Phil had the pleasure of being the sole man on the stage with a set of unbelievably talented country music ladies at The Fillmore for the “Girls with Guitars and a Piano Man” benefit show. Check out his version of “I’m Alright” below. That crowd sounded good!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Will this song be on your V-Day playlist? Have a great day!
Check out the article below from Country Music Is Love to see who Phil and other country stars are picking to win this years Super Bowl!
Super Bowl XLVI is upon us, with the New England Patriots squaring off against the New York Giants this Sunday in Indianapolis, IN. There is plenty of country music to go along with the NFL’s biggest event… Dierks Bentley and Darius Rucker are performing at the Super Bowl village, Carrie Underwood‘s “CMT Crossroads” with Steven Tyler will air from the Super Bowl Fan Jam the night before the championship game, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton will kick-off the Super Bowl broadcast by singing “America the Beautiful,” Jennifer Nettles has her very own Pepsi Max commercial that will air during the game, and season two of “The Voice,” which features Blake Shelton as a judge, will premiere immediately following the Super Bowl.
With all of the excitement surrounding the big game and the country music connections, we wanted to see who country stars were rooting for to take home the Super Bowl trophy.
For some, it was a simple answer. ”Pats by 4!,” Clay from Zac Brown Band tells CountryMusicIsLove. Shawnna Thompson, of husband-and-wife duo Thompson Sqaure, agreed with Clay, predicting “Patriots!.” Her husband, Kiefer, wisely agreed with his wife, nodding, “Yeah, got to go with the Patriots.” Jessie James also says “Patriots,” putting her faith in the AFC Champs.
For Phil Vassar, it wasn’t such an easy selection but he also picks the Pats to win what he expects will be a very good game. ”Gotta go with the Patriots. Tough call though. Brady is a machine,” he tells us.
Avid football fan Colt Ford flipped to the other side of the pigskin making his selection, saying that the Giants will be Super Bowl champs come Sunday night. ”I think the Giants are gonna win. You have two of the best quarterbacks in the game but I just think the Giants defense is better. This should be a great game if you are a football fan!”
For some, their choices are personal. JT Hodges isn’t rooting for the Patriots or Giants, his only concern is how the outcome will affect the history of his beloved Dallas Cowboys. ”The Patriots will probably get their revenge, but I don’t necessarily want either team to win because it gets them one ring closer to the Cowboys,” he tells us. Fellow country newcomer Frankie Ballard also made his pick personal, telling CMIL “Since my Detroit Lions couldn’t pull through, I’m gonna have to go with Tom Brady and the Patriots because he went to [my home state college] Michigan!”
All-girl group Carter’s Chord gave us the most neutral answer, with Emily telling us “the New England Patriots will win,” Becky picking the New York Giants, and Joanna, who never watches football, picking “The Bears!”
For newcomer Casey James, it’s not exactly who made the Super Bowl, it’s who didn’t. “Do I have to pick one of those?,” James tells CountryMusicIsLove. “You know what? The real truth is I’m not really a fan of either of those teams. I always feel my Cowboys are one step away from being there, but they can’t ever get their crap together, so it’s kinda, kinda maddening to talk about it.”
Like James, sports guru David Nail isn’t picking a winner… well, at least he’s not sharing his pick. David learned the hard way that it’s best if he stays neutral. “I have learned through Twitter not to pick a team because someone is gonna get extremely mad at me,” Nail tells us. “I’ll say this… it’s gonna be a great game. It’s definitely those two teams who I was rooting for just ‘cause I think there’s so much to talk about: it’s a re-match, Brady against the Giants who beat ‘em the last time they were in the Super Bowl, then obviously Eli getting to play in his brother Peyton’s stadium, so I definitely think there’s a lot of great stories about it, [but] I’m gonna plead the fifth!”
So there you have it… some country stars are in favor of the Pats, some are in favor of the Giants, and some are just staying out of it! Tell us, who are you rooting for in this weekend’s big game… Patriots, Giants, or like Joanna from Carter’s Chord, are you oblivious when it comes to football?!
For the original article from Country Music Is Love, click HERE!
Earlier this week, Phil stopped by The Franklin Theatre for a benefit show for the Bridges Domestic Violence Center. It was an amazing night not only because it was for such a special cause but that Phil got to share the stage with one of his heroes, fellow songwriter Mike Reid. What a night!
Phil Vassar is no stranger to country radio or their legions of listeners, as he has topped the country charts on numerous occasions both as a writer and artist. And now, his latest single, “Don’t Miss Your Life,” is exploding at country radio, Facebook and Twitter even before it has been officially released.
“I wrote this song on a plane recently, when I was really missing my family and especially my two daughters,” said Phil. “The response we’re receiving from country radio and from fans has been absolutely incredible. I am always amazed when a song touches people like this.”
Phil finished the song with his frequent co-writer, Charlie Black, and shared it with his Rodeowave Entertainment team. A rough mix was played for Nashville’s WSIX-FM, who gave it a test spin on the air. Phones immediately blew up, and the WSIX Facebook page was overwhelmed with comments from fans who identified with the song.
