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Appalachian Harley-Davidson is a premier Harley-Davidson destination in the Mid-Atlantic region and is also fast becoming a destination for excellent music as well. Hosting a variety of top-notch Central Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic acts as well as National Country performers, Appalachian believes in the connection between the sweet sounds of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and top musical acts. Appalachian Harley-Davidson is all about music to your ears... check it out!! |
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Listed below is a sampling of some of the local and regional music acts we have partnered with for our many special events throughout each year: |
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.. Smokin Gunnz |
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Appalachian has been fortunate in hosting numerous mini-concerts by National Country Recording artists over the past several years. Below is their Hall of Fame. Please note that "Big and Rich" did not perform and made a guest appearance and "live" radio cast courtesy of Carlisle Country Station RED 102.3. |
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Big & Rich |
June 13th, 2006 |
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Big & Rich is an American country music duo comprising Big Kenny (Kenny Alphin, former solo artist, lead singer for luvjOi) and John Rich (former vocalist and bassist of Lonestar). They first performed together in 1998. Although the duo has performed together since 1998, Big Kenny and John Rich had both recorded solo albums in 1999 (but neither album was released until 2005). Both albums featured a song the two had written together, called "I Pray For You". In addition, the pair co-wrote a song called "Amarillo Sky" for McBride & the Ride. While McBride & the Ride never released their version, Jason Aldean recorded the song for his 2005 debut album, and took the song to #4 in early 2007. Alphin and Rich eventually had their song "She's a Butterfly" cut by Martina McBride in 2003; the duo also sang harmony on the song. Big & Rich landed a record deal a few months later. Their first album Horse of a Different Color (2004) reached number one in both the Billboard national chart as well as the Billboard country music chart. The most successful song from the album was the second single, the smash hit "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy." This song reached #11 on country radio, and received wider exposure when ESPN featured the song in commercials for its coverage of the 2005 World Series of Poker. Big & Rich also showcased this song in a country-rap music blowout to conclude a CMT awards show. In 2004, Big & Rich shared a nationwide sell-out stadium tour with Martina McBride and Tim McGraw. Later that year, the duo embarked on the American Revolution Tour which they coheadlined with Gretchen Wilson and other members of their renegade group known as the MuzikMafia. A live version of the band covering Madonna's "Like a Virgin" has also made its way onto the web. Their sophomore album, Comin' To Your City, was released on November 15, 2005. The single "Comin' To Your City" has grown to be their signature song; so much so that ESPN has utilized an altered version of it as the opening theme for their popular Saturday program College GameDay. The album also featured a re-recording of "I Pray For You". In 2006, Big & Rich released a single, "8th of November", inspired by the story of Niles Harris. A subsequent documentary titled "The 8th of November: a true American story of honor" was released also, debuting on Great American Country television network over the July 4 weekend. The documentary tells the story of Niles Harris and shows the making of the music video for the single. The documentary was included in 48 tablet boxes of Prilosec OTC. |
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Danielle Peck |
April 30th, 2006 |
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BIO |
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Born in Jacksonville, NC, the daughter of a U.S. Marine, Danielle grew up in Coshocton, OH, where the family had strong musical roots. Her mother's side of the family traveled and sang in churches. Her father's parents and
grandparents were steeped in country music, playing dances in the area. Danielle could sing before she could talk and by the time she was three she would sit on a counter banging on pots and pans as her extended family played
country music. The first song she learned to sing was Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," a song that has been part of her live show to this day. She wrote her first song before she was 10 and made cassette labels
for her imaginary Danielle Peck records, complete with song titles and cover art. She sang in church both as a soloist and in the choir. At age 16, she joined a local band, the Neon Moon Band, and played bars in her native
