If you haven’t yet heard of The Cadillac Black, you have a
lot of catching up to do. They’re already making huge waves in Nashville with
their unique brand of Southern rock, and fans in the likes of Eric Church and
Dierks Bentley, both of whom they’ve toured with. In addition, their first ever
show was opening up for ZZ Top, and they’ve also toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd
(“it certainly has helped us open some doors”), and they have Billy Gibbon’s
cell phone number, to name but a few. If that isn’t enough, no less than three
of the songs from their self-titled debut album were featured on a recent
episode of ABC’s ‘Nashville’ (including the cover of Ring of Fire that
character Scarlett sang on). Their tracks have also been featured on The
Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie and CSI Miami, not to mention a host of others.
Yet The Cadillac Black isn’t a five-piece supergroup, but
three ordinary guys from Nashville who accidentally became a three-piece and
found a way to make it work, even with such a wide host of instruments utilised
in their music. These clearly talented musicians have only been together for
just over a year, but Kelby Ray, Jaren Johnston and Neil Mason (described by
Jaren as a ‘long-haired hippie drummer’) have already built up a great
reputation on the live circuit and their support from such big artists and
mainstream TV shows mean they have a big year ahead that is bound to see them
every success. But it’s not just about their
music. Jaren, the lead singer and guitarist, produced Dierks Bentley’s ‘Country
& Cold Cans’ EP, and he has penned tracks for Dierks, Kenny Chesney, Sara
Evans, Keith Urban (the #1 hit ‘You Gonna Fly’) and Tim McGraw. He’s also been
nominated for Music Row Magazine’s 2012 Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year.
All this means you’re in safe hands when choosing to listen to such an already
accomplished band, so early in their career.
I interviewed Jaren and I loved how genuine and real he came
across as. The three band members grew up together in Nashville and they’ve
been friends as long as they can remember, playing together in a very organic
process. In an industry where so much is manufactured, it doesn’t get much
better than this. In fact, their album was thrown together totally organically
in a couple of days at Sound Emporium in Nashville, recorded live with their
engineer Ryan Gore. Jaren grew up watching his dad play drums at the Grand Ole
Opry, and even saw Garth Brooks play the legendary stage for the first time –
so it was only natural that his musical influences ranged from those popular
during the 1990s, to more traditional artists such as Keith Whitley (inspired
by his parents) to the classics such as Willie. But the music Jaren actually
owned strayed a little. “My first cassette tapes were Lynyrd Skynyrd's greatest
hits and Metallica's "And Justice For All"… I think I was like
thirteen or something. I never thought about that before this band but that
honestly explains our sound almost to the T!” Jaren also cites bands such as
Rage Against The Machine, Tom Petty, Nirvana and the Rolling Stones as huge
influences on The Cadillac Black’s music, among others.
(more…)
