Old Dominion coming to BankNH Pavilion for 2 dates

LACONIA — Ahead of the release of their sixth studio album “Barbara,” Old Dominion is set to take centerstage at BankNH Pavilion on July 5-6, as they continue on their How Good Is That World Tour. 

“Always excited to get up there, that’s one of the best places to play,” lead singer Matthew Ramsey said last week.

The country music band, hot on the heels of their eighth consecutive Academy of Country Music Award, is led by Ramsey, a singer and songwriter, who said “building Barbara” was a nearly two-year process, and represents some of their best work. The album is set for release on Aug. 22. 

“We’re just super excited, man. It’s one of the best collections of songs we’ve put together yet. We’re super proud of our songwriting and our performances on the album, there’s just something for everybody,” Ramsey said. “People seem to be really excited about all the teasing we’ve been doing and the artwork gets people talking — there’s a lot of really good energy around this album right now.”

"Barbara" is a 13-track album that combines the band’s signature melodic, guitar-driven style with new and matured reflections on love, life and mortality. They released a single, “Man or the Song,” on Friday.

It’s the culmination of nearly two decades of trials and tribulations, blood, sweat and tears.

“We certainly grow as players, we tour constantly — we’ve been on all kinds of tours, we’re on a world tour right now — the more shows you play the better you get at performing and at your instrument,” Ramsey said. “We’ve been writing songs now for 20-plus years in Nashville. That’s a muscle in itself, the more you write the better you get.”

As they’ve grown older, Ramsey said, they’re better at connecting with their own emotions. 

“We’ve probably become a little bit more fruity with our songwriting in terms of speaking about things we care about, or getting a little bit more personal on this album,” Ramsey said. “It’s always fun, you never really know how you’re growing until you look back and listen to your whole catalogue.”

Most of the band — comprising Ramsey, Trevor Rose, Whit Sellers, Geoff Sprung and Brad Tursi — hail from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Their experiences growing up down south influenced their outlook and, ultimately, their sound.

“Most of us grew up there, I’m personally from a really small town, it was a lot of bluegrass and old-time and old school country — a lot of music history there — but also, we were products of the radio, really,” he said. “We had lots of hit songs and all different genres coming at us from all different directions, so it all kind of finds its way in there.”

Growing up a kid who loved music, Ramsey probably couldn’t have predicted he’d one day be enshrined in the pantheon of great American country music. But, after decades of hard work, that’s where he’s at — Old Dominion's recent ACM award broke records for most consecutive wins and and the most in a single category, and they’ve won seven consecutive Country Music Association awards, too.

“It’s definitely an amazing feeling to be included in that conversation at all — to have broken the record is pretty mind-blowing,” he said. “As any artist does, we’ve dealt with a fair amount of imposter syndrome throughout our career, but the longer it goes and the longer we’re recognized like that, it really helps us feel like we belong here and we’re very, very proud to become a part of the fabric of country music and the history of country music. We’ll be able to look back on that one day and be able to be very proud and have lots of stories to tell our grandkids.”

Down the line, Ramsey said the band will keep on keeping on, doing what they already know works.

“We just want to keep growing. Our progress has always been a slow and steady climb, we’ve never been a ‘shoot to the top overnight’ kind of band. It’s always been consistently climbing upwards,” he said. “Ultimately, we just want to keep doing that, we want to keep playing shows, building our fanbase, writing the best song we possibly can.

“We don’t think too large like that, we don’t set our sights on some huge goal other than how can we write the best song we possibly can, and how can we serve our audience the best we can when we go out and play those shows,” he said. “That seems to have served us well and kept that pace of growth.”

Their current tour is massive, with stops all around the country and across the world. 

“It’s equal parts beautiful and challenging,” he said. “We’re getting to live our dreams — that’s the beautiful thing.”

But the grind of tour life can be difficult.

“It’s not as luxurious as people may think,” he said. “It’s tough to find a good shower, it’s tough to get good sleep, you’re never home. When you get home and all the food in your fridge is spoiled and the trash isn’t taken out — you don’t have much time to stay grounded, so you have to find ways to do that on the road.”

Bringing his dog along, Eddy — a mix of red heeler and pit bull — helps keep a sense of normalcy, too. 

The audience at BankNH Pavilion can expect a whole lot of fun, Ramsey said, noting they play the hits and take requests, so every show is different.

“To have people feel better than they did when they got there, when they leave the show,” he said. “We want to bring levity, we want to bring a good time. We all have challenges, the world is insane right now — it always is in some way, shape or form — people have hard lives, paying your bills is stressful, we just want to give some relief for a few hours.”