Catching up with Old Dominion before Beaver Creek concert
See them at Rocky Mtn Ski Fest Jan. 14
Last Word Features

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Formed in 2007, Old Dominion included a trio of established country songwriters in Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen and Brad Tursi, whose credits included songs recorded by Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Kelsea Ballerini and the Band Perry. Initially the band was meant to merely be a vehicle for performing their songs around Nashville.
The group members, however, discovered they could make money by playing shows outside of Nashville. More shows kept on happening and eventually the thought of getting signed as a band and recording albums as Old Dominion came around.
The band showcased for a variety of Nashville record labels, only to be turned down one after another as many of the labels viewed Old Dominion as songwriters and not as a band that would generate hits of their own and be a compelling live act. Finally, RCA Records signed Old Dominion in February 2015, but only after the band had independently released a self-titled EP that included a single, “Break Up with Him,” that gained some airplay on Sirius XM Radio.
It didn’t take long for Old Dominion to prove the early airplay was not a fluke. Shortly before the November 2015 release of the band’s RCA debut album, “Meat and Candy,” “Break Up with Him” completed its run as the album’s lead single to the top of “Billboard” magazine’s Country Airplay chart. “Meat and Candy” went on to produce two more hit tracks, the chart-topping “Song for Another Time” and “Snapback,” which reached No 2.
The band’s next two albums added five more No. 1 singles to the catalog, and along the way, Old Dominion began what is now a six-year string of winning Vocal Group of the Year at the ACM and CMA Awards.

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But there was a period during the pandemic when Old Dominion’s momentum stalled and life got difficult for the five band members.
The rebound that has followed began in September 2020, when the band members arrived at Echo Mountain Recording studio in Asheville, North Carolina, created a bubble in which to safely be together and set out to rekindle the creative spark.
The musicians agreed to convene with no songs in hand, start writing and see what happened. With no firm deadline to finish an album, the band members had time to explore various stylistic and sonic ideas for songs and the entire experience was less pressurized.
That was a very different way to approach an album project for Old Dominion. Before then, recording sessions were crammed in between stretches of touring. The sessions tended to be hectic, as the band tried to get as much work finished as possible at each session and keep the flow of new music going.
To their delight, Old Dominion emerged from the Asheville session with a finished album, “Time, Tequila & Therapy,” whose songs mostly have an easy-going blend of pop and country and an upbeat lyrical personality that reflects the spirit of the session.
“I think it was probably a product of us being together in that little three-week bubble and enjoying what we were doing,” Ramsey said of the album. “It was so much fun and it was honestly a dream that we’d always had, to be able to go into a studio with no songs and what we wrote and recorded is what you get. That seemed to be something that had eluded us (before) just because of our schedule. So we had the time and we were in a place of joy. I think that’s what you hear is a band just having a really good time together.”
The burst of creativity that began in Asheville has continued since, as the band rolled right into their next project. Four tunes were released in January 2023 on the EP, “Memory Lane (Sampler)” before getting folded into an 18-song album, “Memory Lane,” which was released in October 2023.
The band has since gone on to compile a 31-track collection, “Odies But Goodies,” made up of obscure tracks and fan favorite songs from their catalog, which was released in September.
With “Memory Lane” having given the band a top 5 single in the song “Memory Lane,” Old Dominion is back on the road, bringing out what Ramsey hopes will be a crowd-pleasing selection of songs.
“We have a really good problem of too many songs. And we have, thankfully, a lot of hits that fill the set. So of course, we want those in there,” Ramsey said of the set list. “And then we try to make space for new material and we have a few spots in our set where we try to make it interchangeable with some of the old material too, because we want to honor our fans with that. We keep track of socials and peoples’ requests and people bring signs, so we try to fit in what people want to hear in particular markets.”
What: Old Dominion & Edwin McCain’s Rocky Mountain Ski Fest
When:January 14, 7 p.m.
Where: Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek
Tickets and info: VilarPAC.org