BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//com.denhaven2/NONSGML ri_cal gem//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:It&rsquo\;s a wedding ceremony. The groom and visibly pregnan t bride are impossibly young&mdash\;so young\, they must still be in hig h school\, or only recently graduated. &ldquo\;Do they know what they&rs quo\;re getting into?&rdquo\; you wonder.It&rsquo\;s an indelible scene from &ldquo\;Hold On Tight\,&rdquo\; a song from I Confess I Was A Fool\ , LEVI LOWREY&rsquo\;s Southern Ground debut. It testifies not only to h is skill as a songwriter\, but also to his unsparing honesty. You see\, he was that nervous groom\, all of 19 at the time. And the expectant bri de? Now his wife of seven years\, and mother of his two small boys. &ldq uo\;Hold On Tight&rdquo\; is her favorite song\, Lowrey notes.&ldquo\;I write from true experience\,&rdquo\; he says. &ldquo\;And I find a lot o f inspiration in sorrow\, pain and stupid mistakes.&rdquo\;It&rsquo\;s t hat honesty&mdash\;and the skill with which it&rsquo\;s conveyed&mdash\; that sets Lowrey apart both as a performer and songwriter. And as word o f his prodigious blend of talents spreads\, his live audiences keep grow ing. Truly\, after a lifetime of playing music\, then seven years of pla ying in a band before striking out as a singer/songwriter\, this is his moment. And I Confess I Was A Fool&mdash\;with its masterful\, song-serv ing performances\, pitch-perfect songcraft and unflinching confessions a nd observations&mdash\;is his calling card.Levi Lowrey may be a guitar-t oting troubadour today\, but he began as a fiddle player. No surprise\, since his great-great-grandfather\, the late Gid Tanner\, was also a fid dle player and today stands as a towering figure in country music histor y. Tanner and frequent rival &ldquo\;Fiddlin&rsquo\; John&rdquo\; Carson were among the first &ldquo\;hillbilly&rdquo\; musicians to take advant age of the fledgling broadcast and recording industries of the early 20t h Century. As a result\, Tanner&mdash\;a chicken farmer by trade&mdash\; became one of the first country music stars\, along with his band the Sk illet Lickers.Despite such a legacy\, Lowrey felt no pressure\, and he t ook naturally to the fiddle&mdash\;it&rsquo\;s in his blood\, after all& mdash\;playing in school orchestra\, at bluegrass festivals\, in weekly jam sessions in his hometown of Dacula\, Ga. and with various relatives who have kept new incarnations of the Skillet Lickers going since the ba nd&rsquo\;s 1930s heyday.Curiously\, for someone so skilled as a lyricis t\, the first songs Lowrey wrote were wordless. Early recordings of his were all instrumental\, a mix of traditional country and bluegrass numbe rs and new compositions based on the traditional tunes he&rsquo\;d grown up with. It was only at this point that Lowrey picked up a guitar and e ven then\, it was only to lay a musical bed for his fiddle compositions. But the siren call of rock stardom beckoned\, so as a high schooler he j oined a band\, and though he wasn&rsquo\;t the primary songwriter\, he b egan haltingly adding lyrics to a composition here and there. Inspired b y Butch Walker and his Atlanta power-pop outfit\, Marvelous Three\, Prob lem Thomas became the venue where Lowrey got comfortable onstage and gre w into his role as a songwriter. He also began leading worship at his ch urch as the band ran its course&mdash\;in fact\, its core now remains as Lowrey&rsquo\;s touring ensemble\, the Community House Band.&ldquo\;The n\, I just came full circle and started writing stuff that was more deri ved from my roots and how I grew up\, how I learned how to play\,&rdquo\ ; he recounts. &ldquo\;It&rsquo\;s not North Georgia string band music\; I wouldn&rsquo\;t call it bluegrass. I don&rsquo\;t think I&rsquo\;d ev en call it country\, but it has all of those elements within it&mdash\;i t&rsquo\;s just a melting pot of my influences.