RUSSELL DICKERSON IS BACK
Russell Dickerson is returning to the UK in October after standout festival performances in 2017 and earlier this year, for a huge tour supporting Darius Rucker including a date at the Royal Albert Hall and a London headline show as part of Country Music Week! He is currently promoting new single ‘Blue Tacoma‘, which is rapidly climbing the US country radio charts (currently top 5) and has received airplay across the UK, as well as 70m+ streams; and recently shared a video for the track which has had over 6m views to date.
The song is taken from debut album ‘Yours’ (Sony Music / Triple Tigers) which reached the top five on the Billboard album charts last year – fans can stream/download here: http://smarturl.it/all-yours.
21st Oct – Birmingham Symphony Hall (w/ Darius Rucker)
22nd Oct – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (w/ Darius Rucker)
23rd Oct – Gateshead The Sage (w/ Darius Rucker)
25th Oct – Bristol O2 Academy (w/ Darius Rucker)
26th Oct – Manchester Albert Hall (w/ Darius Rucker)
27th Oct – London Borderline (headline)
28th Oct – London Royal Albert Hall (w/ Darius Rucker)
FINDING FAME IN COUNTRY MUSIC:
Russell Dickerson was born for the stage. “I’m just naturally that kind of dude: a big, loud and over-the-top guy,” he says with a laugh. Yes, one of country music’s most talked-about new talents — and the voice behind the #1 hit single and debut album title track ‘Yours’, a stunning ballad inspired by his wife of four years, Kailey, that’s racked up over 110 million online digital streams to date, where he’s been on Spotify’s Hot Country, Country Gold Playlists and more for over a year, and exploded since being serviced to US country radio last year — need not go into “entertainer mode” before he catapults himself onstage to deliver one of his notoriously amped-up live shows. He’s already there.
I go out there, and I’m just me,” says Dickerson, who recently tore up arenas with superstars Thomas Rhett and Kelsea Ballerini on the Home Team Tour before performing to a packed O2 Arena as part of the UK’s Country to Country festival in March. Watch the massive-voiced singer up there, whipping the crowd into hysterics and performing with that time-honoured killer instinct. He’s “running around and singing to people and messing with them and loving on them. It’s about interacting the whole time. I want people screaming their faces off. It’s all for the crowd.
Even as a Union City, Tennessee-raised, obsessive teenage music fan, one who’d regularly wait in wraparound lines to see his favourite artists perform in Nashville (“I just got hooked on that energy”) and held up Garth Brooks and Keith Urban DVDs as his personal gospel, Dickerson, says being “that dude onstage was always the dream. We would scream every word of every song, and all I could think about was ‘I want to be that guy!'” Now, thanks to ‘Yours’ and hook-heavy rockers like brand new single ‘Blue Tacoma’ (60m+ streams to date) he’s steadily built a serious fan base of his own.
Now, with his Billboard Top Five full-length debut album, ‘Yours’, Dickerson is gearing up for his most massive moment yet. “Right now I’m just so stoked on life so I wanted my record to mimic that,” the 30-year-old says of a feel-good album stuffed with equal parts swagger (“Billions,” “Float”) and sweet vibes (“All Fall Down,” “You Look Like A Love Song”). “We just kept rolling with it,” he says of the loose, freewheeling writing sessions for the LP. Dickerson says he’d written hundreds of songs before that “gut feeling” kicked in one day in 2014 when he, Welling and Brown penned ‘Yours’. “When we wrote it we all said ‘This is amazing!’ And then it was just one thing after another,” he says of the song’s rocketship ride to US country radio. “To get that affirmation from everyone at, what felt like, every step — publishers, record label (Sony / Triple Tigers), radio — is just so incredible.” Adds Dickerson of the breakout song, which has become a wedding standard, and because of which he recorded an acoustic wedding version: “It’s such a boost of confidence. It’s validation.”
Still, even as the accomplishments pile up, including the distinct honour of playing at the Grand Ole Opry last June (“To be recognised for my craft by an establishment that’s so esteemed in the industry was emotional”), Dickerson remains steadfast in his pursuit of refining his craft and taking his career to new heights. “For as long as we’ve prepped for this,” Dickerson says, “I hope this is just the beginning.”