Coshocton, Ohio area. After several years on the bar and festival circuit Danielle made the decision to chase the dream and make the jump to Nashville. She quickly took a Nashville job waiting tables and spent the rest of her
time working on her songwriting Soon after her Nashville arrival she met publisher Clay Myers who recognized her talent and helped secure a songwriting deal with Barbara Orbison's Still Working Music. She soon began writing
with staff writers Clay Mills and Tommy Lee James, as well as other established hit writers like Blair Daly and Taylor Rhodes. Those writing sessions would ultimately form the basis for her debut album |
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Eric Church |
April 30th, 2006 |
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BIO |
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Eric Church grew up in Granite Falls, North Carolina in an area known as one of the world's furniture capitals. He recalls being 4 years old, standing on a table at a local restaurant, singing "Elvira" to a waitress and a handful of patrons who would reward him with change. He was 13 when he started writing songs, and he bought a cheap, hard-to-tune guitar and taught himself to play, influenced by his parents' eclectic tastes, which stretched from Motown to bluegrass. At a little bar in the mountains of North Carolina, he watched a band called the Harris Brothers getting big tips for playing songs that he knew, and by the summer of his junior year, he had a gig of his own. His first gig was with M. Snow at Woodland's Barbeque in Blowing Rock. The wait staff eventually drove them off because of their ablility to keep fans around for longer than desired hours. He quickly formed a band with Snow, his brother and another guitarist and was bestowed the name The Mountain Boys by several fans at one of their first gigs at a restaurant called Arizonas. The first night they knew just 14 songs, but they faked their way through a four-hour set and held onto enough of the crowd to help launch them as a regional act. In a year or so, Church was throwing original songs into the set mix and not long afterward was selling CDs of his own material. For two years, they played often in bars and restaurants in the Hickory, Lenoir, and Boone area. Church played basketball, baseball and golf in high school, but in college, he turned to music. Before moving to Nashville, he graduated from college with a degree in marketing. In return, his father paid for his first six months in Music City. The financial cushion his father had given him gave him time to make contacts. Six months in, he had to take a day job, but six months after that, he was signed to a publishing deal at Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing. He began getting cuts, including Terri Clark's "The World Needs a Drink." Then, Arthur Buenahora at the publishing company introduced Church to producer Jay Joyce. The two clicked instantly and began cutting demos. Following a showcase, Church signed to Capitol Nashville, with Joyce producing his debut album, Sinners Like Me. |
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Mark Wills |
January 24th, 2007 |
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BIO |
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Mark Wills found both personal and professional success in Georgia's capital city. It started at the age of 15, when a young, underage Mark entered the world of honky tonks, singing in talent shows at a Georgia bar called Lonesome Dove. A couple of months later, Mark went to another club, Stonewalls, and then to the Atlanta bar West Texas. The teenage entertainer was winning contests almost as often as his musical heroes Alabama were topping the charts. Just before he turned 18, Mark earned the coveted lead singer spot in the house band at the popular Marietta, Ga. club, the Buckboard, where Travis Tritt was discovered. "I started singing Tuesday through Saturday, three or four sets a night," recalls Mark. "It was a weird way to grow up, because I was in a bar where everybody else was at least 21 and I was just 18. But I didn't feel out of place at the time. I was right in the middle of everything. I made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun. I was getting to do what I wanted to do, plain and simple. And I absolutely loved it!" "We were strictly a cover band," says Mark. "It was a dance club, so people weren't coming in there to hear the band do original songs. They were coming in there to do the 'Boot Scootin' Boogie.' Line dancing was big. We were basically a live jukebox. Nearly five years after his first night at the Buckboard, Mark signed with Mercury in 1996. He also met his wife Kelly there. They married in 1996, the same year "Jacob's Ladder" jump-started his country career on Mercury Records. That single was followed by a string of Top 10 smashes: "Places I've Never Been" (1997), "I Do (Cherish You)" (1998), "Don't Laugh at Me" (1998), "Wish You Were Here" (1999), "She's in Love" (1999) and "Back at One" (2000). With its heartfelt message of tolerance and charity, "Don't Laugh at Me" garnered nominations from the Country Music Association for single, song and video of the year in 1998. Again, career success dovetailed with personal happiness. His daughter Mally was born, bringing a deeper joy and depth to the words of the songs he sings as an artist.In 2001, Wills released his fourth CD, Loving Every Minute, which included a duet with labelmate Jamie O'Neal. His Greatest Hits followed in 2002, featuring the huge radio hit "19 Somethin'." He released the album And the Crowd Goes Wild in 2003. |
