![]() ![]() Producer Jamie Kenney (Marc Broussard) also worked with the band for two songs on Bloom. “Austin is a great city that takes care of musicians it helps foster ideas and creativity,” says McPherson. ![]() The players were joined in the studio by a longtime friend of McPherson’s, Dwight Baker (Brandi Carlile, Bob Schneider) he oversaw the project in his Austin studio. “Alpha Rev is a collective of musicians,” explains McPherson, “Once you join, you’re never really gone.” On Bloom, Alex Dunlap holds down the bass, while Brian Batch (violin, viola) and Dave Wiley (cello) serve as the band’s string section. ‘Lonely Man,’ is about losing your family from working too much and ‘When You Gonna Run,’ is about losing the ability to look good in front of somebody,” he says. “’Black Sky,’ is about dealing with losing everything you have from a fire. “The amount of pain they were in to be away from those they loved while their lives were at stake was incredible,” says McPherson. Love and death informs the heart-wrenching “Lexington,” based on actual historical love letters from Civil War soldiers to their wives and families. The shimmering, hymn-like “Sing Loud” – created with songwriter/producer Jamie Kenney (“He’s cut from the same stone I am,” says McPherson) – confronts a failing relationship, “But with the belief that you’re going to experience freedom again,” McPherson explains. Drawing from the wellspring of American history, the grandeur of its landscape, and life’s sweet and tragic mysteries, McPherson leans into his personal challenges as well as the wages of the 21st Century and emerges with a triumphant statement on the ways in which music can serve as a constant source of strength and inspiration. With a glistening rock sound that is at once fragile and tough, Bloom picks up threads from the past while it takes a big bite into the eternal here and now. Newest Alpha Rev addition Jeff Bryant rounds out the band, playing pedal steel, piano, organ, and bass. “Tabber means drummer boy in Arabic and his life revolves around this gift he has,” says McPherson. Rooted in lyrical wisdom, the more recent addition of drummer Tabber Millard-trained by master percussionists-is credited for the band’s contemporary tribal rhythms. “That growth comes across in the music the group is creating now,” he says. “Casey and I met when we were really young, and have been playing music with each other off and on over the past 13 years,” explains guitarist Zak Loy. “To bloom implies something beautiful is going to happen, but it’s a process-just like our own journeys,” says McPherson. Following the Triple A Radio success of New Morning (2010), the band’s third album Bloom (Maon Kirtland Records) is a set of personally transformative and redemptive songs, born in the spirit of creative expansion, and a mandate to blossom and grow. ![]() The light at the end of the tunnel, the first step toward revealing something that needs to be seen,” says singer-songwriter Casey McPherson of Alpha Rev. “I want the band to mark a moment in time, to celebrate the being of something new Rector’s songs have been featured on networks such as ABC, USA, Lifetime and MTV.īen Rector on Facebook | Ben Rector on Twitter | Official Website In a year and a half, the record went on to sell 15,000 albums, and over 60,000 singles independently. Rector released his third album Into The Morning in February 2010, and it quickly climbed to #5 and #10 on the iTunes Pop and Overall charts and #11 on Billboard Magazine’s Top Heatseekers chart. Following the release of Something Like This, Rector hit the road again, opening each night on NEEDTOBREATHE’s coast-to-coast “The Reckoning” tour. The record was the #1 Singer Songwriter album 5 minutes after its official release, and it climbed above Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter IV to the #4 spot on iTunes overall album charts, bested only by Lady Antebellum’s same-day release, Coldplay, and Adele. This rapid growth culminated in the release of Something Like This on September 13, 2011. Rector is no stranger to the road he has toured incessantly, rapidly growing a legion of fans and selling out most dates on his previous two headline tours. Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, Ben Rector, from Tulsa, Oklahoma is releasing his fourth album and is embarking on a headlining tour in 2013. ![]()
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