Music Essay: Rascal Flatts

Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney have scaled unbelievable heights in the eight years since their debut, and they find their fortunes still rising with their band Rascal Flatts. For proof, their CD's first #1 single, "Take Me There," their fastest-rising ever. They were the top-selling artist of 2006--in all genres of music. They scanned five million units, meaning that 1 of every 14 country CDs sold last year was a Rascal Flatts record. Their last CD, Me And My Gang, sold more than 721,000 copies in its first week, leading the band to become the top-selling artist in all of music, the first time in 15 years a country artist achieved that milestone. Their 2006 tour played to over 1 million fans in 74 cities, 61 of those appearances sellouts. Rascal Flatts has also become one of the most consistently awarded acts in history, with their 2007 ACM Vocal Group of the Year award, their fifth, tying them with all-time super-group Alabama for most consecutive wins in that category.
They are creating music that is both as exhilarating as it is distinctive, with high harmonies and feel-good grooves. They deal with the gamut of human emotion, and the cumulative feel of a Rascal Flatts record is life-affirming. Rolling Stones says “These buffett-style party boys know what makes them the biggest group alive: songs about trucks and songs about girls.” It is impossible to pinpoint just one element that makes Rascal Flatts' music so special. "We just really jelled because of our influences; pop, RandB, country, gospel, bluegrass roots," says Joe Don. "We've always liked to try to be different, even if we were just playing at some little dive," Jay explains. "When someone listens to Rascal Flatts, they're going to hear a lot of harmony, a lot of funkiness because we love to groove. It's so encouraging for us to see country music going more that direction." "We felt like Lyric Street really had a great grasp on the way that country music was going with SHeDAISY," Gary continues, "and from the beginning we felt like we wanted to be there because of that." And Lyric Street has the power of Disney behind them," adds Jay, "which is really exciting."Rascal Flatts is the perfect New Millennium group signed to the most forward-looking new label in Nashville. Rascal Flatts influences other country singers today to transcend beyond the genre of country and break barriers into other genres such as pop. Artists such as Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, and Gretchen Wilson have also accomplished what Rascal Flatts has done by appearing on radio stations that are not mainstream country, and rather play pop or hip-hop.
They were deeply influenced by musical family roots that stretch back to the beginnings of country music itself, and they were influenced by music-making parents and siblings that passed on the contemporary country influences of the latter part of the century. Gary and Jay were second cousins from a musical family. Jay took his voice and instrumental skills to Nashville in 1992, earning his first record deal as part of a Christian group called East to West. In 1997, he convinced a reluctant Gary to leave behind his job with the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and follow his musical dreams as well. Jay landed a gig in Chely Wright's band, and there he met Joe Don, who had begun his career in Picher, Oklahoma. Jay and Gary were working in a Printer's Alley nightclub, and when their part-time guitarist couldn't make it one night, so Jay invited Joe Don to sit in. They recorded some demos, which caught the favorable attention of Lyric Street Senior VP of A&R Doug Howard and led to musical history. Growing up in Picher, Oklahoma, Joe Don Rooney's musical influences first came from his brother and sisters. "They were all into music when I was growing up so I went through a lot of different musical genres," Joe Don explains. But he got his mainstream country experience in Grove, OK. "There was a show called the Grand Lake Opry, believe it or not. Kind of like the Grand Ole Opry. It was really cool. When I was nineteen I worked there and every month we'd have a Grand Ole Opry star from Nashville, like Porter Wagoner, Connie Smith and Merle Haggard, come down to sing and perform." Since, they have played the Opry, appeared on the soundtrack of CARS by recording the song “Life Is A Highway,” which became one of 2006’s most digitally downloaded tunes and also a multi-award nominated song. Most recently, they did a fiery cover of the Beatles' "Revolution" for the Evan Almighty soundtrack. All have settled into happy married life--Gary has two daughters, Brittany, 7, and Brooklyn, 3--and all are committed to sharing their good fortune. They also donate to charity, to name just one charity, they have donated $1.4 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. What Jay, Gary and Joe Don have done is add all their individual influences and creativity to a potent, new musical brew seasoned by all that made country music great in the 20th Century, yet is immediately as fresh and exciting as the 21st Century.



Fast Cars and Freedom by Rascal Flatts

Starin' at you takin' off your makeup
Wondering why you even put it on
I know you think you do but baby you don't need it
Wish that you could see what I see it when it's gone
I see a dust trail following an old red Nova
Baby blue eyes, your head on my shoulder

[Chorus:]
Wait, baby don't move, right there it is
T-shirt hanging off a Dogwood Branch
That river was cold but we gave love a chance
Yeah, yeah for me
You don't look a day over Fast Cars and Freedom
That sunset river bank first time feeling

Yeah, smile and shake your head as if you don't believe me
I'll just sit right here and let you take me back
I'm on that gravel road, look at me
On my way to pick you up you're standing on the front porch
Looking just like that remember that
I see a dust trail following an old red Nova
Baby blue eyes, your head on my shoulder

[Chorus]
I see a dust trail following an old red Nova
Baby blue eyes, your head on my shoulder
You don't look a day over Fast Cars and Freedom
That sunset river bank first time feeling