Millions thrilled to Craig Wayne Boyd’s victory in Season 7 of NBC’s “The Voice,” and now, fans can rejoice as the dynamic vocalist announces the long-awaited release of Top Shelf October 27 from Copperline Music Group.
Boyd, who recently announced to People Magazine that his wife Taylor and him are expecting a new baby, says that although it will be a crazy next few months, he is thrilled to be releasing his first full-length album since winning “The Voice.”
“I’ve felt so much love from people who supported me from day one! I am so excited to finally get to share some new music with those loyal fans and maybe win over a few new ones in the meantime,” Boyd said.
Throughout Top Shelf, Boyd goes way beyond that platform to a place that even his fans might not have anticipated. Top Shelf is a musical kaleidoscope - a whirl of celebration, heartbreak, the sweet pain of love, and the comfort of faith’s embrace. Boyd also co-penned “Better Together” on this latest release. From the buoyant “Stuck In My Head” to the dirty sound of “We Sweat,” Boyd presents himself as an artist of complex dimension, never satisfied with repeating himself but always true to his roots.
TOP SHELF TRACK LISTING: 1. Stuck In My Head 2. Somewhere In There 3. She’s Killing Me 4. Wild Ways 5. We Sweat 6. Everywhere You Go 7. Sweet Temptation 8. Better Together 9. Hold Me Up 10. Only In My Mind 11. Interlude 12. Presence of the Lord 13. Sweet Temptation Mini Jam
During his rise to fame, Boyd’s “My Baby’s Got A Smile on Her Face” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, becoming the second song (following Garth Brooks’ “More Than A Memory”) to achieve that level of chart success.
Growing up in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Mesquite, Boyd’s childhood was highly influenced by gospel and country music and he later became the choir director at his hometown church. After a trip to Nashville, life-changing events came his way. Boyd signed a publishing deal with EMI and after several years of prolific songwriting, he began touring heavily, logging more than 1,000 shows in four years, and toured with acts like Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser and Brantley Gilbert. In addition, Boyd also played with Rascal Flatts during their Vegas Riot! nine-show residency at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.
Currently, Boyd is criss-crossing the country visiting radio stations before the release of Top Shelf. For more information on Craig Wayne Boyd, follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
ARTIST: Craig Wayne BoydWith Special Guests David Adam Byrnes and Emily Minor VENUE: Sudan Shriners Auditorium - New Bern, NC DATE: March 21, 2015 REVIEWER: Jennifer Smith Follow Jenn on Twitter at @Lovinlyrics
If you've just started catching on to Craig Wayne Boyd because of The Voice, you've been missing one of country's best unknown artists. We started promoting Craig in 2009 while he was making the rounds in Nashville and always seeming to be just out of reach of that much needed break, all I can say is welcome to the year of CWB Y'all!
His break came in a HUGE way, by being chosen for #TeamBlake on NBC's hit vocal talent show, "The Voice" and taking it all the way to the winning title with a couple of near misses including a steal from #TeamGwen and then being stolen again back to #TeamBlake. He's gone from a local fringe wearing honky tonkin' cowboy and now walks the path to country super stardom all in a matter of less than a year. He is only the second artist other than Garth Brooks to debut a single ("My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face") at #1 right out of the gate on the Billboard chart. He started out playing for bar crowds and now he's entertaining an entire worldwide fan base of dedicated, hardcore fans called the "Yallers". If you're on social media, you've seen his name virtually everywhere.
When we arrived at the venue, Craig met us outside the bus with a hug, looking all CWB casual in his Jim Beam t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of sunglasses. He's always been cool but he totally redefines the word now. We stood outside and caught up for a bit and then went inside the bus to attempt our interview for the website. Well that just went to hell between the mob outside screaming for Craig to come out and the interruptions and technical glitches with the camera so we just kinda had to wing it and it turned out to be pretty fun, won't even tell you how much laughing was going on in there. Craig's such a genuine guy, nothing arrogant or standoffish about him at all. He's very humble, honest and appreciative and that has won thousands of hearts. We were mid-interview and I heard this Arkansas accent that could only mean one thing, David Adam Byrnes was in the area. David walks in and all I heard was "Aw hell" and was smothered in a bear hug. Having promoted David about as long as Craig, I knew tonight was gonna be a double doozie of top shelf country music and could not wait for those who hadn't seen either perform to finally get their chance.
