NEW ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Sundy Best
By
Bob Doerschuk
© 2013 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
They come
from Appalachia. Their friendship dates back to elementary school. Their voices
blend like bourbon and soda. Listening to their debut album on eOne Music, Door Without a
Screen, produced by Coleman Saunders and released Aug. 2, you get the feeling
that Kris Bentley and Nick Jamerson were born to make music together.
Apparently
they were also destined to represent their beloved home state to the world through
their songs. Co-writing every track, they visit the theme of Kentucky’s wonders
repeatedly, always with a twinge of nostalgia but also from a variety of perspectives.
“Home” captures the ache of a country boy stuck in the city, with only memories
of running “barefoot up a holler, in the shadows of the pines.” “Mountain
Parkway” is a panorama of images seen through the windows during a cruise through
their backwoods paradise. Then, on “Prestonsburg,” the very first lyrics declare,
“I just got off the parkway,” and this time the singer is back home, where
he — and maybe all of us — belong.
What else do Bentley and Jamerson share?
Each began singing in church as kids; aside from a short-lived Christian rock
band, that was their only musical outlet for years. Both were active in sports
through high school and college — Bentley played basketball, Jamerson excelled
at football. They enjoy shifting tempos to underscore different parts of songs.
And they love acoustic textures. From scratchy banjos to sad or stompin’ fiddles,
their music sounds the way a weather-worn barn looks — rough, sweet and tactile,
all at the same time.
For more on Sundy Best, visit www.CMACloseUp.com.
IN
THEIR OWN WORDS
MUSICAL HERO
BOTH: “Tom
Petty or Bob Seger. Chris Stapleton – fellow East Kentuckian – is a beast too!”
DREAM
DUET PARTNER
BOTH: “Female – Sheryl Crow. Male – Chris Stapleton.”
PHRASE
YOU SAY OVER AND OVER
BOTH: “Do what?”
FAVORITE
MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
BOTH: “Roller blades.”
PET PEEVE
BOTH: “Bad grammar.”
FIRST GIG
BOTH: “Pikeville,
Ken., at a bar called Champs. We drank beer for three hours before it started.
They told us it went great.”
On the Web: www.SundyBest.net
On Twitter: @SundyBest