Eli Young band coming to Brady Theater for first time
BY JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2013
2/14/13 at 6:02 AM
Find out more about the country music group that will play Thursday in Tulsa.
Eli Young Band drummer Chris Thompson can honestly admit this might be the most excited he's been to play a Tulsa show in some time.
The Texas band has sold out multiple Cain's Ballroom shows over the years, headlined the Tulsa State Fair and reveled with thousands upon thousands of fans.
The group will play Thursday at the Brady Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m.
"We've played so many places there. This is our first time to play the Brady Theater, though," he said. "That's part of the excitement. It's cool to play a new venue."
Thompson remembers some of the early bar gigs here, oh, back around 2007. "It was our first Tulsa show. I threw out my back moving gear into the place. How could I forget that?" he said. "What made it so memorable was how cool people were. There might have been a dozen people? We ended up staying really late after the show, just hanging out around the bar."
The injury and low turnout didn't dampen his spirits, he said.
"That's one thing about us - we're optimists," he said.
Months later they came through again, playing Cain's Ballroom "and it was sold out," said the Americana country musician.
"Playing Tulsa at least once a year is always a highlight for us."
Formed in 2000, the band's earliest fans congregated in Oklahoma, he said. The Eli Young Band recently started ascending the ranks to fame, winning Song of the Year from the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2011 and Breakthrough Artists from the MusicRow Awards.
This year the band was nominated for its first Grammy, for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. The guys also played for "The Bachelor" Brad Womack, an Austin native and big fan of the band.
"We played the show because he wanted his favorite music there," Thompson said. "It was a little more nerve-wracking than a bar gig, but it was fun doing TV."
Its latest album, "Life at Best," dropped in 2011, but Thompson said he and bandmates Mike Eli, James Young and Jon Jones will release new music soon. They've been in the studio for three weeks already.
"We hope we'll have our first new single in a couple of months and the new album by early summer," he said.
"This will be all four of us working together. We're calling the shots on this album. It's very exciting. We're controlling our destiny."
Eli Young Band
When: Doors open 7 p.m., showtime 8 p.m. Thursday.
Where: Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady St.
Tickets: All ages. $28, plus fees, available at Reasor's and Starship Records & Tapes, tulsaworld.com/protix, tulsaworld.com/brady, and by phone at 918-582-7239 and 1-866-977-6849.
Original Print Headline: Eli's coming
Jennifer Chancellor 918-581-8346
jennifer.chancellor@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
The Eli Young Band will return to Tulsa. Courtesy
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