NASHVILLE, TN. (Curb Records) - Mark Miller and
Sawyer Brown may have bolted through every fence of country conventionality during their 23 years of trailblazing - but there are a few traditions the blown-up band holds sacred. One of them is making sure the fans go home happy and entertained; the other is a deep and abiding respect for the Grand Ole Opry.
"When you start out as an artist, you think about all the people who've been on the Opry stage, and it makes you feel like you're part of something pretty huge," says Miller, who resuscitated George Jones' classic 'The Race Is On' and Dave Dudley's trucker's anthem 'Six Days On The Road.' "It's not the kind of place you just roll in and do... I think when you go out there, you have to have a whole different kind of game on, a whole different mind set and really get in the zone 'cause those audiences are seeing a lot of music - and you have to measure up.
"With everything that's going on with the band right now, I can't think of a better place to debut 'Mission Temple (Fireworks Stand).' And we're just glad that everybody out there is as fired up about us doing this as we are getting to roll this song out for the fans."
It's been over almost 4 years since country's hardest working band made an altar call at the mother church of Country music - and the band is revved up and ready to go. The Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Awards winners will be more than introducing "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand," the lead single from the workingly titled 'Keep Your Hands To Yourself,' Shayne Hill, their brand new guitarist, will also be making his Opry debut with the band.
"Growing up, Sawyer Brown was one of those bands that just knew how to get it done musically," says the razor-sharp player, "and the idea of playing with these guys has been pretty overwhelming - to kinda look over and there they are. Sorta like a Wayne's World moment, where I'm sitting in with Aerosmith or something. That alone kicks my butt, but then getting to play the Opry with a band that I always thought was one of the very best... well, it's a lot to take in."
And on December 4th, that's just what the new kid in the band is gonna have to do: take it all in. With an arsenal that includes 26 Top 10 hits and almost 10 million albums sold, there's plenty of history for the band to bring to the table. Whether it's Miller's deeply personal, self-penned passage of life "The Walk" or his rambunctious redneck get-lucky national anthem "Some Girls Do," the lost family farm Mac McAnally-written "Cafe On The Corner" or the raucous Marshall Chapman standard "Betty's Being Bad," this is a band with lots of options to draw on.
"We took some time to take stock of where we needed to go and what we wanted to do next," admits the fearless-onstage-frontman. "Because if you're gonna have the privilege to make music and more importantly, have the opportunity to make people happy for a living, then you better keep pushing and giving those people something to be excited about. I think the time we took off from making records has served us well; we got a real focus and fire lit under us - and anyone who liked us before will get a taste of what's coming when we hit the stage at the Opry."