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Rushlow Harris |
February 17th, 2007 |
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Every once in a long while, the story writes itself. And the journey that brought accomplished performers -- and first cousins -- Tim Rushlow and Doni Harris to this point is so well scripted, it's a wonder they didn't see it coming. Fortunately, a friend with a keen eye for music saw a happy ending on this duo's horizon and opened their eyes to how seamlessly it all fit together. That visionary soul is none other than superstar Toby Keith, who not only saw something that was meant to be, he put his money where his mouth was and signed Rushlow Harris to his own label, Show Dog Nashville. And though Tim and Doni are still less than halfway through recording their album, the rush release of their debut single "That's So You" speaks to the rapid, visceral reaction their music is already receiving from radio and the music industry. Of course, parts of this tale have been told before. Rushlow fronted Little Texas in their early '90s heyday, and scored hits as a solo act on Atlantic and as the namesake of the band Rushlow. Harris earned his stripes in the band Lariat and later joined cousin Tim in his band. The tougher side has been documented as well, as both Tim's solo deal and the band's tenure fell apart before the music had much more than a fleeting chance at success. But even those disappointments, considered in the scope of a duo more than 30 years in the making, have their place. "If those deals hadn't broken down, we wouldn't be here," Tim explains. "We're thankful things have happened like they're supposed to, even if at the time it was painful -- not just to your ego, but the fact that you're dragging families through this stuff. But where we are now, we wouldn't change a thing." Tim's mother and Doni's father are brother and sister, and the family's ties were woven with music. "My dad was a musician and singer in Detroit," Tim says. "But it was kind of hard in the sixties for a white boy to make it as a musician in Detroit. So he joined the Air Force." The Rushlow family moved to Texas when Tim was in grade school, but summers were spent back in Oklahoma where the cousins ran hard, fished and played music together. After high school, both moved full bore into music. "He had a band called Lariat he sang for, I was singing for Little Texas before we had a record deal," Tim says. "We would literally pass each other in vans and trailers playing all the same clubs." Another band, Easy Money, was playing the same circuit and a friendly rivalry developed. Fronting that band was a singer and songwriter named Toby Keith. "We would go hear each other all the time," Doni says. "It was always, who could fill the club to the rope, where three people had to leave before three more could go in. It was that kind of competition, but we were all friends." |
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BIO |
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It's been a long road, yet the ride is just beginning. After 15 years and countless miles of touring, writing and performing, five men arrive as FLYNNVILLE TRAIN. Their style of good-time, rockin' country music is the driving
force behind this powerhouse sound from the midwest. They've slaved in factories, raised families, and obsessed over perfecting their craft. They supported each other's efforts for years before collaborating in 2001, and now
it's time... time to leave the overtime behind and shift into overdrive. |
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Flynnville Train |
May 20th, 2007 |
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Dusty Drake |
April 29th, 2007 |
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Dusty Drake has proven himself as a hit songwriter, a dynamic stage entertainer and a popular television personality -- now he's gunning for radio stardom. "I've never wanted fame and fortune," says Drake. "I just want a shot. I just want my day in court." Now he has it with "Say Yes," a gorgeous wedding ballad that showcases his expressive, robust voice. Modern country music has given us such classics as "Could I Have This Dance," "Forever's as Far as I'll Go," "From Here to Eternity," "I Do" and "If You Ever Have Forever in Mind." But it has been nearly a decade since the genre had a wedding song as powerful as "Say Yes." "I've been going around to radio stations playing my new album, and what's rising to the top is this song," comments Drake. "It's written by