Old Dominion finds new audience

When Old Dominion closes next week’s show at Midtown’s 300-capacity Smith’s Olde Bar, they’ll do so knowing that their next Atlanta audience will number in the tens of thousands. That’s not wishful thinking or some kind of practice in visualizing dreams into reality. The Nashville-based five-piece will hit Atlanta’s Georgia Dome as an opening act on the Kenny Chesney tour in June, exponentially increasing its audience as one of the first independent acts to ever snag billing on a major stadium tour.

“We’ve played so many empty bars in our lives,” says lead singer and guitarist Matthew Ramsey. “An audience, period, is a new thing for us.”

Old Dominion, which is comprised of Ramsey, guitarists Brad Tursi and Trevor Rosen (who also contributes vocals), bassist Geoff Sprung, and drummer Whit Sellers, didn’t start out expecting to play big venues. They originally came together strictly to showcase songs. All five members are writers, and the longtime friends gravitated toward Nashville to hone their craft in the city’s songwriting community. The five of them organized dates to play new songs for publishers, and Old Dominion just kind of happened.

“I needed a band to play some shows with, and they were my buddies so they did it,” says Ramsey, who had been a longtime fan of his bandmates’ music before Old Dominion. “The more we did that, the more people just kept saying, ‘Man, you guys really sound like a band.’ We finally looked around and were like, ‘You know, I think we are a band.’”

The band has penned plenty of big hits for country radio, from Craig Morgan’s “Wake Up Lovin’ You” to the Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two.” It put them on the map as songwriters, but Ramsey says it also brought a recognition to their live performances that he wasn’t necessarily expecting.

“A lot of bands in our position have to rely on playing cover songs to keep people’s attention, and we’ve been pretty lucky that our cover songs are the songs we wrote,” he says. “It’s really a good moment: You can see a crowd kinda go, ‘Wait a minute, they wrote this too?’ And then they start paying attention, and they start realizing that we’re something that they should listen to.”

Old Dominion’s latest release, a self-titled five-song EP, captures a live show that focuses on feeding audiences hungry for a good time rather than sustaining their own egos. It was recorded with minimal production, and listening to tracks like “Shut Me Up” are a strong indicator not only of their songwriting prowess, but their performance chops. The EP was produced by hit maker Shane McAnally, whose friendship and songwriting relationship with the guys of Old Dominion predates colossal success working with artists like Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, and Chesney.

“When you’re in a room with him as a writer, it’s very clear that he has something in his head that’s different than anyone else. He’s creating what’s cool somehow — he’s got his own style that cannot be taught. As a producer, he has the same thing,” Ramsey said. “He’s like another member of the band in there with us; it’s not just some guy who’s telling you that this is what you need to sound like.”

As effusive as Ramsey is about his peers, from other artists and songwriters to producers and managers, he’s also quick to articulate the impact fan loyalty has on up-and-coming bands in the country music.

“The country genre in itself is changing so much; all other genres are kind of blending into it. But the thing about it is that the fans love country music — they love all country music. If a country concert comes to town, they go to it,” notes Ramsey. “There are people who have a favorite rock band. And they go see that rock band, but they don’t necessarily go see every rock band that comes to town. With country, it’s more of a community than just solo artists out there.”

That kind of steadfast fandom within the genre allows established artists to really lift up the rising talent they respect. Adding an independent act like Old Dominion on a big-ticket country tour feels less about selling tickets and more about selling fans on their next favorite artist.

“It’s the ultimate validation, as a songwriter, to be on stage and singing something you created and having those people sing back to you,” says Ramsey. “There are a lot of points where other people believe in you more than you do yourself, so it kind of takes that — people showing you that you can really do this.”