NEW ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Florida Georgia Line
Tyler Hubbard
and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line.
Photo credit: Adam Taylor
By Bob Doerschuk
© 2012 CMA Close Up® News Service
/ Country Music Association®, Inc.
You don’t need to know that Tyler
Hubbard comes from Monroe, Ga., or that his partner in Florida Georgia Line, Brian
Kelley, comes from Ormond Beach, Fla. It’s the music that lets you know these
two guys know how to kick it in the studio and onstage, Dixie style.
Scheduled
to release Dec. 4 on the Republic Nashville imprint, Here’s to the Good
Times is a pastiche of prickling banjo, walloping backbeats and muscle guitar,
run through a blender of Country, Southern rock and a hint of hip-hop.
Hubbard
and Kelley coast over these grooves with upbeat vocals that pound their good-time
message home. Every measure of their first single, “Cruise,” suggests head-bobbing
and arm-waving. Written by Hubbard, Kelley, their producer Joey Moi, Chase Rice
and Jesse Rice, it opens with a harmonized vocal figure, which pops with the first
of several lyric hooks that made this one of the catchiest summer anthems of the
year. (The “Chevy with a lift-kit” lick midway through the chorus is a lethally
infectious secondary sing-along line.)
This first single from Here’s
to the Good Times pretty much defines Florida Georgia Line’s party-hard
feel. Even their song titles beckon listeners to join in on the fun: “Get Your
Shine On” (Rodney Clawson, Kelley, Hubbard and Chris Tompkins) builds through
a melodic fragment that rises, step by step, into another ear-worm chorus, this
one at a steady medium tempo. “Tip It Back” (Clawson, Hubbard and Kelley)
applies those three words to ball caps, long-necks and the seats in “your girlfriend’s
Cadillac.” With their smiling, deep-drawl delivery and relentlessly upbeat outlook,
who could resist invitations like these?
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
MUSICAL HERO
KELLEY: “Garth Brooks.” HUBBARD: “Lil Wayne.”
BOOK ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND
BOTH: “Bible.”
SONG YOU SING IN THE SHOWER
HUBBARD: “Whatever vocal my producer Joey Moi is making me practice.”
LUCKY CHARM
KELLEY: “It’s not a lucky charm, but I
wear a necklace my dad gave me when we signed our deal. I never take if off.”
MOMENT YOU’D LOVE TO RELIVE
BOTH: “The last year of our lives. It has been unreal.”
TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BOTH: “Enjoy the Ride.”
On the Web: FloridaGeorgiaLine.com
On Twitter: @FlaGaLine