Before Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan host next weekend's 50th Anniversary Academy of Country Music Awards from the Dallas Cowboys' 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, they'll be headlining Country Thunder. The four-day country music festival, Arizona's largest music event, Β kicks off Thursday in Florence. Here's one of the acts on the lineup: Love & Theft.
The new song by the Love and Theft duo β Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson β sings like a gospel:
βNo I ain't afraid if dying / But what scares me to death / Is meeting Jesus / With whiskey on my breath."
βThis guy was willing to give up everything in the world for his addiction, but no matter what he didnβt want to be drunk when he goes to heaven,β said Liles, who with Gunderson wrote all of the songs on the album. βI think itβs one of those songs that really means something. Itβs definitely the deepest song weβve put out. β¦ It kind of leads the way for the direction Eric and I are going for the future of our music.β
And what is that future? We chatted with him about the duoβs acoustic leaning on the album, coming to Country Thunder β they play closing day Sunday β and reuniting with their old buddy, Tucsonβs own DJ Du (Duhamel Cassell).
What is the future of your music? βItβs more traditional country. We actually co-produced this album with Josh Leo (Restless Heart, Alabama, Kathy Mattea). We wrote every song on it. β¦ His wheelhouse is right in there with more acoustic, vocal-driven groups, and thatβs kind of what weβre trying to lean more towards. That was always the goal. β¦ As weβre writing we are definitely writing more towards showcasing our harmonies, more longer melodies with our own country twist to it. β¦ This new album we actually didnβt put one electric guitar in the whole thing. I think that lets it breath and showcases our vocals, gives us room to breathe. Itβs an easy listening record.β
Whatβs it like from an artistβs perspective to do Country Thunder? βItβs really fun because itβs not like a tour where sometimes you feel a little monotonousβ¦ Itβs a little more fun to do this because thereβs a good chance that weβre going to know a bunch of the guys and girls playing that day and we can hang out. Itβs so hard to even hang out with all these other artists because we all have these different schedules and weβre all in these different towns on a different night. β¦ Itβs a little like summer camp with tour buses.β
After your set, do you hide out in the bus or join the fun? βOur buddy (DJ Du) is DJβing the after party. He toured with us all fall and he rode the bus with us and he is a great guy. And heβs actually hilarious. I have notes in my phone of some of his one-liners that he would say and I started saving them on my phone. Gosh, heβs got a heart of gold and heβs super talented. We love him.β
Can we expect to see you among the fans chomping on a giant turkey leg? βYeah, of course. We always do that. Eric and I are actually pretty game for everything. So thereβs a lot of times weβve hung out in the campsites, played beer pong or whatever.β
See related story in Thursday's Caliente.