The crowd was very good, more than I had expected with New Bern being such a small town and not only was the crowd a good size, they were ALL there for Craig. You could hear rumblings through the crowd about his accomplishments, stories from Yallers that had traveled from other states to be here, and excitement from those who were just anxious to see him in person. David Adam Byrnes was first up and personally, I think he should just be known as David "A-DAYYYUM" Byrnes because this boy represents everything country stands for and more. He's got that twang, the tight fitting jeans and that southern boy charm that no woman, and hell probably no man these days, can resist. He is southern charm wrapped in a good lookin' burrito of vocal talent. From the first note, he has you remembering the days of Garth, sawdust floors, line dancing and huge belt buckles. He got this crowd on their feet and moving to his song "My Kind Of Crowd", his new one that's going out to country radio soon (and y'all better request the crap out of it), "Alcoholiday", a few others and finally wrapping up his set with my favorite, "She Only Wanted Flowers" from his first CD.
Up next was local artist from Wilmington, NC, Emily Minor. I'd heard her name for the past few years around town and through other artists so I was anxious to hear what she had to offer. What a strong voice in a tiny package! She can belt it with the best of them. She performed her own music and there were 3 songs that I liked so much that I went right to iTunes and bought them - "Good Luck Finding Me", "What You Might Say" and "Highway Habit." Great set and well received by the crowd. She's got a new EP coming out soon, be on the look out!
Finally the guys from Thunder Country came out and the crowd went absolutely insane. Not crazy, but insane. You couldn't even hear them finish announcing .. it went something like "Are y'all ready for Craig Wa .. (insert deafening thunder of cheering and "hell yeahs"here)." Man this was gonna be damn good and damn good doesn't even start to describe the level of good to be honest. Good is actually the only 4 letter word I can use that's somewhat friendly enough to use in an article. LOL! Holy Fringenation! I forgot how amazing this guy is live. For someone that's only had 5 days to himself since The Voice ended, who's running on a few hours sleep a night and who's a single dad missing his "Mini-Me", you'd never know any of that from the level of energy Craig puts into a show. As he told me in the bus, "the show must always go on". He may sing about his baby having a smile on her face but tonight, there were smiles plastered across the faces of everyone in this crowd.
His band is top shelf at the very least. I knew Jeff Jenkins from his days of playing guitar for Brian Davis and knew he was a quality musician but wasn't familiar with the rest of his band, they ALL proved they had what it takes to make a show kick ass. Craig's voice was smooth, he interacted with the crowd and was smiling most of the performance. When he performs, you can see that he not only takes his talent seriously, but that he takes the fact that everyone in that room paid for a five star performance seriously. It's obvious that he loves music and that he loves performing for others and man do they love having him do it. He sang his own music like "Blood, Sweat and Beer", the new single, "My Baby's Got A Smile on Her Face", a couple of new songs "Nothing Looks Good on You" and what I hope will be his next single, his auto-biographical song "I'm Still Here", his personalized emotional tribute to his late friend Wayne Mills with "I Walk The Line", incorporated covers like "Tush" by ZZ Top, "The Whiskey Ain't Workin' Anymore" by Travis Tritt, a fantastic duet of "Dust on the Bottle" and "The Fireman" with David "A-DAYYYUM" Byrnes, "Workin' Man Blues", "You Look So Good In Love" and a few others and ended the night exactly how it should have ended, with a song of appreciation and gratitude, "The Old Rugged Cross", the song that was a huge breakout moment for him on The Voice. There weren't too many dry eyes in the house. I honestly hated to see it end but it had to because he had 5 days off and it was time to get home.
Thank you to Craig, David and Emily for a great night - for keeping it real and keeping it country. If any of these artists are in your area, it's worth your time and money to grab a ticket and hit the show. I don't just recommend it, I'll put a boot in your ass if you don't. So there!
