Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ By Kissy Black/ Lotos Nile Media) - "Southern Way," the swampy first single from Georgia-raised singer-songwriter Corey Crowder's much-anticipated new album Gold and The Sand, immediately transports the listener to a different state of mind - one of careless abandon, with freedom ringing in the driving, infectious roots rock rhythm. Such surprising, textured, and ultimately catchy combinations of lyrics and sounds are the mark of the 25-year-old's adult ambitions achieved - in the first songs he's released since his emergence as a young online sensation.
Corey's previous two self-produced, independent recordings consisted of songs he'd written and collected since his teenage years and their release modeled a contemporary musical success story. Those early songs were played over five million times on his MySpace page alone after being featured on prime-time television shows.
The Biggest Loser, One Ocean View and a particularly audience swelling season-ending scene on MTV's The Real World all featured Corey's music from these early independent releases. Extensive touring across the continental United States added to his musical reach and acceptance. That same audience eagerly anticipates hearing Corey's newest self-penned tunes on Gold and the Sand. These songs, enriched with a newfound maturity and a musical excitement born from fresh creation, will help Corey grow his base of support and find an even larger audience.
The songs on the new CD, richly-textured, varied songs of contemporary love, life hopes and realities, are Corey's most personal and mature in content, focusing on the large life questions and course corrections so typically faced by young adults in their mid-twenties. The point of view is sometimes searching, sometimes skeptical, and often pointed, as in "Innocence," the song from which the album title is taken - a depiction of how the pursuit of status and money can consume peoples' lives.
The sonically varied tracks feature Corey's engagingly confessional and distinctive lead vocals, but then they take a route precisely opposite from typical "stripped down" solo-guitar-strumming, singing-songwriter outings to deliver these deep personal stories. Rich with horns, strings, and a road-tested four member rock band (with whom Corey's been working closely for several years) the album's sounds often hearken back to the thick soul production of '60s and '70s album tracks by Al Green or Van Morrison, and the straight-ahead roots rock of Creedence.
Corey is now a contract writer with EMI as well as a recording and touring artist; he and his wife relocated to Nashville from Greenville, SC, in July. In support of the new CD, he will be appearing, along with his band, in a series of dates across Texas in November with appearances in the Southeast to follow.
Tour Dates:
Nov. 7 - Stonewall, LA @ Rustic Cowboy
Nov. 8 - Corpus Christi, TX @ Executive Surf Club
Nov. 9 - Austin, TX @ Waterloo Ice House
Nov. 10 - Austin, TX @ Blind Big Pub
Nov. 13 - Fredericksburg, TX @ Auslander
Nov. 14 - Ft. Worth, TX @ White Elephant
Nov. 15 - San Angelo, TX @ Steel Penny Pub
Nov. 16 - College Station, TX @ Fitzwilly's
Nov. 19 - College Station, TX @ Hurricane Harry's
Nov. 20 - San Antonio, TX @ Midnight Rodeo
Nov. 21 - Houston, TX @ Firehouse
Nov. 22 - Ennis, TX @ Red Moon
Dec. 5 - Greenville, NC - Coyote Moon Saloon