“Don’t Miss Your Life” was shipped to radio late last week, and similar comments started pouring in from across the country. The single debuted at #1 on Play MPE’s Top 5 Download and Top 5 Streaming charts this week. The single can be heard at www.PhilVassar.com and is currently available at iTunes.
Nate Deaton at KRTY/San Jose says: “This is not the best Phil Vassar song I have heard in a while, it is the best song I have heard in a while. The response from listeners has been exactly that.” Jeff Whitehead, PD of WQBE in Charleston, WV adds: “The first time I listened to ‘Don’t Miss Your Life’ my life flashed before my eyes. It brought me to tears. It does exactly what a ‘Country Song’ is suppose to do; absolutely INCREDIBLE! The best song Phil’s ever recorded.” Scott Donato, PD at WGTY/York, PA concurs: “Phil has written some of the best songs of our generation, but this might be his best yet. It is IMPOSSIBLE not to be moved by this song. Simply put, it’s the kind of song that makes me proud to be associated with country music.” Comments on Phil’s Twitter and Facebook echoed similar enthusiasm.
Music Row Magazine’s crack reviewer Robert K. Oermann had this to say about the new single: “Vassar continues to make music as powerfully as ever. His new ballad is the latest take on the businessman who is too busy to enjoy his children growing up. An older man points him in the right direction. This pushes all the right emotional buttons. I’m in.”
The single will officially go for adds at radio on February 13, 2012, and a music video is in the works.
Phil is returning to his native Lynchburg, Virginia to play two concerts for the Fourth Annual Phil Vassar Benefit Concert for Miller Home for Girls on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 and Thursday, April 5, 2012. The first concert is an exclusive acoustic event at Tresca on 8th with tickets set at $100.00 each or $500.00 for six. Tickets for Thursday night’s concert at Phase 2 are $32.00 or $60.00 for VIP.
Phil is donating 100% of the proceeds from both concerts to Miller Home, a safe haven for young girls ages four to twenty-one. Miller Home survives solely on private funding, and ticket purchases will help offset operating expenses and various programs offered to the residents.
“Miller Home has been near and dear to my heart for many years, because they do so many great things to help young women,” Phil states. “I can’t wait to get home to play some music and support this wonderful organization.”
Tickets are currently on sale for the April 5th show, and tickets for the April 4th Acoustic Show go on sale February 6, 2012. All tickets can be purchased at Miller Home of Lynchburg, 2134 Westerly Drive or by calling 434-845-0241 during regular business hours.
CMT.com recently sat down with Phil to discuss his new Christmas album, NOEL! Give it a read below or at the original article here.
How’s this for a Christmas miracle? Phil Vassar recorded his new holiday album, Noel, in a single day! Even so, it still sounds as vibrant and full-blown as if Santa himself had handled quality control.
Noel succeeds in striking a balance between the somber and festive aspects of the holiday via a song list that ranges from “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “What Child Is This” to “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas” and the uproarious “Santa’s Gone Hollywood.”
Included as well are the standards “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Merry Christmas Darling.”
Vassar co-produced the project with longtime friend Dane Bryant. It was the first time the two had worked together, he says, since their student days at James Madison University.
Prior to making Noel, the only Christmas music Vassar had recorded was “Let’s Make a Little Christmas Tonight,” a song that appeared on an anthology of holiday tunes released by his former label, Arista Nashville. He rerecorded it for the new album.
“Honestly, I got the record together in about two or three weeks,” Vassar explains. “I called Dane and said, ‘I’ve got a one-week window in September. Have you got a couple of days off? Let’s do it.’ And he said, ‘OK.’
“We got together and started going over some cover songs. And then we had this little musical idea, which is the first song [on the album], ‘Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas Without You.’ He started doodling around on it, and I put it on my iPhone and wrote the words to it on a plane the next day.
“‘Big Ol’ Texas Christmas’ and ‘Santa’s Gone Hollywood’ we wrote right before the record. Juli [Cole] and I had written ‘Let’s Make a Little Christmas Tonight’ a few years back. We needed one more [song]. So I wrote ‘I Saved Christmas’ the day before we cut the record.
“We cut it all in the studio in one day. I sang all the songs the same day. I didn’t have to do overdubs or vocals or anything. … We went in really prepared. It’s so much fun when you’ve got great musicians like that. There’s nothing that can’t be done.”
Vassar turned to a rising Texas artist, Kellys [pronounced KELL-us] Collins to vocalize with him on “Away in a Manger” and drafted Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson to chime in on “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas.”
Although a native of Virginia, Vassar used to live in Texas and says he loves the state. After co-penning “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas” with Jeff Smith and Billy Alcorn, the singer knew there was one additional element he needed to really drive the song home.
“I said, ‘Man, if I could get Ray Benson to sing this thing with me, I would just have a heart attack,’” Vassar says. Risking inflicting a coronary, Benson sang his part of the song at a studio in Austin and sent it back to Nashville.
Vassar was just 5 years old in 1970 when the Carpenters scored with “Merry Christmas Darling.” But he regards it as one of his favorites.
“I’m a huge Carpenters fan,” he says. “Richard Carpenter [who co-wrote the song with Frank Pooler] is a great piano player and arranger. And nobody can sing better than [Karen Carpenter could].
