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Our June  Friday Weekend Entertainment Picks

Friday July 21st, 2017

Travis Tritt    
@Houston Arena Theatre

Friday July 21st, 2017 8:30 PM

More than 27 years after Travis Tritt launched his music career, the Southern rock influenced artist continues to display strong sales activity, sell-out shows, and stay true and relevant to country music fans across the globe. Continuously performing shows and withholding a heavy appearance schedule, Tritt is proving to be unstoppable.

The Tritt timeline started when the young Marietta, Georgia native incorporated his lifelong influences of Southern rock, blues and gospel into his country during a honky-tonk apprenticeship that led him to Image of Travis TrittWarner Bros. in 1989. Over the course of a decade, Travis released seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label. His 1990 debut Country Club and its succession of hits put him in the vanguard of the genre’s early ’90s boom, dubbing him as one of “The Class of ‘89,” which included country music superstars Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Alan Jackson; all whom dominated the charts in the early ‘90s.

“Country Club,” “Help Me Hold On,” “I’m Gonna Be Somebody,” and “Drift Off to Dream” peaked at numbers two and three on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts; all which led for Tritt to win Top New Male Artist award from Billboard and the CMA Horizon Award (now known as the New Artist Award). Additionally, in 1991, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) marked Tritt’s debut album Country Club as certified platinum.

 Two years after his debut, Travis’ sophomore album, It’s All About to Change, was released. Literally speaking, this album changed everything when the album shipped three million copies and all four of its singles reached the top five on the country music charts. Along with his first album, this release became triple-platinum certified by the RIAA.

He’s been a force in sports appearances, having performed at the 1996 Olympics, two Super Bowls, a World Series Game, the opening of the Georgia Dome, the final Braves game at Atlanta-Fulton Country Stadium and, in 2013, the NCAA
men’s basketball championship.

 At the same time, his conspicuous lack of a cowboy hat and musical aggressiveness set him apart. The next series of albums, seven of which are certified platinum or higher, scored him more hit singles and led him to amass more than 25 million in career album sales, two Grammys, three CMA Awards and a devoted fan base that filled venues coast-to-coast.

 
He’s been a force in sports appearances, having performed at the 1996 Olympics, twoImage of Travis Tritt Super Bowls, a World Series Game, the opening of the Georgia Dome, the final Braves game at Atlanta-Fulton Country Stadium and, in 2013, the NCAA men’s basketball championship.

In 2012, Tritt released his album, The Calm After…., on his own newly-formed label, Post Oak Recordings. At the end of 2016, he released a special 2-disc CD and DVD, titled A Man and His Guitar – Live From The Franklin Theatre. The much-anticipated release, shot and recorded at the historic Franklin Theatre in Franklin, Tennessee, spotlights Tritt’s distinctively soulful voice and his exceptional guitar prowess in an intimate theater setting.

 
More than 25-years after he launched his music career, the Southern-rock influenced artist continues to stay true and relevant to Country music fans across the globe. As recently as 2015, Tritt topped the SoundScan Top 200 Catalog Country Albums chart for over 60 consecutive weeks with 15 weeks spent at No. 1 and 35+ weeks notched in a Top 5 position. Tritt’s compilation album, Very Best of Travis Tritt, which was released in 2007, saw a resurgence of sales that started in Nov. 2014. The 20-track album features some of Tritt’s biggest hits, including “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive,” “Here’s A Quarter,” and “Anymore.”

Travis Tritt    
Houston Arena Theatre
7326 Southwest Fwy
Houston, TX
Directions  
Friday 7/21/2017 8:30 PM    
view tickets

 

Zach Coffey    
@Firehouse Saloon

Friday, July 21st, 2017 9:00 PM

 

Not only is Zach Coffey's musical background different, but so is his approach to his performances. Coffey sang opera in college.

“People arImage of Zach Coffeye here on their free time to see us work — it’s an escape from the work week. Make it worth their time.”
“They worked all week, and this is their night off. They chose to come here, so let it be a vacation for them,” Coffey says. “No matter what level we’re at, there is someone out there who would kill to be in the position I am right now.”

That infectious enthusiasm for making music and entertaining audiences comes through loud and clear when the band is on stage and in the recording studio. Coffey’s smooth, versatile voice blends perfectly with the instruments and a fresh sounds.

 

"We’re going to keep making music and keep reaching out to the people who
come see us play. They enjoy the music, and we love making music for them."


The band burst into the Texas music scene, almost immediately after its inception in the summer of 2013. The group’s first single, I Love You Anyway, shot up to No. 8 on the Texas music chart; its follow-up single, Comin’ Back Around, also cracked the list of the top songs being produced in Texas and continues to climb. The band has a sound that suggests a much longer history, and has inspired comparisons to artists like Wade Bowen and the Eli Young Band. Coffey has enormous respect for those artists, but is not sure the comparisons are an exact match … which he sees as a good thing.


“We have been told we’re ‘not rough enough to play in Texas,’ or that we’re ‘not country enough,’” Coffey says. “But that’s not a bad thing. I’m glad that we don’t sound exactly like somebody else, because if I sound like somebody else, I’ll just be the next ‘somebody,’ and that’s hard to live up to. We admire a lot of people, but we feel like we have a unique sound, and our fans really like what we do. We play a style of music that moves us and hopefully people see that.”

Now the band’s audience continues to grow through a slate of performances across the Southwest, new original music and through avenues like the “Coffey Break” feature that appears each Wednesday on the band’s Facebook page. How large that audience will end up being is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t know,” Coffey says when asked about what he and his band might become. “I’ll never be complacent with where I am in my career, where we are as a band. We’re going to keep making music and keep reaching out to the people who come see us play. They enjoy the music, and we love making music for them.”

Zach Coffey    
Firehouse Saloon
5930 Southwest Fwy.
Houston, TX
Directions    
Friday 7/21/2017 9:00 PM    
view tickets

 

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