Joe Nichols & Jake Owen Appearing at Pontiac Crystal Palace

Pontiac Crystal Palace scores again by engaging chart topping country music performers, Joe Nicols and Jake Owen to perform March 11 and March 25, respectively.

Joe Nichols Appearing March 11

Joe Nichols, born in Rogers, Ark., on November 26, 1976, seemed destined for great things. His albums produced 14 top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including the number one singles, "Brokenheartsville," "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," and "Gimmie That Girl," as well as five other top ten entries.

Nicols strong, good looks originate from his heritage-he is part Cherokee. Ladies, look, but don't touch, as Joe Nichols married Heather Singleton on September 9, 2007, in Savannah, Georgia. He had known Singleton since they were both 18 years old. Joe has a 12 year old daughter Ashelyn from a previous relationship.

Nicols grew up listening to his dad sing and play bass in classic country music bands at VFW gigs. His grandfather and uncles also played classic country music. Before becoming a country music star, he was in a rock band and also worked as a DJ.

His 2002 album release, "Man with a Memory," scored a #3 hit with "The Impossible," on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks and was declared by Billboard as the tenth most played country song of 2003.

Man with a Memory earned Nichols a Top New Male Vocalist award from the Academy of Country Music, as well as three Grammy Award nominations and platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its second single, "Brokenheartsville", became his first #1 hit on the Billboard country charts in 2003, while "She Only Smokes When She Drinks" and "Cool to Be a Fool" both reached Top 20. Also in 2003, Nichols received the Country Music Association's Horizon Award.

Reviews

Reviewers, for the most part, love Joe Nichols' voice, some comparing it to Randy Travis. Although there are similarities in their voices, Joe Nichols' baritone is richer and deeper.

There seems to be a general consensus that Nicols needs to sing more serious songs, instead of ones like the silly "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off." His strong skills as a balladeer seemed to be given short shrift in favor of gimmicky turns of phrase as in Size Matters, Cool to Be a Fool, and Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off. It would seem that Country Music radio underestimates their listeners.

Jake Owen Appearing March 25

Joshua Ryan "Jake" Owen (born August 28, 1981 in Vero Beach, Florida signed to RCA Records Nashville in 2005. Owen released his debut album Startin' with Me that year. This album produced three singles ("Yee Haw", "Startin' with Me" and "Something About a Woman"), all of which reached Top 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. A second album, 2009's Easy Does It, has accounted for three more singles in the #2 "Don't Think I Can't Love You", "Eight Second Ride" and "Tell Me." Owen has also toured as an opening act for several country acts, including Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Little Big Town and Sugarland.

Jake had planned to be a professional golfer until a water skiing accident that resulted in reconstructive surgery changed his plans. After sitting in his apartment, becoming more and more depressed, he finally borrowed a guitar and taught himself to play.

One afternoon he walked into a campus bar, Pot Belly's, drawn by the live music. "There was a guy in there, just him, playing guitar and singing. I thought to myself, 'I can do that.'" The following day, undeterred by the fact this his entire public entertainment experience consisted of singing Boot Scootin' Boogie for his fifth grade graduation, Owen went back to the bar, found the owner, and asked what he needed to do to get a playing gig. Apparently, proximity and availability won him the job and he was on stage that very night. "I just plugged in my acoustic guitar and started singing." He made $75 a night, free beer, and caught the eyes of a few ladies. "The whole time I was golfing, I never had a girl come up to me and say, 'Wow, nice clubs.' Or, 'I love your swing.' But a guitar is a whole different story."

The voice that emerged from some previously untapped internal spring was mighty impressive too. The rich, resonant baritone that colored the songs of artists decades older than him belied his youth, lent credibility to his relative lack of experience, and provided some gravitas to his model-worthy good looks.

"At first, it was me and a guitar on a stool in front of 100 people; then it was 400 people. So I started a band called Yee Haw Junction, which was the real name of a town I knew. As much as he loved the traditional country artists, performing covers of their material began to wear on Owen. "I felt like I couldn't find my own voice singing covers and the only way I could feel some honesty in what I was doing was to write my own songs. The first two I did were It's Been A While and 8 Second Ride. I got compliments on them, enough that I felt like maybe I had something."

