4th Number One for multi-platinum band
by Preshias Harris
It was celebration time on Monday, July 15, for the Eli Young Band and three of America’s hottest songwriters. They were joined by record label executives, music publishers and other music industry bigwigs at the Sutler in Nashville. The reason? A Number One party for Eli Young Band’s fourth career chart-topper, “Love Ain’t.”
The guys in the Eli Young Band are some of Nashville’s most respected musicians with a career together stretching back more than twenty years. “Love Ain’t” is their first No. 1 song in six years.
“How do you keep your band cool for twenty years? Well, you never veer from your artistic vision or the integrity of every note that you play.” – Scott Borchetta, CEO, Big Machine Label Group
“Love Ain’t” was written by three songwriting superstars: Shane McAnally, Ashley Gorley and Ross Copperman. It was the 42nd No. 1 for Gorley and the 19th No. 1 for Copperman, a two-time BMI Country Songwriter of the Year. With numerous No. 1 credits, McAnally is also one of the on-screen talent producers for the NBC-TV reality series ‘Songland.’
How “Love Ain’t” got to Eli Young
During the media session before the presentations, I asked Ashley if, when he was writing the song with Shane and Ross, he could ‘hear’ a band singing it as opposed to solo male artist. (Note: Shane McAnally and Ross Copperman were unable to attend the media session.)
“A lot of times now, if you’re like me, you’re working directly with an artist or it’s a camp or a certain circle that you work your way into. Or an artist calls on you to go out on the road and write with them or something like that,” said Ashley. “So the days are few and far between as far as trying to find the best song in the room that day, having no idea who it would sound good for. So it was kind of a refreshing, cool thing when Shane, Ross and I did this. All we knew was that we really loved the song, but we didn’t know who it should be for right away when we left. We weren’t like, ‘oh, this person would be exactly right’ or anything like that.
“It took some different people, Ryan Beuschel [V.P. A&R] at Warner/Chappell pitched it, a lot of people pitched it around. Allison Jones [V.P. A&R] at Big Machine and Valory in particular are great at finding ‘homes’ for songs. We knew we loved the song but we were like, ‘Here, we don’t know.’ Everybody kinda connected the dots. Mike Eli’s voice is very specific, very recognizable, so we were like, ‘That would be awesome if they would cut it.’ Once it all clicked together and they [the Eli Young Band] wanted to hold it and everything, then it all started lining up and making sense.”
“Love Ain’t” becomes reality
Not long after that, Mike Eli and Ashley Gorley happened to be on the same plane and began to talk. Ashley said to Mike, “Dude, I heard you guys might like one of my songs.” Mike confirmed that they were planning to cut “Love Ain’t.” At that point, for Ashley it became a reality. “Once we knew they were going with it, we got really excited about it,” he said.
“Love Ain’t” was produced by one of Nashville’s top hitmakers, Dann Huff. Eli Young Band’s new single, “Break It In,” also produced by Huff, dropped in June. “Break It In” was written by Benjy Davis, Brandon Day, Daniel Ross and Michael Whitworth.
The celebration was co-hosted by ASCAP, BMI and GMR, the performing rights organizations representing the three songwriters.
Music and tour info at Eli Young Band’s website and on Facebook.
Preshias Harris is a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com