Thank you to Thunder Country and the Shriners for hosting a great night of music and getting to know our community. We appreciate your efforts! Craig Wayne Boyd
Thank you to Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of NBC's hit series, "The Voice", and a longtime friend of ours, for taking what little free time he has to himself to agree to sharing some of it with us for an interview. We know his time is very limited and he's very gracious to allow us to be part of it. The entire interview was supposed to be video, but due to interruptions and equipment issues, we had to take part of it and make it a written interview. We were able to salvage bits and pieces on video.
Lovin Lyrics: We're here with THE VOICE, Craig Wayne Boyd. He's been the voice to us for a long time now.
CWB: Awww, you're too sweet. Lovin' Lyrics: How are ya? How are you getting used to all of this?
CWB: I am doing well. I'm not sure you ever really get used to it. I just keep my nose to the grindstone and don't pay attention to the rest of it. Lovin' Lyrics: One day you can walk down the street and have total anonymity and the next day everyone knows who you are.
CWB: Yeah, that's true. Um, it's different but it's what I signed up for. Lovin' Lyrics: You're not an overnight success story like everyone thinks you are. You've worked so hard for it.
CWB: Right, yeah. I've been doing it a long time, kickin' the streets. Lovin' Lyrics: We've known you since 2009 when we met you through Buddy. Now it's like "OMG! That's Craig on The Voice! Craig just won the freakin' Voice!"
CWB: And that was the second go around in Nashville. It's been a long time for sure. Lovin' Lyrics: It has to be stressful but you'd never know it from how you just glide through it. You're so cool with everyone.
CWB: I think it was kindergarten that they voted me "least likely to have a heart attack" just because I'm so laid back. (Laughs) Lovin' Lyrics: So everyone has asked you about your background, told your story about how you almost gave up and were close to being homeless. We know you had to use a screwdriver to start your truck sometimes. What's something about you that we don't know?
CWB: Ha! Since I've had my new truck, I think I've put maybe 15 miles on it ! There's really not much to tell, I've told everything. I'm pretty much an open book, nothing to hide, I've been very open, probably more open than I should be. I've told the bad, the good, the ugly and the indifferent.
Lovin' Lyrics: Is there anything people would be surprised to know about you?
CWB: I like to cook! I have a brand new grill. Probably one of my favorites to make is Asian Green Beans that are to die for. It includes brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, crushed red pepper. The recipe is listed in the recipes section on my Facebook. Go check it out!
Lovin' Lyrics: Does that travel well overnight in case you should want to send some to a certain music promoter who's in this room right now?
CWB: Oh, it's much better the next day. Lovin' Lyrics: So your huge breakout moment on "The Voice", the one that really grabbed America's attention, was the performance of a hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross" which I thought was fantastic, the perfect choice. Was that your decision to perform and if it was, did it get any negative feedback or discouragement from the show?
Hear Craig Talk about His Song Choices on "The Voice"
Lovin' Lyrics: Well, I bawled through the whole thing, I'm not gonna lie. (laughs) ... because just seeing you up there and knowing what you've gone through to get there and seeing you play in the honkytonks, seeing you in the rounds and then seeing you at that point finally getting your redemption was a great thing to see and I know that everyone in the neighborhood heard me when I screamed when you won. (Craig laughs). So, when you were standing up there and it comes down to you and Matt, how did you keep from fainting? I would have fallen right on the floor.
CWB: Um, they had told us ahead of time that if we won, be prepared to sing and that's all I was thinking. It was "Oh my goodness, I gotta sing, pull it together." ... (shrugs shoulders) ... That's all I was thinking. My son was up there and I was like "They want me to sing, everybody's expecting me to sing." ... (laughs) ... that's all I could think. But I've always been that guy, like, the show must go on no matter what happens. Like when I broke this ... (rubs his shoulder) ... the folks out in Macon, GA probably remember I showed up the day after I broke my collarbone, I snapped my shoulder. I was up there, I took my sling off and held onto my suit jacket and played the whole show. I was bound and determined I wasn't gonna show that I was hurt because the show must go on and that's always been my mentality.
Lovin' Lyrics: Sounds like you've had a pretty strong upbringing.
CWB: Yeah (smiles).
Lovin' Lyrics: Like I said, we all kinda "met" your family on the show
CWB: My dad is one of those guys that ... it doesn't matter if he's sick as a dog, he's gonna go drive his truck.
