SGA/CAB brings Old Dominion for free concert
Lead guitar, Brad Tursi, is also a well-known songwriter as well as musician.
One of country music’s hottest up-and-coming acts took Lovett Auditorium by storm on Tuesday night as part of Student Government Association and Campus Activities Board’s annual concert series.
Old Dominion performed to a crowd of about 100 students and community members. Old Dominion’s members include lead singer Matthew Ramsey, lead guitar Brad Tursi, acoustic guitar Trevor Rosen, bass Geoff Sprung and drums Whit Sellers.
The band’s current single “Break Up With Him,” is a song written to a woman giving her advice on breaking up with her boyfriend, but the band said the song is inspired by lots of true stories.
“The song is inspired by lots of true stories actually,” Ramsey said. “It happens to people all the time.”
“Break Up With Him” is the band’s favorite song to perform live at their shows because they said they love to see the crowd singing the words back to them.
Not only did the crowd in Lovett Auditorium sing the words to that song back to the band, the crowd was surprised to learn that Old Dominion is the musical brain behind many of their favorite country songs.
Ramsey, Tursi and Rosen are well established song writers in the music industry with hits like “Say You Do” performed by Dierks Bentley, “Better Dig Two” and “Chainsaw” performed by The Band Perry and “Ex To See” performed by Sam Hunt. All of which the band performed Tuesday night to the surprise of the crowd.
Old Dominion performs to a crowd of Murray State students and community members in Lovett Auditorium on Tuesday.
The band’s sound is not one that country listeners are used to hearing from other bands on the radio today.
“We are kind of a mixture of all the things we like and listen to,” Tursi said. “A lot of rock and roll and hip hop and obviously some country thrown in there, too.”
A special bonus to the evening was the appearance of the contestants from Saturday’s Miss MSU pageant. The girls threw on their pageant T-shirts, jeans and cowboy boots to get on stage and perform a dance with the band. The contestants danced to the band’s song “Break Up With Him” and enjoyed their few minutes in the spotlight to prepare them for Saturday’s show.
Although the band members are not yet where they hope to be in their career, they have big plans.
“Where do we see ourselves in one year?” Ramsey said. “At the top.”
Story by Breanna Sill, Features Editor