By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
While the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt to in-person concerts, one local band is channeling its energies into creating new music, much to the delight of its growing fanbase in Europe, Australia, and the United States.
On Friday, the Sunset Sinners released another song, Way To Go, which drummer Blake Blackim describes as "a cool up-tempo country hitkicker."
"The catch 22 with the COVID crisis is that we had a lot of live shows canceled. The flip side is it gave us time to write and record a lot of new music. We will now have a full album out late this spring or early summer" Blackim said.
The band's first single and music video, Always Time For One More Beer, has garnered a great deal of attention throughout the Midwest, Texas and Deep South, as well as in France, the Czech Republic, and other parts of Europe, Blackim noted. The video now has approximately 500,000 views and that number keeps growing.
READ: 'Heavy hitter' Nashville songwriters behind latest Sunset Sinners single
"We really write realistic songs about real life, events, and people, which I think people can relate to," Blackim explained. "We are also all about honoring military, veterans, first responders, and folks in the healthcare industry. We are super excited about an upcoming release of a new song called Old Glory that’s a patriotic ballad that’s about honoring the flag and the folks that made the sacrifice to sign up for any form of military service. The song has been recorded and music video footage shot. We’re just trying to figure out the best time to release."
The Sunset Sinners also recently released another music video for its song Friday Night, a song that was written by two heavy hitter Nashville songwriters from Anthem Entertainment/Publishing: Randy Montana, who wrote Luke Combs' Beer Never Broke My Heart, and Blake Chaffin, who has written for Brantley Gilbert, Logan Mize, and Rodney Atkins.
Blackim said that Always Time For One More Beer, Friday Night, Way To Go, and another recent Sinner single, Hell To Pay, are in rotation on more than 150 stations in France and other parts of Europe.
The airtime is paying off as fans from Europe are reaching out to the band. Blackim said he recently sent some autographed photos to fans in France.
"We are very accessible and with social media, it’s easy to contact us," Blackim said.
"Honestly, they love us," he continued. "From what I can tell, they just like straight up rock 'n' roll and southern rock. We created our own genre, whiskey barrel rock, which is basically a fusion of southern and classic '70s rock with some red dirt country, so it seems to fit in well. I also think its music everyone can relate to as the Beer song is basically an anthem that seems to strike a chord. I also feel that they like discovering new music/bands from the U.S."
Additionally, fans from afar can get Sinner swag, including hats and t-shirts, from the band's website, whiskeybarrelrock.com.
So how does a band located in the middle of the United States build a fanbase in Europe?
"In our case, a Nashville radio promo company reached out to us as they really liked Always Time For One More Beer and thought it could do really well and be picked up by stations in the U.S. and internationally," Blackim said. "As luck would have it, I had a radio producer and DJ from France, Johnny Da Piedade, reach out and really loved our music, videos, and vibe."
Da Piedade's programs, Big Country Cactus and BCC Rocks, go out to stations all over France and in other parts of Europe, Blackim explained.
"The real cool part about this is that they also have a show that features select USA bands with their music and music videos. It’s called Les News De Nashville hosted by Allison," Blackim said. "It’s a really cool show that is basically letting folks over there know what new music and bands are coming out of Nashville and the USA. The Sunset Sinners are being featured this week."
In addition to having their music played in Europe, the Sunset Sinners also are receiving quite a bit of airplay in Australia, as well as some in the United States.
"There’s a station now in Nebraska that currently has three Sinner songs in rotation. It’s a bit harder to get U.S. airplay unless signed to a major label as everyone is basically fighting for position," Blackim said.
Of course, there also are online options for listening to the Sunset Sinners.
"All of our music is available on all streaming services: Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc. We have a distribution company that distributes all of our music to all streaming services. We also have our own YouTube channel that features all of our videos and promos. We have some pretty comical YouTube promo videos that we did for Miller Lite," Blackim explained.
While radio and online play provides fans with listening options, a number of them continue to ask when the next in-person concert will happen.
"We get asked a lot when the next show is. We have a full live schedule with some really cool festivals and concerts starting June 1. I do not see too much for live shows happening before then and I hope this summer gets back to some normalcy," Blackim said.