Country Music booking Roots and Boots

Booking Country Music for a Special Corporate Event

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Booking country music for corporate events is a big business. The country music genre is well liked and is the preferred music in many areas of the U.S. and Canada. An example of this is the Annual Employee Appreciation Steak Fry and Concert of the Salt River Project.

Each year in April the Project Employees Recreation Association (PERA) Club puts on a two-day steak fry and concert for the employees and their families of the Salt River Project. The PERA Club is an 83-acre private country club that provides recreational amenities and hosts special events for the employees and their families.

Okay, unless you live in Arizona, you are probably wondering what is the Salt River Project? I did too when I first took over booking this event.  The Salt River Project is actually a community-based not-for-profit utility company based in Tempe, Arizona. In fact, it’s one of Arizona’s largest utilities serving more than two million people living in central Arizona. The name is derived from the project to dam the Salt River in the early 1900s. It incorporates two separate entities; the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District and the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association. This not-for-profit utility provides much of the power and water for central Arizona.

There’s an old saying that has been repeated many times throughout the West; Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting. One can really understand how important water (and electricity for that matter) is in a state like Arizona.  Because of its critical role in supplying water and power, holding a special event for its employees means repeating the event so all employees have an opportunity to attend.

Booking Country Music for PERA is a Tradition for TSE

So, each year, TSE Entertainment goes about booking country music artists over both a Friday and Saturday night for this corporate event. Past artists which have performed at this event include Dwight Yoakum, Clint Black, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Clay Walker and many others. It’s two wonderful nights of good food, fun and great music.

TSE has been the country music booking agency for this event for over twenty years. We take pride in the many long relationships we’ve established with organizations like the Salt River Project and its PERA Club. TSE does more than the typical booking agency by providing someone on site for the two-day event to help assure everything goes well.

Booking Country Music for PERAThe PERA club transforms its parking lot into an outdoor concert venue and dining facility for this major event. Each year, they like booking country music stars that appeal to their employees for their corporate events. Many times, that means booking the many great country artists from the 90’s.

90's electric throwdownThis year’s event is no different and is scheduled for Friday, April 24th and Saturday, April 25th. The show will be steeped in country music from the 90s and will feature the Roots & Boots 90’s Electric Throwdown.  The show stars Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin and Colin Raye. They are touring together on stage bringing their signature sounds to fans with one full band electric.  Their three voices defined 90’s country with a combined 40 top 10 radio singles and 25 million albums sold.

Sammy Kershaw:

Sammy Kershaw hails from Kaplan, Louisiana deep in the heart of Country Music country. When he was 11, his grandfather gave him his first guitar. At the age of 12, Kershaw was playing in a variety of honky-tonks and beer joints, and when he was 14 he met George Jones, his lifelong idol. He had his first hit, Cadillac Style, came in 1991 and he has been killing it since.

  • Multi-Platinum-Selling Artist with six gold and three platinum albums that have sold in excess of 5 million records and more than 70 million combined songs sold!
  • More than 25 top 40 singles – 11 top 10 singles, including two #1 hits with “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” and “Love Of My Life.”
  • Grammy nominated for his contributions to the Hank Williams story on audiobook, Spoken Word.
  • Sammy’s latest album, Swamp Poppin’, features several Swamp Pop Music legends.
  • Currently on tour throughout North America performing full band shows and also the Roots n Boots Electric Tour featuring Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin and Collin Raye.
  • Sammy is currently writing his autobiography, slated for release in 2019
  • Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in February, 2010
  • Many other noteworthy credits, including playing a supporting role in the independent film feature, Suicide Notes. Sammy’s song, “Louisiana Hot Sauce”, was featured in an episode of HBO’s hit series, ‘True Blood’. Sammy’s Cajun Spice and Cajun Sauce is very popular among fans and lovers of Cajun cuisine!

Aaron Tippin

Aaron Tippin comes from Pensacola, Florida and is an American country music artist and record producer. Initially a songwriter for Acuff-Rose Music, he gained a recording contract with RCA Nashville in 1990.

  • Marking his silver anniversary as a recording artist this year
  • his first single, “You’ve Got To Stand For Something,” hit the Billboard Country Singles chart – eventually peaking at # 6.
  • He was building his brand on songs that touched a nerve with his blue-collar audience – and that one of a kind vocal style that definitely was Country.
  • The hits continued to pile up – “There Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With The Radio,” “My Blue Angel,” and “Workin’ Man’s PhD,” among them.
  • Fans are able to identify with Aaron easier because these songs are about me – my life, who I am, and how I was raised.
  • His 1995 smash “That’s As Close As I’ll Get To Loving You” showcased a more dramatic side to his vocal approach, something that continued into his next label affiliation – as the flagship artist for Lyric Street Records.
  • As the new millennium dawned, Tippin returned to the top  of the charts with “Where The Stars And Stripes And Eagle Fly,” a song that became part of the American soundtrack during the aftermath of 9/11.
  • In the past decade, Tippin has recorded several musically diverse projects – including a well received 2009 truck driving album, In Overdrive. He also partnered with restaurant chain Cracker Barrel for the release He Believed.
  • The singer still delights in that hour and a half performing on the stage – and those who come out to see him. But don’t call them “fans” – he thinks of them as family.

Collin Raye

Collin Raye was born Floyd Collin Wray in De Queen, Arkansas and is a Country Music Icon. Collin Raye’s album All I Can Be, produced his first Number One hit in “Love, Me.” All I Can Be was the first of four consecutive albums released by Raye to achieve platinum certification in the United States for sales of one million copies each. Collin still continues to crank out soulful, heartfelt material with the honesty and richness that is signature to his vocals alone.

  • One of the true hit makers of the 1990’s
  • Collin shot to fame with “Love, Me” in 1991.
  • 24 Top Ten Records
  • 16 # 1 hits
  • 10 times mail vocalist of the year nominee
  • Listeners were so moved by this golden and pure voice that this song set the cornerstone for a career built on meaningful and emotional songs that have often been used for weddings, anniversaries, memorial services and funerals.
  • is soulful delivery has set country standards in such searing ballads as “Love, Me,” “In This Life,” “Not That Different” and “If I were you”. Always an energizing showman
  • He has also blazed through such vivid rockers as “My Kind of Girl,” “That’s My Story,” “I Can Still Feel You” and “I Want You Bad.”
  • When “Little Rock”, an anthem for those struggling with addiction recovery, hit the chart in 1994, its video led to over 100,000 phone calls to Alcoholics Anonymous from folks seeking help in their addictions. “Not That Different” was a song that pleaded for tolerance. “In This Life” became a wedding favorite, and “I Think About You” won awards for its song and video which exposed the exploitation of women and children.

TSE takes great pride in booking country music for corporate events such as the Salt River Project’s Annual Employee Appreciation Steak Fry and Concert. We feel honored to work with such great people over many years to book the talent for this event. This year will be no different with the Roots and Boots Tour show. The employees love it and we do too!

Related Posts:

Booking Country Music for Corporate Entertainment

Country Music Booking Agency: One Piece of the Puzzle

 

About the author

Mike Black

Mike Black

Mike has been on all sides of the music industry for over three decades. Once a traveling musician booked by TSE, he understands the Business both from a performer’s perspective and agency viewpoint.
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