With nine hours of school remaining to get his degree, he found himself at a turning point, and turned to his parents for advice. "I called home, and when my mom answered, I told her I needed to talk to them, and asked her to get my dad on the phone too. I told them that I had really been working hard at my music, and that I felt like after my injury, a door had opened for me to another way, one that didn't really involve English or Political Science, which were my majors. My dad had always wanted to be a professional golfer, and he could have been, but life and responsibilities prevented him from pursuing that dream. He told me that if this was my dream, and if it were my gift, them I should go for it, and that I had their blessing."

Two days later, Owen packed his clothes, some furnishings, his two guitars and a notebook full of songs into his Forerunner and headed north. "I didn't know anyone in Nashville, but I knew I needed to go to the place where it happens. I found an apartment in Bellevue, about 10 miles from town. That first week, I basically stayed in my apartment writing songs."

When he finally made his first visit to Music Row, it wasn't to a record label, or a publisher, or a management office. It was to open a bank account, a deposit that ultimately reaped immeasurable interest and dividends.

"When Becky (the bank employee) asked me what I did for a living, I told her I was a singer/songwriter. She said she would like to hear my music sometime; luckily, I just happened to have a CD," he says with a laugh. The following day, he got a phone call from Warner-Chappell Music, expressing interest in his material. Though that arrangement did not ultimately work out, Owen felt that his decision to pursue a career in Nashville has been validated. A chance meeting over lunch with producer Jimmy Ritchey (Clay Walker, Mark Chesnutt) confirmed it. "We just hit it off right away," he says. "We became friends first. But he was very supportive. For the next 18 months, we basically hung out, writing songs. I hardly even went out of my apartment. I wrote a song with Jimmy and Chuck Jones called "Ghost" that we thought Kenny Chesney was going to record. He didn't, but that sort of put me on the RCA radar. Jimmy got me together with Renee Bell, Senior Vice President for SonyBMG Nashville and she signed me."

Less than two years after moving to Nashville, the 24-year-old former golfer had a recording deal and basically brought a finished album to the table.

Owen had already earned the respect of an artist whose opinion he held in high regard. "Soon after I signed to RCA, we flew to Chicago to see Kenny Chesney. We went on his bus after the show and when Renee introduced us, she says, 'Jake is the guy who co-wrote ""Ghost"".' He starts singing it back to me, word for word! I couldn't believe it. He told me he loved the song, and wanted to record it, but it just didn't work out. It blew my mind. Two years ago, I was that kid in the nosebleed section of the Leon County Civic Center in Tallahassee, watching him run back and forth on stage, a million miles away. I wondered what that would feel like. And there I was, sitting on his bus, one foot away from him, listening to him sing my song back at me."

""Ghost"" did make it on to Startin' With Me, Owen's debut album, which---as the young artist points out - is entirely composed of songs he wrote or co-wrote.

"When I look at my life, where I am right now, I know how improbable it is. I am totally aware of that. I haven't been doing it and dreaming about it since I was five years old, it doesn't run in my family, I didn't grow up singing in church, I didn't spend 10 years in honky-tonks. But I have always worked hard at whatever I have done, whether it was golf or writing songs or playing at Potbelly's in Tallahassee. I feel like things happen for a reason, and we are each here for a reason. Maybe the accident that ended my golfing career happened because I was supposed to do this. How many people would my golf game have affected? I hope that my music and my songs can touch people, like I have been touched by other artists' songs. Is that something that you measure by years or dues? I think it's something from the heart, and who can measure that?"

Although Warner/Chappell did not sign him to a contract, Owen eventually met record producer and songwriter Jimmy Ritchey. They, along with songwriter Chuck Jones, wrote a song entitled "Ghosts", which they had intended for Kenny Chesney to record. Chesney, ultimately, did not record "Ghosts", although the song drew the attention of Sony BMG Nashville executives, who signed him to their RCA Records label in 2005. Per their suggestion, Owen also changed his first name to Jake, so as to avoid confusion with Josh Turner and Josh Gracin.

Sources:

Joe Nichols, gactv.com

Jake Owen, gactv.com