Drew Baldridge has been around for quite some time now – he moved to Nashville about six years ago, after turning down an athletic scholarship to pursue his love of music, and has been playing in bars for about eight. Him and his band have put over a hundred thousand miles on the road, and yet, it still isn’t enough. Baldridge prides himself on his work ethic and how hard to strives to make it to the top. After the 2016 release of his album ‘Dirt On Us,’ he is back with a new single ‘Guns & Roses’ and more music, which he calls “funktry,” to come in 2018!
Baldridge’s new single, ‘Guns & Roses,’ is out now. With the release of this single, Drew decided to do something a little untraditional – he paired up with 1-800-FLOWERS as a promotional opportunity. As a way to celebrate the song, fans that purchased flowers through 1-800-FLOWERS would receive a 20% discount on flowers and gifts over $39.99 using Drew’s code. Fans were able to visit Drew’s page at the flower website to view his personal pick— a bouquet of one dozen roses in a silver embossed vase. The beautiful bouquet celebrates love like “rain and dancing, sand and ocean, dust and diamonds, guns and roses” – lyrics coming straight from his latest single! What a cool way to incorporate fans with his song! “I never thought that I’d have a Drew Baldridge bouquet of flowers, but here we are!” he laughed. “It’s cool when you have a song where you can do something fun like that with. 1-800-FLOWERS was amazing to us and worked well with the brand of the song. And girls love roses!!” The promotion helped the single and helped keep up the talk about Baldridge and his music positive.
Fans from around the country are taking highly to Drew’s single, which has made the process much easier for him. “Whenever you put out new music you always wonder how people are gonna take to it. It was really awesome to see their reaction to ‘Guns & Roses.’ It’s one of those songs that can relate to both guys and girls. It has a great story.” The song was written by Baldridge about him and his girlfriend! “We can be different but it somehow fits together perfectly.” Media outlets, like satellite radio, have been giving ‘Guns & Roses’ that edge on airplay – “satellite radio like Sirius XM ‘The Highway’ is starting to play it and all the new fans are getting exposed to the single, so it’s been great. We’re getting messages from people all over about hearing the song and asking us to come perform out there.”
While Drew released his album ‘Dirt On Us’ in 2016, he is ready to come back with more music in 2018. His focus on this album is to hone in on the flow of instruments and rhythm with something he likes to call “funktry.” The album is said to be more groove related with a little bit of funk-country. “We’re gonna have a couple songs on here that are real small town and down home country, because that’s me. But there’s gonna be those up-tempo, fun, groovy, kinda funktry songs on there.” Drew explained that he built his business by having fun on stage, dancing and sliding, and entertaining with his band. Currently, over half the album is done but there is no set date on the release. Taking time to make sure every song and instrument is right is what Drew’s main focus is at the moment – “you know, you have your whole life to write your first album, but your second album you only have a couple years.”
As far as the creation process goes, he said it is very different than that of his first album. “The way we’re producing it is very different, we have a new producer on this record. It’s taking a little bit longer because we want the songs to be cut the way we want them to be cut, but I know more of who I am now than I did two years ago. I know what I want to say as an artist, how I want it to sound, I know what the fans want to hear; so it all goes into account when I make a record.” ‘Dirt On Us’ took him five years to create, whereas the new album has only taken a few. The album has music styles compared to those of Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, and Josh Turner. The evolution of Drew Baldridge as an artist is forming and he is becoming the artist he wants to be. Pushing the boundaries of traditional country music is something that is happening on a regular basis. Fans are adapting to the pop, hip-hop, rock and now funk styles of country music and are enjoying it as if it were traditional country music – which is what Drew is trying to do.
He has two shows coming up with Scotty McCreery in Vermont and New York. Drew and his band are prepared to bring a ton of energy to the stage during their set – “we’re gonna bring it, that’s our goal. We like to play a little something for everybody, not just country music. We like to consider ourselves like a playlist on an ipod with songs from 90’s music to dance music to old time country. We try to make sure when you’re at one of our shows you’re not thinking about anything other than having a good time.” As far as any New England dates, Drew is not opposed! “We don’t have anything set yet, but I’m sure we’ll make a stop. I love the Mass area. I never thought Massachusetts was country, but man, y’all are country!! You guys know how to party!”
Check out his new single ‘Guns & Roses’ and be on the lookout for future music, tour dates, and his soon-to-be released album!