sound -- the sound of a band ready to make history.
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