Photo credit: Adam Taylor
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.
Released Dec. 4 on the Republic Nashville imprint, Here’s to the Good Times is a pastiche of prickling banjo, walloping back-beats 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
By Bob Doerschuk
© 2012 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Since the release of their album, Florida Georgia Line has been heating up the music scene – and just last week – earned the highest debut album sales of 2012 for a new Country artist with nearly 63,000 copies of Here's to the Good Times, entering the sales charts at #3 on the Billboard Country Albums and #10 on the Billboard Top 200.
Recently, FGL made their national television performance debut on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Watch them perform their Platinum-certified debut single, “Cruise,” via http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/wednesday-december-12-2012/1426796/(approx. 37:30 mark). This morning (12/13), they stopped by FOX & Friends to play the breakout smash, which has spent two consecutive weeks at #1 on Country radio charts and is the #1 best-selling single for Country this week.
After selling out every date on the CMT Tour with headliner Jake Owen over the last few months, FGL will hit the road again in January 2013 with Luke Bryan’s “Dirt Road Diaries Tour.” Their energetic stage presence and infectious lyrics have earned the attention of fans and Superstars – Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Jennifer Nettle’s (Sugarland) and Dierks Bentley – alike.
