Playing country with a Ted Nugent roar, the Grand Rapids band fired up another big crowd Wednesday by opening for Florida-Georgia Line at Allegan County Fair. (Photo gallery, videos)
Slammin’ Country: Gunnar Nyblad of Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys revved up the crowd at the Allegan County Fair on Wednesday. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
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Singer and guitarist Gunnar Nyblad revels in the exhilarating feeling of performing for a mammoth crowd.
So when Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys took the stage Wednesday night to open for Florida-Georgia Line in front of a throng of thousands of country music fans at the Allegan County Fair, it was a familiar adrenaline rush.
No Extinguishing This Country Fire: Gunnar Nyblad and Chris Newberg. (Photo/John Sinkevics)
“I think that I just scream as loud as I possibly can and I just go as hard as I can,” says Nyblad, whose band also regaled an audience of 30,000 in Iowa earlier this summer while opening for Kid Rock. “You play faster, you go all the way, until you know you’re going to puke, and then you might back off a little bit for 10 seconds, and then continue going right up there to full-bore, crazy, football mode.”
Adds band guitarist Chris Newberg: “It’s overwhelming, but in a good way. It pushes you to play as hard as you can. You don’t want to mess up. You want to give all your energy to everybody because it’s bouncing off of you.”
For the past five years, the Grand Rapids group – Nyblad, Newberg, bassist Rob Mason, lead guitarist Shane Grehan and drummer Joe Connolly – has been going as hard as it can, “busting it every weekend,” says Nyblad, establishing its reputation as one of West Michigan’s most prominent country acts and in-demand live bands.
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They’ve done it by playing rootsy, blue-collar, homegrown music that sprouted from the family-owned Kent City apple orchard where Nyblad grew up, “writing songs from the tractor” and listening to the Dire Straits and Allman Brothers music his father often played.
“It shaped me as a person,” he says of growing up on a farm, “and luckily as a person, I get to play music, write music, so it always reflects where I’m at or where I’m from.
Gunnar at the Fair: Nyblad on Wednesday. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
“I like to tell people it’s country music with a Michigan root. We kind of have that classic rock feel. We are two slamming guitarists, kind of a driven punk-style bassist with some big drums, and then country lyrics and me playing an acoustic guitar. We try to put as much Nugent into our country as we possibly can.”
In the process, the band has upped the ante with each succeeding studio project, recording the first two in “a buddy’s basement,” before heading to Nashville to record its third album with Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco) and generating radio airplay outside of Michigan.
The band is working on its fourth album with Nashville producer Noah Gordon and recently released a single, “Standard American,” which already has made its mark at Sirius XM Radio and elsewhere across the country. The official video for the single, filmed in Grand Rapids, was released today. (Check out that video out below.)
On Wednesday, Nyblad and Newberg visited News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) for Local Spins Live to unveil an acoustic version of a brand new song, “Countryside,” that will appear on the band’s upcoming studio album, slated for release in 2015. Check out a video of this Local Spins exclusive performance below, with a podcast of the full show here.
“It’s telling people a story and then letting Chris and Shane just take over on guitars for awhile,” Nyblad says of the band’s approach, “and it kind of brings you back to that real Southern rock. But I guess we’re just a bunch of northern boys doing our own thing.”
A Favorite Spot: The band playing The Intersection. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
For Nyblad, a 2006 Kent City High School graduate who met some members of the band while attending Michigan State University, the goal is to create a vibe on the next studio album that reflects the verve of the group’s live shows.
“It’s so hard to go in there as a band and capture that live energy we give when you’re sitting in a studio for four or five days,” he concedes. “We’re still molding into that studio band.”
In the meantime, the band continues to fill its touring calendar, including opening for country star Josh Thompson on Friday night at the First Avenue Club in Iowa City, Iowa, and playing a headlining, homecoming show at The Intersection on Oct. 3.
Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys are part of an impressive slate of young West Michigan country bands, says Nyblad, citing acts such as Kari Lynch, Shelagh Brown and Kris Hitchcock (who recently moved to Nashville).
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“I think it’s a dominant region for country music. There’s just so many fans and so many big events for it,” says Nyblad, who became a country devotee after discovering Johnny Cash at age 19.
“I feel like there are some really good bands out there that represent Grand Rapids really well. We all kind of grew up listening to punk rock and classic rock, and as we’ve gotten older and matured, I always tell people that’s it’s only a matter of time until you realize you really do like country music.”
For more information about the band and its full performance schedule, visit gunnartunes.com.
FLORIDA-GEORGIA LINE, PARMALEE, GUNNAR & THE GRIZZLY BOYS
ALLEGAN COUNTY FAIR 2014
THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY: PHOTOS BY ERIC STOIKE
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“STANDARD AMERICAN”: THE VIDEO
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
