Every country music fan knows Shenandoah and many artists frequently cover their music. Needless to say, they’ve made their mark on country music over the years. I sat down with Marty Raybon and Mike McGuire in Nashville and they discussed their tour, latest album, and potential future music.
35th Anniversary Tour
It’s incredibly difficult to sustain a career in music for thirty-five years and with so many accomplishments. The band, however, doesn’t necessarily view their career in milestones.
I asked whether they’d imagine their band would continue to play together for over 35 years. Mike answered, “I don’t think you think about that.” He explained that they embarked on a journey without expectations. “When you start out, you just start out.”
Acquiring accolades has never been on their agenda. “When you first get a record deal and become a band, you don’t think about 30, 40 years down the road,” Mike explained. “We were just having fun.”
He also described touring as more fun than work. “It’s kinda like goin’ camping with the guys on the weekend. Like every weekend we go camping, on the bus, without the fire. We all care about each other, we’re friends, and we feel like we’re family. Everybody that’s part of our band and crew is part of the Shenandoah family, as far as we’re concerned.”
Shenandoah Reaches Younger Audience with TikTok
Shenandoah’s goal is to leave a legacy with memorable music. Their songs aren’t just popular with longtime country music fans, they’ve accrued an entirely new fanbase of kids from TikTok. “It’s amazing to me how many young kids are listening to our music because of social media,” Mike began. “There’s kids out there singing ‘Two Dozen Roses’ on TikTok.”
The band has an account on the app and they’ve posted a few videos thus far. Mike shared, “I shot one the other night and I didn’t intend for it to be on TikTok, but our manager told me it had 70 something thousand views already. It was just me takin’ my shoes off before we were going on. I play barefoot a lot of times.”
Marty chimed in. “I shot one and killed it,” he joked.
Selecting the Hits
Choosing the right songs can make or break your album, of course, but Shenandoah prides themselves on having an ear for hits. “It’s just a feelin’,” Mike explained.
They went on to say they can almost immediately determine whether a song will be a hit. “If it don’t come out of the box, it probably ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Marty added. “I love melody, but I love an absolutely wonderful storyline, too.”
Mike’s advice for songwriters is if they have 250 songs in their catalog, choose the best three to pitch. Then, they’ll begin to understand that the songs they previously thought were hits, might not be in the “top 3” category.
They talked about having a list of twenty songs they really love and the difficult task to narrow it down to 10. If six of the songs they already selected are ballads, they need to narrow it down even further because you can’t have six ballads on a record.
“You’re just looking for that song that you love and you know it when you hear it,” Mike said. The intent is to have a great album from start to finish, so much that people want to start over and listen again.
Every Road Album
It’s exciting when artists collaborate with others on a song for their album. For Shenandoah’s latest album Every Road, they did something unique by inviting some of today’s biggest country stars to join them on most of the songs.
“We were just looking for something new that we hadn’t done before,” Mike explained. Brad Paisley was the first to jump on board, followed by Lady A. The band described how they acquired most of their contributors at the CMA Awards, when Marty connected with other artists during commercial breaks.
Mike shared a full-circle moment for them and a lot of the artists. He said, “I’ll tell you what was really nice, is the fact that so many of the guys that we consider superstars today, Blake, Luke, and all those guys, they were big fans of us when they were growing up. That’s why they wanted to do it. We’re thankful for that.”
Unfortunately, the recording process ended up happening during the pandemic, so many of the artists were unable to be there in person. Typically, recording with someone allows artists to connect with one another on a deeper level. Shenandoah was thankful that Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde were able to record in person.
Next up for Shenandoah
I asked whether the missed connections with many of the artists would lead them to create a second part to the project. They said they’re considering it, but with a different format–using their greatest hits and featuring other artists.
Additional artists have shown interest, like Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s next from Shenandoah.
2022 Concert Schedule for Shenandoah
Feb 11 – Sulpher Springs, TX Feb 12 – Hinton, OK
Feb 18 – Spring, TX
Mar 12 – Ft. Meyers, FL
Mar 13 – Vero Beach, FL
Mar 24 – Nashville, TN
Mar 25 – Shipshewana, IN
Apr 6 – Green Cove Springs, FL
Apr 30 – Indio, CA
May 13 – Kenney, TX
May 14 – Gail, TX
May 20 – Pigeon Forge, TN
May 21 – Louisa, KY
Jun 4 – Ft. Worth, TX
Jun 11 – Nevada, MO
Jun 14 – Eminence, MO
Jun 16 – Cedar Park, TX
Jun 17 – Stockdale, TX
Jul 3 – Alvarado, TX
Jul 4 – Albuquerque, NM
Jul 9 – New Salem, ND
Jul 22 – McCook, NEJul 23 – Hannibal, MO
Jul 29 – Cookeville, TN
Jul 30 – Parksburg, WV
Aug 5 – McMinnville, OR
Aug 7 – Junction City, OR
Aug 13 – Hot Springs, AR
Aug 26 – Gray, TN
Aug 30 – Hamilton, MT
Sep 17 – Cowan, TN
Sep 24 – Alto, NM
Oct 1 – Corpus Christi, TX
Oct 7 – Gainsville, TN
Oct 15 – Lebanon, OH
For more information and a list of tour venues, visit https://www.shenandoahband.com/.