Brett James and Don Schlitz -- who are not new to this how-to-write-a-hit-song thing -- and Josh Turner. Brett came in and sang all the background vocals, and he sounds just awesome." Dusty Drake is no stranger to writing hits, himself. He cowrote the 1996 Joe Diffie single "C-O-U-N-T-R-Y," as well as tunes recorded by Mark Chesnutt, Ricochet, Janie Fricke, Oak Ridge Boys and others. He also cowrote his forthcoming Big Machine Records CD's title tune, the rocking "At a Honky-Tonk Near You." It's a collection infused with the performer's trademark grit and passion. Drake is equally at home belting raucous party anthems and softly caressing tender laments. "My wife's always said I'm a balladeer. But I grew up honky-tonking, playing Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Brooks & Dunn. I like getting rough and raucous and dangerous. I'm all that stuff. I like going out on that stage and kicking butt, then slowing it down and doing a ballad.' I want to do both. Why can't I do both?"He can and does on Dusty Drake at a Honky-Tonk Near You. Country tunes don't come much more lathered up than "Shortcut to a Longneck." But he also wrings every drop of emotion out of the heartbreaking "How's Your Mom and Them." Whatever the tempo, this is a singer-songwriter of striking authority. His oversized talent is matched by his physique and larger-than-life personality. Since he stands 6'2" it's pretty hard to miss Dusty Drake. Then there's the earring through his left lobe, the tattoo of his wife's lip print on his left bicep, the tattoo of a tornado on his right bicep, his long hair and the sideburns. He looks like the biker he is.Drake is also an avid outdoorsman who hunts and fishes. His natural flair for story telling, droll sense of humor and outgoing nature make him a charming interview subject. Those skills also landed him hosting duties on the weekly Turner South macho-movie cable series True Grit in 2003 and 2004. "We got a call from someone down at the channel saying, 'We're looking for a country act who's a male tough guy. Would you be interested in going down and auditioning? ' I said, 'You get me in the building, and I'll get the gig.' So they asked if I had a 'reel' [clips of his TV work]. I said, 'I got a rod and a reel.' I had never done any TV whatsoever. Anyhow, I did the audition and got the job. It ran every Sunday night for a year and it was a blast." As his song says, "Not Bad for a Good Ole Boy."An Atlanta TV studio is a long way from Monaca, PA, a small city of 6,000 on the Ohio River near the West Virginia border. His dad is a steel worker. His grandfather was a coal miner. Drake is the middle child of seven siblings. To keep the large brood amused, his parents bought various musical instruments. Records by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Jones and other country favorites were everywhere. The boy's seventh-grade teacher noticed he could sing and coached him for a solo role in the school's spring show. He loved the applause and was hooked for life. "After that, it didn't take long. I started playing drums. I played my first club gig with a band when I was 13. I just fell in love with music. When I was 16, I started playing regularly in bands. I have played in a band every year since then, with the exception of one, the year I met my wife, Maria."At the time, I was working at a cement company. Mom was done raising us and had gone back to school to study nursing. Maria was in the same school, and they started studying together. I walked in from work and went,
'There's a babe in the living room with Mom. What's up with that?'" One evening, Maria volunteered to go fishing with him. Love bloomed between the fishing buddies. They married in 1989. He went back to school and became
an air-traffic controller at the Beaver County Airport. He also resumed making music. With his band Silverado, Drake became a star country attraction in the Tri-State area of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. A show
promoter misidentified him as being named "Dusty" instead of "Dean," his real name. Eventually, the nickname stuck. By this
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"I've just seen the best live act ever." This testimonial from Neal McCoy, phoned in to the 903 Music office in Nashville, pointed the Drew Davis Band down the straightaway toward country music stardom.That's a mouthful, coming from one of the greatest entertainers in America, just after he'd heard these five gifted young men sound-check as his opening act. And then McCoy added this, speaking this time as the head of 903: "Find out everything you can about these guys!" Shortly after that, the Drew Davis Band became the third act signed to McCoy's label.Drawn together by their love for country music, driven to write and perform at the highest level and then to push higher still, their friendship forged on stages from coast to coast and border to border, they were already on a rocket aimed at the stars. It's just that McCoy lit the fuse. "They've got everything," the multi-platinum superstar-turned-record-honcho