Lovin' Lyrics: They seem like such sweet people.
CWB: My mom is a very determined person too. I got it from both sides.
Lovin' Lyrics: I love how they get on your Twitter or Facebook and jump in for you, defend you, speak up for you when it needs to be done. That's pretty great that they're so interactive with it.
CWB: Yeah, absolutely. They're pretty great.
Lovin' Lyrics: Ok, so your new single out is "My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face" which Blake held back. I guess he'd had it for a long time waiting on the perfect voice to come along to sing it, it wasn't right for him and here you were.
CWB: He's had it since ... um ... I wanna say that song was written in 1998 or so. It's been around awhile.
Lovin' Lyrics: It's doing very well.
CWB: It debuted at #1 on the sales chart, tied with Garth. It was very cool. It goes to show that my style of country is relevant.
Lovin' Lyrics: I've always loved your style and I think, along with a lot of others, that you're gonna be the new voice of country music and kinda bring it back where it started.
CWB: It will not be for the lack of trying.
Lovin' Lyrics: So you've got this huge social media following, enormous, country wide, world wide, heck, I'm waiting on Mars to start a Yallers group. They're all called Yallers after your Twitter handle, CWBYall.
CWB: What a blessing. Ya know, it's funny how that name even got started. I um ... the Y'all started ... I walked into, at the time it was Blue Bar in Nashville, and a fella, Blue Foley, he was like "It's Craig Wayne Boyd ya'll!" and I was like "Where did you come up with that???" He said "Dude, you need to listen to your voicemail." I was like "What?" So I went and checked it and evidently I had had a little too much to drink one night and um, my voicemail had messed up and so I was having to do a little thing on it. It said please state your name and evidently I said "Craig Wayne Boyd Y'all"... (laughs) ... I forgot that I did it and so everybody would call my phone and hear "Craig Wayne Boyd Y'all" and that's where it all started ... and now ya know!
Lovin' Lyrics: Well these fans are rabid. I mean rabid. As long as I've been doing Twitter and social media, I've never seen a fan base this protective and 100% dedicated to an artist like the Yallers are with you. It's great to see it so widespread and positive. It's all age groups, male, female.
CWB: It's amazing and I'm so thankful. Yeah, it's crazy. It's from 15 years old to 83, 84 I think is the oldest? It's a Yaller that's active. It's crazy. They really are the best fans ever.
Lovin' Lyrics: So on social media, people don't seem to realize that although you do answer your tweets and comments when you can, that your schedule doesn't allow you the time to be on constantly and that is a huge reason you can't respond to each and every person as much as you'd love to. Tell me what a typical day in the life of CWB looks like now that you've won the show.
CWB: My typical day, um, for instance ... in Vegas ... and that was a non travel date. It started at 6 in the morning and I got up with about 30 minutes to get myself together for my first radio call. And then, uh, yeah, that was at 6:30am, and then I had a 6:45am call, then a 7:15am call, and then get ready and run downstairs for a 9:00am on camera interview with the local TV station. Then I had a magazine come in and wanted to do a sit down interview which was 30 minutes and I did that and then went and did a charity event with Gary LeVox where we shaved people's heads and that was at noon, left there and at 3pm we had the stage, set up all of our equipment, checked our systems, our inner ears, had sound check, and then by the time we were done with that it was 6:30pm. I ran back to my hotel room, got dressed, was back down by 7:30pm and on stage at 8:00pm. I played from 8pm to 8:45pm, then had meet and greets at 8:45pm, then after show interviews and dinner, then got back to the room for a couple hours sleep before getting up to do it all over again.
(Tour manager interrupts and let's Craig know we need to wrap it up because his meet and greet is ready.)
Lovin' Lyrics: I promised a few Yallers that I'd ask you a few of their questions. Cheryl Daigle wants to know how many tattoos you have and what your favorite whiskey is.
Craig Answers Cheryl's Question
Lovin Lyrics: Tina from the street team wants to know if you ever heard from George Strait after performing his song on The Voice.
Craig Answers Tina's Question
Lovin' Lyrics: Brian Struxness wants to know how long it usually takes you to write a song and how easy is it for you to come up with ideas for songs?
