Country music has always had a flair for the theatrical, from artists dressed in eye-popping suits or dresses, and wielding sparkling guitars, to the genre's highly detailed history songs.
So connecting the genre with stories, live musical performances and high-flying acrobatics is a natural fit in the upcoming Cirque du Soleil show Songblazers: A Journey into Country Musicopening at the Nashville Performing Arts Center (TPAC) today (July 2). Songblazerswritten and directed by Amy Tinkham, plays at TPAC through July 28.
The show serves as “a love letter to country music,” says UMG Nashville president/CEO Cindy Mabe. Advertising sign.
The production's story focuses on the journey of two characters as they work to chart their own path to country music stardom. UMG Nashville presents the new show with Cirque du Soleil, with much of the label's country music catalog providing the heart and soundtrack for the production. The show features around 30 songs, with shorter snippets of some songs appearing, while others are performed in full.
“I'm sitting on this incredible catalog and watching the story unfold through the different eras and landscapes of country music,” says Mabe.
One of those decades-spanning links comes primarily through the work of UMG Nashville artist Sam Williams, a third-generation country music performer who is the son of Hank Williams Jr. and grandson of country music architect Hank Williams, Sr. -wrote the original song “Carnival Heart” especially for Songblazersmarking the only complete song recently written for the event.
“Carnival Heart” focuses on discovering renewed confidence, strength and uniqueness within oneself, despite external and internal battles, depicted in lyrics such as “I found the magic was hidden inside me/ There beneath all the sadness, somewhere in deep and in the dark.”
“I write quite a bit of autobiography, and this was one thing that I felt, to make it as good as possible, really had to come from me,” Williams says. Advertising sign. “What is my story? I don't think any of our lives are as beautiful or as elegant as people think on the outside. I wrote it at a time when I felt like a me-against-the-world narrative that I get sometimes, but in a good way — I felt like I could do anything through a power that's bigger than me. So I thought, “I'm going to write this chorus and sing the hell out of it.”
He adds to him Songblazers“It's a beautiful marriage of comedy and music and celebration and country music and I think it's going to be unlike anything anyone's ever seen.”
The show marks Cirque's first venture using country music. “Working with this new specific genre of music challenges our creative team to innovate and find unique ways to interpret the music,” said Cirque du Soleil CEO Stéphane Lefebvre. Advertising sign in an earlier interview. “It pushes the boundaries of what's possible in live entertainment. It looks like Love and MJ One have taught us that the synergy between our outstanding performances and the power of music can create a powerful and exciting live experience, and we are confident that combining our expertise with the country music genre, including artists from Universal's vast repertoire Music Group, it will be a successful collaboration”.
The story of the theatrical event was not complete when Mabe mentioned Williams' name in the meetings.
“I said, 'Let me tell you why Sam is so special,'” he recalls, “because I feel like he's going to touch a different culture and a different group of people — not unlike what his father has done and his grandfather has does, because they all did it uniquely. I first heard Sam's music during the pandemic, when everything on the radio was a party, and about escaping what was happening around the world. But he did his own thing. He wasn't looking for me, he wasn't looking for a record deal. He's been through a lot, and his music just tugs at his soul.”
Mabe points to a musical moment where the main character sings Hank Williams Sr.'s classic “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,” followed by a musical breakdown with a recording of Hank Sr.'s voice, which then matches show me closer, “Carnival Heart”.
“That moment at the end of the show, it almost brings me to tears when I see it — because it completely connects him to his grandfather, who he never met. But you can feel his voice and it's loud,” says Mabe.
Elsewhere, songs from all eras of country music's prominence are featured—like Billy Ray Cyrus' 1992 hit “Achy Breaky Heart,” as the soundtrack to a honky-tonk dance scene. Later, when Shania Twain's 1999 hit “Man! I feel like a woman!” two female acrobats kick things off as they twirl, flip and spin from a bar and ropes suspended high above the stage floor — often hanging precariously from each other as they complete their aerial, graceful acrobatic moves .The late Toby Keith's party hit “Red Solo Cup” also takes center stage as a performer juggles red cups while the rest of the cast watches and cheers. Other songs featured include “Down to the River to Pray” (a song that featured prominently in the 2000 film Oh brother, where art thou?) and the Willie Nelson-penned hit “Hello Walls,” which became a hit for Faron Young in the 1960s.
“Seeing all these lines of who we are in country music, from the circle that's unbroken to these things that have held us together as a genre, is a gift,” says Mabe.
After opening in Nashville, Songblazers will visit Birmingham, Ala. St. Louis, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Fayetteville, Ark.; New Orleans; Tulsa, Okla. Baltimore? Green Bay, Wisc.; Dallas and Sugar Land, Texas.
As the series criss-crosses the US, Williams continues to carve out his unique place in country music. In 2021, Williams released his debut album Glasshouse guys. Songblazers opens as Williams has just released his latest work, Scarlet Lonesome: Act 1, the first part of a trilogy of albums to be released in the coming months. The new release features, in addition to several original songs, Williams teaming up with fellow artist Carter Faith for a delightful cover of the Tammy Wynette classic “Til I Can Make It on My Own.”
“It's a wide range of music,” he says of the overall trilogy. “I wanted to present the music in three different pieces so I could paint a different picture for each one. Act 1 it paints a picture that is very romantic and a little dark. Afterward, [in the trilogy] there's music that's introspective and emotional, but there's also really big pop records and really fun trap beats.
“Sam's going to bring a whole different audience to country music that hasn't been here before,” Maym says, adding, “There's been nobody like him before, but he's absolutely a Williams.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/songblazers-cirque-du-soleils-country-music-1235723160/
