13 Apr 2015 Lee Brice to present concert at UCA
Lee Brice with special guests The Cadillac Three and Granger Smith will present a concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the Farris Center at the University of Central Arkansas.
Tickets are $15 for UCA students and $20 for the general public. Tickets may be purchased at the Reynolds Box Office 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at the UCA Student Center Concierge Desk. Tickets may also be purchased at uca.edu/tickets .
Lee Brice is a craftsman, the kind whose boundless desire to hone his skills and relentless pursuit of perfection are matched only by his humility about the entire process. His new album, “I Don’t Dance,” is a showcase for his painstaking approach to writing and recording, with his distinctive fingerprints clearly emblazoned on every element of the album. While Brice is now known as reliable chart- topping Nashville hit-maker whose 2014 performance on the Academy of Country Music telecast — where he picked up the trophy for “Song of the Year”— "stole the show" (USA Today), there was a time when he was only recognized for his work behind the scenes.
"I had success as a writer before I had success as an artist," says Brice, "There’s a misconception that I was a songwriter first and then started to sing my own songs later. But all along, I’ve really always been writing for myself. When I started writing songs at 10 years old, it was because I wanted to sing them, and when I came to Nashville, I came to be a songwriter and a singer. It’s all one thing to me."
After relocating from his native South Carolina to Music City, the former Clemson lineman dove headfirst into his craft, writing on his own and with a slew of talented musicians he fell in with. He found early success, with songs picked up by established artists like Jason Aldean and Keith Gattis. Though they may have been sung by other artists, those songs were stories from deep within Lee’s own heart.
"’More Than A Memory’ was a very personal song for me," he said of his breakout 2007 track. "I was thinking about keeping it for myself when Garth Brooks called, and that changed the whole dynamic."
It changed a whole lot of things. Brooks’ recording of the track was the first single in the history of the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart to debut at No. 1. Lee’s stock skyrocketed in Nashville, and that same year, he signed with Curb Records and began laying the groundwork for his inexorable rise as a solo artist.
He released his debut album, “Love Like Crazy,” in 2009. The title track reached No. 3 on the Billboard Country chart and set a record as the longest-charting song in that chart’s history. In 2012, he topped his own success with “Hard 2 Love,” an album that went Gold and featured three No. 1 Country singles, including "I Drive Your Truck," which won Song of the Year at both the CMA and ACM Awards. The record earned raves from NPR to Country Weekly and found the New York Times hailing him as "a sensitive macho man," a compliment that perfectly encapsulates both sides of Brice’s persona. “Hard 2 Love” also garnered Lee his late-night debut, a stirring performance of "I Drive Your Truck" on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
