June 22, 2010
After a five year hiatus, Uncle Kracker returned to the scene late last year with a monster hit, 'Smile,' from his new album 'Happy Hour' ... and he's pretty much been grinning ever since. 'Smile' instantly became a huge pop hit, and quickly proved it had crossover power, as well, when it began to catch fire at country radio. No stranger to the country scene from his duet success with buddy Kenny Chesney, Uncle Kracker decided to take some previously-recorded alternate versions of the tunes from 'Happy Hour' and pour them out into a country "six pak" EP, 'Happy Hour: The South River Road Sessions,' for country fans who might just enjoy the down-home side of this D-town rocker.
And though he's Detroit born and raised, Uncle Kracker is finding he feels just as at home in Nashville and in the country genre these days as he does back in Kid Rock territory ... in fact, we may be seeing a lot more of him on the country charts in the near future. The Boot sat down with him during a mega-busy CMA Music Festival week to talk about the country metamorphosis of the new album, the pitfalls of the business and why he doesn't want his daughters following in his musical footsteps.
Why do you think so many artists are migrating into the country genre these days?
I hadn't seen it that much until I did that duet with Kenny Chesney ('When the Sun Goes Down') and it did so great and everybody was like, 'You should think about a country record.' And I had always thought about country, but it's a very tricky thing. Everybody and their brother was trying to come into Nashville and do a country thing. After the duet, it almost became like this fad, that all these pop artists were gonna come into Nashville and do this country thing. When you get to Tennessee, Nashville people are nice, and there are a lot of snakes, and they take that niceness and mistake it for being naive. So a lot of these people think they're gonna come out from L.A. and they're gonna take Nashville by storm ... and they're just fools! And I remember entertaining the idea of dabbling around with the country stuff after the Chesney thing and I thought, you know what, I've seen so many guys come through and try to do country records and just jump on the country bandwagon without giving it the respect it deserves. And I said to myself if I ever did something like that, you always have to pay respect to the people you need to pay respect to, not just in country music but in life. And I've always been a firm believer that with just the right idea, maybe further down the road I'll get there the right way.
Read the article here. Buy the record here.
June 21, 2010
"Happy Hour - The South River Road Sessions" is out now. If you haven't already heard, a few of the tracks on our site. Here is the tracklist:
1. Smile
2. Good To Be Me (feat. Kid Rock)
3. Me Again (feat. Jesse Lee)
4. I'm Not Leaving
5. Livin' The Dream
6. Letter To My Daughters
You can order the record right now here. What are you waiting for? Get this record!
Also, go see Uncle Kracker on tour this summer! Get tickets now.
Don't forget to check out Uncle Kracker's Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.
That's all for now.
June 18, 2010
Below are photos of Uncle Kracker performing at the CMA Music Festival on Sunday, June 13, 2010 in Nashville, TN.
Photos Credit: Frederick Breedon/Getty Images
June 17, 2010
That's right everyone. Uncle Kracker's brand new record "Happy Hour: The South River Road Sessions" is available Monday - one day earlier than expected. You can still pre-order it here. Enjoy.
June 16, 2010
Sixteen years after a group of country music's "Skynyrd Frynds" paid tribute to Southern rock heroes Lynyrd Skynyrd, another batch of artists is doing the same.
Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, Eric Church and Uncle Kracker are among those who have recorded tracks for "Sweet Home Alabama -- The Country Music Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd," which comes out July 20 exclusively at Wal-Mart. Produced primarily by Jay Joyce (Church, Miranda Lambert, Leann Rimes, Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights), the eight-track collection mixes an assortment of Skynyrd classics -- "Simple Man" by Houser, "Gimme Three Steps" by the Eli Young Band, "Call Me the Breeze" by Shooter Jennings, "Tuesday's Gone" by Randy Montana and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Joyce protege Ashley Ray -- with more obscure cuts such as "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" (Church), "Four Walls of Raiford" (Johnson) and "All I Can Do Is Write About It" by Uncle Kracker.
Read the whole article here.
June 15, 2010
Good. Then call your favorite radio station and request Uncle Kracker's "Good To Be Me" ft. Kid Rock!
KSTP - Minneapolis: 651-989-5795
WTIC - Hartford: 860-247-9696
KCIX - Boise: 208-376-5106
WPLJ - New York: 1-800-321-WPLJ
WDVD - Detroit: 313-298-9630
KPLZ - Seattle: 206 421-1015, 888 821-1015
WTMX - Chicago: 312-591-6800
WZPL - Indianapolis: 317-228-1099
Sirius/The Pulse: 1-877-50-PULSE
Q102 - Cincinnati: 513-749-2320
KJMY - Salt Lake: 801-908-1581
WKDD - Akron: 1-800-372-WKDD
KCDU - Monterey: 888-636-1017
WAHR - Huntsville: 256-534-9900
KVLY – McAllen: 1-888-691-1079
WINK - Ft. Myers: 1-800-473-9465 (WINK)
WRVE - Albany: 1-800-995-9783 (wrve)
WKBE - Albany: 518-615-1003
KCDA - Spokane: 509-241-1031
KUCD - Honolulu: 808-296-1019
KWYE - Fresno: 559-247-9101
KPEK - Albuquerque: 505-299-PEAK (7325)
KLLY - Bakersfield: 661-842-KLLY (5559)
WAYV - Atlantic City: 609-484-WAYV or 609-370-WAYV
KLTG - Corpus Christi: 361-882-5483
WGER - Saginaw: 989-754-1063
KVUU - Colorado Springs: 719-785-9999