Brantley Gilbert grew up in Jefferson, Ga. within earshot of Athens, home of R.E.M., the B-52s and other alternative rockers. Gilbert never lost his love for music with an edgy spirit, yet as he started exploring his capacity for writing and performing, an ability to document the pleasures and pains, frustrations and triumphs of life asserted itself as well and nudged him closer to Country’s truth-telling tradition.After surviving a potentially fatal automobile accident, Gilbert resolved to follow his muse into music. He began as a solo act, but as his rock ‘n’ roll side started getting restless, he beefed up his presentation and began pumping out his songs over a bed of slamming drums and snarling electric guitar.
The momentum stirred by his shows bore Gilbert to Nashville, where he signed with Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, scored several cuts with other artists and ultimately inked his own record deal with Average Joe’s Entertainment. The result is Halfway to Heaven, produced by Gilbert, The Atom Brothers, Jonathan Waggoner and Jess Franklin. Each of these dozen songs was co-written by Gilbert and most, including the ballads, delivered with a confident bravado powered by his fusion of Country narrative lyricism and willingness to rock the house hard.
On the album’s debut single, “Kick It in the Sticks,” which Gilbert wrote with Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, this combination rings loud and true. After a barely audible chuckle, Gilbert cranks the ignition and we’re off into a landscape where AC/DC and George Strait share space on the radio dial, moonshine whiskey pours near barbed wire fences, “jacked up trucks” are “covered in mud,” and “the hippies and the hicks” party with “jocks and bikers.” It’s not exactly a pastoral vision, but as a portrait of what Gilbert dubs “the dirty, dirty South,” it is both exhilarating and totally believable.
IN HIS OWN WORDS Q&A
DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Wynonna Judd.”
CD IN YOUR STEREO
“Slipknot.”
SONG YOU SING IN THE SHOWER
“‘I’m Too Sexy,’ by Right Said Fred.”
LUCKY CHARM
“Spur on my left boot.”
PET PEEVE
“Ferrets.”
