The Oak Ridge Boys

The band was originally formed by another country band called Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers, who were booked to play a show at a nuclear research plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the staff and their families. The group went down so well that they were invited back time and time again, until the band decided to pay tribute to them and changed their name to The Oak Ridge Quartet. By 1947, this new, acapella incarnation group had made such a name for themselves that they had performed their first slot at the Grand Ole Opry, and been invited into the studio for album releases and radio sessions. However, this didn't stop every member of the band save for Fowler himself leaving in 1949 to set up their own group Curley Kinsey and the Tennessee Ridge Runners.

After hiring an existing vocal troupe, the Calvary Quartet, to carry on as The Oak Ridge Quartet, Fowler retired from the band in 1952, and then sold the rights to the name The Oak Ridge Quartet in 1957 to group member Smitty Gatlin. However, it wasn't until 1962, the change of their name to The Oak Ridge Boys their first album on Warner Bros. Records “With Sounds Of Nashville” that the band broke through into the mainstream. Ever since then, the irony of The Oak Ridge Boys has been that while the music has continued to stay pretty much the same over the course of their near-70 year history, the band's line up has shifted radically, with 32 separate singers coming and going over the course of their career.

Their lead singer, Duane Allen, has lead the band since 1966, however, in one of the greatest runs in the history of popular music, the band continues to delight audiences to this very day. For being one of the very few legendary acts that live up to their status time and time again, The Oak Ridge Boys come highly recommended.

It's safe to say that music is in Eric Paslay's blood. His grandfather and great uncles had played in a band together called Arnold Schiller & The Moonlight Serenaders in the very same city that Paslay grew up in, Temple, Texas, United States. Taking after them, Paslay started playing the guitar and writing songs when he was 15 years old, moving from his native Texas to Nashville, Tennessee a couple of years afterwards to attend college and to get a music career up and running. After studying everything he could concerning the music industry, he managed to secure an internship with Cal4 Entertainment, which was followed by a publishing deal with the same company, and then a full record deal with EMI Records Nashville in 2011. At around the same time, Paslay's profile was raised dramatically by the release of a song that he wrote called “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” as a single for fellow country singer Jake Owen.

The single was an enormous success, peaking at number one on the country charts. This feat was replicated by Paslay's collaborations with both Love and Theft (“Angel Eyes”) and the Eli Young Band (“Even If It Breaks Your Heart”), and without a solo hit to his name, Paslay was suddenly one of the brightest new hopes in Nashville. Come 2013, the solo hits came coming. “Friday Night” was his first bona-fide hit, hurtling into the top ten of the country singles chart and even charting in the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. His self-titled debut album followed in February 2014 and ever since then, Paslay has remained one of the most sure bets in modern country music. He's since collaborated with the likes of Rascal Flatts and Lady Antebellum, and looks set to follow in their footsteps out of Nashville and straight into the spotlight. Highly recommended.