Old Dominion

Old Dominion arose during the waning days of bro-country, a genre the group’s five members were partially responsible for as authors of hits for Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, and Tyler Farr. As a band, Old Dominion were much softer and sweeter than the party-hearty legions of bro-country, straddling the line between contemporary pop and classic soft rock on their initial hits, 2015′s “Break Up with Him” and 2016′s “Snapback.” Working with producer/songwriter Shane McAnally helped the quintet stay hip and fresh, leading to a series of Country Airplay number one singles in the last few years of the 2010s, including “Song for Another Time,” “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart,” “Written in the Sand,” “Make It Sweet,” and “One Man Band.” After issuing their fourth long-player, Time, Tequila & Therapy, in 2021, Old Dominion scored their ninth number one Country Airplay hit with “Memory Lane” in 2023.
Comprising four Virginians — Matt Ramsey (lead singer, guitar), Geoff Sprung (bass, vocals), Whit Sellers (drums), Brad Tursi (guitar, vocals) — and Detroit’s Trevor Rosen (guitar, keyboards, vocals), the band formed in Nashville. Boasting top-flight modern country songwriters in Ramsey, Rosen, and Tursi (the Band Perry, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Chris Young, and Craig Morgan have all tracked Old Dominion songs), the group soon attracted a lot of attention. Working in the studio with Shane McAnally and Ilya Toshinsky, Old Dominion released a self-titled debut EP in the fall of 2014. The single “Break Up with Him” earned notice early the following year, due in part to the band’s Back to the Future-referencing video. In the summer of 2015, “Break Up with Him” went to number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay charts, setting the stage for the November release of their debut album, Meat & Candy, also produced by McAnally.
In March 2017, Old Dominion issued the single “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart,” the first song from their sophomore album. Produced by McAnally, Happy Endings appeared that August and included the hit “Written in the Sand,” their fifth consecutive platinum-certified single. The set topped the country charts and rose into the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. They issued the single “Make It Sweet” in October 2018 and embarked on a tour in anticipation of their eponymous third full-length album, which appeared a year later. As with their previous LP, Old Dominion occupied the top spot on the Country Albums chart and yielded another modest hit in “One Man Band.” In mid-2020, the group released the breezy “Everything to Lose,” and in 2021 they issued another summertime anthem, “I Was on a Boat That Day,” which was the first single from their fourth album. Titled Time, Tequila & Therapy, the record was released as a surprise in October 2021. It reached number 27 on the Billboard 200 and soared to number four on the Country Albums chart, subsequently generating the modest hit “No Hard Feelings.”
The breezy “Memory Lane” became Old Dominion’s ninth number one Country Airplay hit in 2023, setting up the release of an EP of the same name that June. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Steve Leggett