“I thought, ‘I’m not going to try to do the song because I think I can do it better, but I’ve never heard a guy sing it from a guy’s point of view. Scrolling through all the Christmas songs that I loved, it just kept coming back to me.”
For those who love clever, bouncy, Frank Loesser-tinged lyrics, “Santa’s Gone Hollywood” will steal the show. Co-written with Tim Nichols and Jeff Outlaw, the song chronicles Santa’s Lucullan lifestyle on the Left Coast after he wins the Powerball lottery:
He’s got no bills, blue pills, he’s hung up his sack
Mrs. Claus is lookin’ hot, she’s even got a new rack
She’s been nip-tucked, liposucted and tightened up good
Yes, Santa’s gone Hollywood
Vassar says he and his co-writers had to resist the temptation to put too many current references into the song.
“It was hard not to go real current,” he explains, “like with some of the stuff going on with some of these reality shows. I wanted to, but I decided it would be a little too right-now.
“Yeah, it’s got a lot of words in it,” he concedes. “That’s always been my motto, you know. If it seems like it’s got too many words, add more.”
The fact that Christmas albums have a notoriously brief sales period didn’t bother Vassar.
“Maybe you just sell it for a month [each year],” he observes, “but you sell it for a month forever. You know how many copies of the Nat King Cole Christmas album I’ve bought over the years? I’ll bet 50.
“But all that aside, I just wanted to make a Christmas record.”
Well, he can check that one off his holiday list.
Purchase your copy of NOEL on iTunes HERE!
Phil recently sat down with AOL’s The Boot to discuss his not one but two brand new albums, NOEL and The Hits Live on Broadway, and all that went into making these “first time” releases. Check it out below or at the original article here!
Phil Vassar may have big plans for this New Year’s Eve, but they’ll likely pale in comparison to the way he rang in 2011 — recording his new CD, ‘The Hits Live on Broadway,’ in front of an eager hometown crowd of thousands in downtown Nashville. The project is a first for Phil, who admits he’s a big fan of live albums and had always wanted to make one, but his record labels never seemed to be on board with the plan. So when he took the reins and formed his own label, he also decided to take to the streets and record the new CD, which features some of his biggest hits including ‘Carlene,’ ‘Six Pack Summer,’ and ‘Just Another Day in Paradise.’
“My deal was up at the label,” Phil tells The Boot, “and I had always wanted to do it, and the label always said nobody cares about live records, and I get it. But ‘Frampton Live’ and some of those records are still some of my favorite albums. I just love live music, and I love going to live shows, and getting the chance to cut this thing in Nashville on New Year’s was just so much fun! It came out killer, I’m so happy with the way it came out sonically and all those things. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.”
Country’s Piano Man covers plenty of fan favorites on the new CD (as well as hits like ‘I’m Alright,’ and ‘My Next Thirty Years’ that he penned for other artists), but pressed to choose one of his songs as a personal favorite, he’s stumped. “I could never pick one. On any given night it’s a different song. It’s always fun to sing your music and watch people sing it back to you — I don’t care what song it is, it’s really cool. For big concerts, it’s always fun to do the uptempo songs, and for acoustic shows or songwriters’ nights or a storytellers concert in a theater, I love doing different songs. And for some of these things, it’s fun to pull out the album cuts that never were singles — that’s kind of cool too.”
Phil will perform some of those crowd-pleasers at the Grand Ole Opry next Tuesday at the Ryman Auditorium and appear at the Opry Originals store downtown following the show to sign copies of both his new live CD and his new holiday album, ‘Noel.’ The holiday CD is another project Phil has always wanted to make and features a mixture of originals and timeless classics of the season. “I’ve always dreamed of making a Christmas record,” Phil says. “From the time I was boy, listening to Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and all the classic singers … I’ve always wanted to do this.”
Fans can also hear some of those holiday favorites when he performs at Nashville’s Hard Rock Café for the Country Network’s Live From the Ledge concert series benefiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on December 15th.
The Tennessean included ‘NOEL’ in their “2011 Christmas Releases From Nashville” article today! Check the review out below and catch up on the rest of their list here.
“File Phil Vassar’s Noel under: never would have happened if he recorded for a major label. And that’s not a knock. Just expect the unexpected. Four of the 10 songs are comfortable classics with sweeping traditional piano/acoustic guitar treatments including “What Child is This” and “Away in a Manger,” a duo with Kellys Collins. Vassar also throws in a cover of “Merry Christmas, Darling,” which was popularized by The Carpenters. But the singer/songwriter distinguishes himself with his originals. He offers up a peppy jazz-infused “I Saved Christmas,” the sexy “Let’s Make a Little Christmas Tonight” and “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas,” a swinging western duet with Ray Benson. But it’s “Santa’s Gone Hollywood” that is cause for a double take. With lyrics including, “Mrs. Claus is looking hot. She’s even got a new rack. She’s been nip-tucked, lipo-sucked and tightened up good,” a whole new mental image of a holly jolly couple is evoked.” – Cindy Watts, The Tennessean
To purchase NOEL on iTunes click HERE.
