Artist Information
Old Dominion never stop moving. Before the paint had dried on 2023’s Memory Lane, the sketches for its successor were already gestating. That’s how the quintet — vocalist/guitarist Matthew Ramsey, guitarist Trevor Rosen, guitarist Brad Tursi, bassist Geoff Sprung, and drummer Whit Sellers — have operated since their critically-acclaimed 2015 debut, Meat And Candy. One tour tumbles into the next, albums are quick on each other’s heels, and forward momentum is never sacrificed no matter the accolades and awards that pile up along the way. “Our careers as songwriters were the foundation of this band,” Ramsey explains. “It’s one of our favorite things — just keep writing, just keep it going.” Soon enough, their sixth album, Barbara, came into focus.
Barbara arrives just in time for the tenth anniversary of Meat And Candy, marking a decade of fans getting to know Old Dominion. But the band’s roots go back to the ‘00s, when its individual members were slugging it out in the Nashville songwriting machine, finding success with chart topping singles for artists like Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, the Band Perry, Kelsea Ballerini and Blake Shelton. They founded Old Dominion in 2007, joining forces as seasoned songwriters now trying their hand at their own project. Success quickly followed: hit singles under their own name now, a host of record-setting ACM and CMA Awards, two GRAMMY nominations for 2020’s “Some People Do.” Once Old Dominion got going it was a whirlwind, sometimes leaving the band dazed at how surreal their lives had become. “There’s always this feeling of having to prove yourself,” Rosen reflects. “The other side of the coin is at this point we’ve built a real connection with a true fanbase. That’s where freedom comes in.”
After spending five albums achieving that freedom, further honing their craft, and establishing broad borders for their sound, Barbara is Old Dominion’s most eclectic collection yet. Across thirteen tracks, the band showcases all their personalities — from sly wordplay to earnest vulnerability, from country to pop and back again. When it came time to name an album that seemed the truest, most thorough representation of Old Dominion yet, they sifted through the customary list of inside jokes before deciding it would be cool to give it a person’s name, like it was their child. As for who Barbara might be, the band stay coy and winking. “My mom’s best friend is elated, at least,” Matthew Ramsey cracks.
The expansiveness of Barbara is clear from its opening moments. “Making Good Time” begins quiet, a rippling acoustic guitar and Ramsey’s conversational vocals. But soon the song blooms, surging forward on pulsing electronics, an infectious chorus, an earworm electric guitar figure. “I try to imagine being a fan, seeing the curtains open for a movie,” Rosen says of the song.
“One consistent thing in our writing is we like hooks,” Ramsey adds. “We’re always trying to add sparkle, something interesting. I feel like we dumped buckets of candy on that song.”
“Making Good Time” sets the stage as well as the stakes. From there, Old Dominion come armed with plenty of bangers. “Me Most Nights” is another unshakeable melody, as the band twists and turns the titular phrase to constantly add layers to the song’s narrative. “Late Great Heartbreak” was an in-studio experiment, a soul vamp as filtered through the big ‘80s hits by the likes of Huey Lewis. “What Doesn’t Kill a Memory” transposes a similar idea up a few decades, employing a slinky R&B groove. Jams like “Talk Country” and “Sip in the Right Direction” are right at home in Old Dominion’s wheelhouse, but refined over time — they echo early fan favorites like “Snapback,” but cleverly play with tropes and turns of phrase with an expert hand Old Dominion could only have with all the notes written and miles traveled since.
As those years passed, Old Dominion grew increasingly personal in their music. “Sometimes there’s nowhere new to go but inward,” Ramsey says. Barbara perfectly balances the uptempo singalongs built for arenas with more introspective tracks that could have only arrived at this juncture of Old Dominion’s career. Over a decade into their career, the quintet has the grain and gravity to reflect on losing friends (“Miss You Man”) as well as wondering if it’s too late for an enduring love. “Water My Flowers” flips romantic idioms on their head, a fittingly twilit simmer in which Ramsey wonders who will be left to tend to his grave. Everything coalesces in “Man or the Song,” a track that finds Old Dominion reflecting on their career, their success, but all the different selves they still have to occupy in normal life, and the unexpected challenges that have come with it all.
“That couldn’t have been on our first album,” Ramsey says. “We didn’t have the mental or emotional capability yet.”
“It would’ve been called ‘I Am The Song,’” Rosen laughs.
Accordingly, Barbara concludes with perhaps its most poignant composition. “Goodnight Music City” functions on multiple levels at once — a tribute to Nashville using a lyrical motif inspired by the children’s book Goodnight Moon and references only a local will get, a nod to the fan community that has thrived around Old Dominion, and a warm, humble reflection on the wild ride that has brought Old Dominion to this moment. Completed just a week before the band’s seven-night residency at the hallowed Ryman Auditorium, “Goodnight Music City” made its debut as the final song performed on the final night. “It caught me off guard and I started crying,” Tursi remembers. “This town has given us so much. We’re so fortunate.”
It’s as fitting a finale for Barbara as possible. On this album, Old Dominion are both the same band we’ve always known and a band they’ve never been before. All five guys still at it together, a true band-as-gang that’s rare in this day and age — whether in country or any other genre. After all these years, their individual voices and pens work together as one organism. Still cheeky, just a bit weathered, maybe a tad wiser, and bolder than ever thanks to all the shared experience.
“We do all of this together, and that sets us apart,” Rosen concludes. “If we’re excited about it, we have faith people will go along for the ride with us.”