enthuses. "They've got the sound and the look. They move great onstage. They're great musicians and great guys. There are lots of good bands out there, but you almost never see anyone connect with audiences like these guys. They've got all it takes."Call it "road-tested country," the product of talent, passion, grit, and experience. It animates every track of their debut album release, due out this summer, from the sexy saunter of "Dirty Blonde Bombshell" to the soaring romanticism of "I Go Back There All the Time," the heartbreak of "How Do I" to the exuberant collision of rock & roll and down-home country on "Turn It Up." Their songs are strong enough to have won the members a deal with Windswept Publishing before they'd hooked up with 903. As players, they know how to hit a down-home groove with razor-sharp musical chops – small wonder, since the lineup includes a multiple Grammy nominee and a former university music professor. (There's a lawyer in the mix too – but don't let that stop you from listening.)As for putting on a show … Well, they've passed the Neal McCoy test. That's all that needs to be said about that … except for this: It all becomes doubly amazing when you realize that the DDB has been together for only a little more than three years. Flash back to 2003. Drew Davis is prowling restlessly around L.A. Fresh off the bus from Benton, Missouri, fifty miles south of Kansas City, he left a routine of opening shows for Roy Clark, and showed up in California with a soulful voice – half sandpaper, half songbird – and a dream. Looking to pay the rent, he joined a cover band, whose guitar player was Drake, a talented multi-instrumentalist who was getting ready to hang up his sundry axes and put his law degree to some use. After getting together with Davis, though, he changed plans and hung up the law license instead. With that, the two started pursuing their plan to build a band that would rock the world. In no time they found another partner in crime … Roger Malinowski, whose keyboard wizardry had earned him a ticket to perform in Tokyo and an assignment as vocal and music director, not to mention a bunch of session bookings and several Grammy nominations. Though versed in every style, he settled easily onto the country foundation that Drake and Drew were laying down. Not long after that, that foundation strengthened with the arrival of … Loren Ellis, who unlike Davis, the Chicago-born Malinowski, and former West Indies resident Drake, came to L.A. all the way from … Malibu. Though raised around the Hollywood aristocracy, this music school grad and guitar whiz somehow developed a jones for country music. When his band opened at a club for Davis, they met, talked, hit it off, and just like that Loren was onboard. But Loren was working with another group too, a bluegrass outfit with a Billboard Top 10 album to its credit and a bass player named … Mo Levone, a young music professor at USC who played pretty much any kind of music you'd want. In fact, when Loren took Drew to hear him, Mo was performing at a Thai restaurant. But he obviously had country in his soul.From this point, with the DDB lineup confirmed, their story races forward along parallel lines. One traces their almost ridiculously quick ascendance that began when they auditioned for the Colgate Country Showdown. That was actually Mo's first gig with the band, yet just three months later they were awarded the national first prize. And then they were off, on an adventure that included several national television appearances, sets at major country music festivals Country Thunder and Country Stampede, and opening slots for Brooks & Dunn, Dierks Bentley, Craig Morgan, Tanya Tucker, SHeDAISY, and other giants.But an even more important story was underway, during the long hours on the bus as they rode from one concert to the next. "We started out so differently from each other," Davis explains. "But by going across the country, staying at each other's family's houses, and writing and playing, we've come to know everything about each other. That's what 'road-tested country' is all about: It means that when I'm singing 'How Do I,' I can look back to Roger and know that he knows where I'm at. We support each other so much onstage and in life that it's almost like we can read each other's mind. And when we walk off that stage, and the crowd is still screaming for us, it's like nothing can stop us."Produced by Eric Silver (Michelle Wright, Neal McCoy), their album debut captures the Drew Davis Band at a golden moment, their performance stronger than ever but their possibilities even more unlimited. What you hear on this CD is "road-tested country," played to perfection. But they're still going down that road, aimed somewhere far past the horizon. The wind is at their backs. They're jamming into high gear. It's clear: The Drew Davis Band is on this ride for the long haul.The Drew Davis Band is:
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The Drew Davis Band |
April 29th, 2007 |
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