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CMT TOP 5 VIDEO
Who is Trailer Choir? The fun loving entertainers who rocked thousands on Toby Keith's tours and signed to Toby Keith's Show Dog label? Three seriously determined writers and musicians? Are they defined by the party anthem "Rockin' The Beer Gut" or the heart-wrenching "What Would You Say?" or the new summer anthem "Rollin' Through the Sunshine"?
Yes would be the answer. They are all of the above and much more.
Named About.com's Best New Country Duo/Group in 2009, the trio has made a notable impression on country music. Trailer Choir started as a loose association of musicians and singers, usually including Butter and Big Vinny, traveling the Southeast playing private parties and frat houses. But Butter and Big Vinny never intended Trailer Choir to be the vehicle for their ultimate ambitions. The two met when Big Vinny, hailing from tiny Linden, Tennessee, rented an office in Nashville for the sole purpose of having a base of operations from which to pursue songwriting.
"Turns out, my space was right next to Butter's office-slash-apartment-slash-futon," Big Vinny says. "We were both consumed with songwriting, and Trailer Choir was really just a way to find gigs and make money."
Butter, from Ashtabula, Ohio, grew from the class clown with dreams of a future in baseball into an unexpected devotee of music after winning a school talent show. His focus quickly became singular, leading him to Nashville. "As Big Vinny and I got deeper into Trailer Choir and saw our fan base grow, we started to allow the thought that this might be bigger than the sum of its parts."
That total grew exponentially when one of their earliest fans made an unusual demand. "I jumped on stage with them one night," Crystal says. "I was getting frustrated because one of their songs really needed a female harmony so I just took over a microphone."
The Cheneyville, Louisiana native left her hometown at 19 with a potent voice, and a month's rent in her pocket. Her Nashville experience started in a familiar way – long on struggle, short on just about everything else. Meeting Big Vinny and Butter, and quickly developing a musical connection with them, put Crystal – and Trailer Choir – on a much different course.
The group's momentum reached new heights when, after yet another packed show, Toby Keith introduced himself. "And then it was off to the races," Big Vinny says. Trailer Choir were soon on a tour bus headed out on Toby's Big Dog Daddy tour, where they played side stages, beer stands, parking lots – anywhere they could find fans to listen. "Toby said get your stuff, get a band, just get out there introduce yourselves and play," Butter says.
Keith's fans enthusiastically embraced the band and their good-time sound. Songs "Off The Hillbilly Hook," "In My Next 5 Beers," "Rollin' Through The Sunshine" and "Rockin' The Beer Gut," as well as their "did you see that?" stage show, led to a multitude of accomplishments including shows opening for Keith, performances at the CMA Music Festival and National Finals Rodeo, "Off The Hillbilly Hook" featured in the movie and soundtrack of the feature film Beer For My Horses, and the original song "Last Man Standing" used by ESPN & ABC in a national NASCAR promotion. And all this activity culminated in the release of the EP Off The Hillbilly Hook, produced by Keith himself which has been a sales success on both digital and physical platforms.
Trailer Choir has unleashed their newest "creation" and soon to be summer time anthem, "Rollin' through the Sunshine." Leave it to Trailer Choir to release an up-tempo, summer time rave while most of the country is still digging out of inches of snow.
"This song is pure Trailer Choir," Crystal says. "Sometimes you need an escape and that's what Trailer Choir is all about."
Grab your sunglasses, sunscreen, flip flops and tank tops and go "Rollin' through the Sunshine" with Trailer Choir.
