Champlain Valley Fair lands ACM Vocal Group of the Year
Old Dominion won the award April 15
Champlain Valley Fair didn’t know back in January, when they announced the first show in their lineup, that they would be presenting the Academy of Country Music Awards Vocal Group of the Year, Old Dominion.
Old Dominion won the ACM Vocal Group of the Year Award, competing with star artists including Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town, as well as new bands Midland and Lanco at the ACM Awards 53rd Ceremonies held on April 15, 2018.
The group will be performing on the Coca-cola Grandstand, kicking off the fair on August 24 at 7 p.m. with country music singer Michael Ray as the opening act. This came as great news for the fair.
Old Dominion is a five-member country music band formed in Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Matthew Ramsey (lead vocals), Trevor Rosen (guitar, keyboards), Whit Sellers (drums), Geoff Sprung (bass guitar), and Brad Tursi (guitar).
Their sound is contemporary country with rock instrumentation, and has pop overtones. Their 2017 album Happy Endings, which was also nominated for ACM Album of the Year, yielded two No. 1 singles with ‘No Such Thing as a Broken Heart’ and ‘Written in the Sand.’ Their new single, ‘Hotel Key,’ currently sits at No. 45 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and rising.
Old Dominion’s members Ramsey and Rosen are behind many of the songs you hear in country music today. During the past 10 years of writing, a number of their songs have been recorded and released by artists including The Band Perry, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Chris Young, and Craig Morgan.
At one point the Nashville-based group decided to personally deliver their music to the people. They signed a record deal with RCA Nashville in late February 2015. The band also opened for Kenny Chesney in his Big Revival Tour.
The band has so far released two fulllength albums and two EPS. They released their self-titled EP in 2014, followed in the next year by their debut studio album, Meat and Candy on RCA Records Nashville.
Meat and Candy included the singles ‘Break Up with Him,’ ‘Snapback,’ and ‘Song for Another Time.’ Their second album, Happy Endings, was released in 2017. The band chose the name Old Dominion in 2007. Old Dominion was selected because it is a nickname for the state of Virginia, and four members of the group have links to Virginia.
Ramsey and Sellers are both originally from the Roanoke region of Virginia, and played on drumlines for their respective, rival high schools, James River High School and Lord Botetourt High School.
After high school, Ramsey went to Virginia Commonwealth University and moved to Nashville after graduation to become a songwriter. He was introduced to Rosen in 2003 and formed a songwriting partnership for some years while working as a solo artist. Sellers went to James Madison University in Virginia where he met Sprung and Tursi. Sellers and Sprung also ended up in Nashville where they joined forces with Ramsey and formed Old Dominion. Tursi, who was once a member of the rock band Army of Me, joined the band in 2012.
Members of the band have writing credits on many songs recorded by other artists: Brad Tursi has written Luke Bryan’s ‘Light It Up,’ Cole Swindell’s ‘Remember Boys,’ and ‘Up,’ as well as Randy Houser’s ‘Whiskeysippi,’ Tyler Farr’s ‘A Guy Walks Into a Bar,’ and William Michael Morgan’s ‘I Met A Girl,’ just to name a few.
The group’s original purpose was to provide a showcase for the songs that its various members were creating. Tables have turned and now they are a band of accomplished songwriters and extremely talented instrumentalist, who chose to perform their own material.
Old Dominion has unapologetically been marching to its own creative beat for a while now. The guys can really rock a stage with their high-energy performance and their years of experience, both in the studio and on the road. It will be showcased on the stage of The Champlain Valley Fair.
You can reserve your tickets at the Flynn’s box office at 802-863-5966 or online at flynntix.org.
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