Chris Young brings his biggest tour to Tucson's AVA at Casino del Sol

By Cathalena E. Burch

Chris Young, who is touring under his latest album, “Raised on Country,” will play a show at Casino del Sol’s AVA, Sunday.

Country singer Chris Young is about to drop what he believes is his best record to date.

“It’s definitely an album that I think is really, really special,” he said from his home in Tennessee during a call to talk about his show at the AVA at Casino del Sol on Sunday, July 7. “It is top to bottom one of the best records I ever made.”

“Raised on Country” already has produced a Top 10 hit of the cover song and a viral moment in June that could land him his 12th No. 1 hit in a career that goes back a dozen years to 2006.

It happened in mid-June when he debuted the heart-tugging song “Drowning” during an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. When he got to the chorus — “So I’m gonna pull out pictures, ones with you in ‘em / Laugh and cry a little while reminiscing by myself / I can’t help that all I think about is / How you were taken way too soon” — he held back tears and stepped away from the mic. It took him a few moments to regain his composure and finish the song.

The reaction from the Opry crowd prompted Young to release the single two days later. During that next week, “Drowning” was streamed 1.2 million times.

The song, inspired by Young’s lifelong friend Adam who died in a car accident several years ago, struck a chord with fans.

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“I have had so many people online or in person tell me hey this reminds me of my dad that I lost or one of my friends that I lost,” he said. “It’s a cathartic thing but also it’s not all sad. Sometimes it’s them remembering that person, which is what it was when I wrote it remembering a friend that I lost.”

“(Adam) was one of my best friends,” Young added, then chuckled. “We actually had a lot of people convinced we were actually related, that we were brothers because we hung around so much. He died in a tragic car accident. No warning. One day you have one of your best friends in the world there and the next day they’re gone.”

“Drowning” debuted last week at No. 18 on Billboard’s Hot Country Hits and will likely be one of the highlights of the AVA concert, which is part of Young’s “Raised On Country” tour. The tour, which he took to Europe earlier this year, will criss-cross the country through September.

“The last couple years especially have been huge for me and my career,” said 34-year-old Young. “Graduating from last year doing arenas and the year before that doing small arenas and now being in amphitheaters, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Young has been a regular on Tucson stages since he won “Nashville Star” and launched his career on a national level in 2006. We’ve seen him most often at Desert Diamond Casino and last October he headlined the Oro Valley Music Festival on a dreary rainy day that kept half the audience away.

“I’m really excited to be coming back there,” he said, hinting that this will be the most elaborate stage show we’ve seen from him. “Everything’s changed. We went and started from scratch this year and that goes not only for content but every single piece that’s on stage — the video walls, the structure of things, the setlist — everything top to bottom has changed this year.”

“Raised On Country” includes guest appearances by Kane Brown, Lauren Alaina, and Reilly Green and Brad Paisley, who joined Young on a cover of the classic “I Like Beer.”

“There are a lot of songs like ‘Drowning’ or ‘Raised on Country’ that are topically stuff that I have not written exactly that way before and things that maybe I haven’t touched on, which is strange because this will be my eighth record,” he said. “It’s just something I think people will dig into and love. I love it so I hope everyone else does.”