&rdquo\;It may be tough t o label\, but it&rsquo\;s bound to resonate with anyone who loves top-no tch songwriting and keen musicianship. The songs include a memorable\, s tory-telling nod to Charlie Daniels (&ldquo\;All American&rdquo\;)\, an upbeat country rocker (&ldquo\;The Problem With Freedom&rdquo\;) and ple nty of more laid-back\, introspective moments\, redolent of Lowrey&rsquo \;s heroes Kris Kristofferson and Darrell Scott (&ldquo\;Freight Hopper& rdquo\; &ldquo\;Another Sunday Morning Hangover.&rdquo\;) The lyrics rid e the typically southern Saturday night/Sunday morning dichotomy\, with debauchery\, foolishness\, regret and confession in equal measure.&ldquo \;My wife was out of town\,&rdquo\; Lowrey recalls\, about &ldquo\;Anoth er Sunday Morning Hangover\,&rdquo\; &ldquo\;so I was a useless human be ing. I woke up on my couch and I was watching TBN for some reason. I gue ss I came home hammered and wanted to watch the televangelists. When I w oke up I found a napkin laying on the coffee table\, and I couldn&rsquo\ ;t even get up&mdash\;it was the worst hangover I&rsquo\;ve ever had in my entire life. So I just leaned over\, grabbed the napkin and started w riting the song down.&rdquo\;Lowrey isn&rsquo\;t just an explorer of his own heart\; he&rsquo\;s also equally adept at telling others&rsquo\; st ories&mdash\;exhibit A: &ldquo\;Roselee And Odes.&rdquo\; It&rsquo\;s a tale of the older couple who lived next door to him and enjoyed a lifeti me of love\, which turned to heartbreak when Odes passed away. &ldquo\;I was very hesitant to play it for Roselee\,&rdquo\; Lowrey recalls. &ldq uo\;She&rsquo\;s still not over him. It took her a long time to even get to the point where she could get out of bed in the morning. But she lov ed the song.&rdquo\;As Lowrey has matured as a songwriter\, his gifts ha ve been employed increasingly by others. He along with Zac Brown\, Wyatt Durrette\, and Zac Brown Band member Coy Bowles wrote &ldquo\;Colder We ather&rdquo\; which became Zac Brown Band&rsquo\;s seventh consecutive # 1 single and received a CMA Award nomination in 2011 for Song of the Yea r.A full telling of Lowrey&rsquo\;s story would be incomplete without me ntioning Brown\, as well as fellow singer/songwriter and Southern Ground labelmate Sonia Leigh. Just a few years ago\, they were all compadres o n the Atlanta singer/songwriter scene\, playing dive bars\, acoustic-mus ic showplace Eddie&rsquo\;s Attic and anywhere else that would have them .After his band broke up\, Lowrey ended up in Leigh&rsquo\;s band as her full-time fiddle player while continuing to write and perform the occas ional solo gig. Meanwhile\, both of them could tell big things were ahea d for Brown\, who&rsquo\;d already paid lots of dues on the local scene. ?&ldquo\;The first time I ever saw Zac\, I just knew\,&rdquo\; Lowrey re calls. &ldquo\;I can&rsquo\;t even explain. It&rsquo\;s like\, the same way that you feel about him when you see him in an arena today\, and how incredible the show is&mdash\;imagine that feel\, that vibe and that en ergy packed into Dixie Tavern.&rdquo\;So when the Zac Brown Band broke t hrough on the charts and established itself as a concert draw\, Brown wa s true to his promise to come back for his friends. After he established his own record label\, Leigh and Lowrey were among his first signings a long with Nic Cowan\, and they have already played sizable venues&mdash\ ;arenas and amphitheaters&mdash\;as opening acts.Despite the boost\, Low rey has a one-step-at-a-time attitude about his career\, trusting his au dience to find him organically. &ldquo\;I&rsquo\;m not trying to be a su perstar right now&mdash\;that&rsquo\;s not on my list of things to do\,& rdquo\; he says\, noting that he still lives in Dacula\, his hometown\, and that&rsquo\;s not likely to change. &ldquo\;What I&rsquo\;ve been tr ying to do is write the next song better than the last one. Honestly\, I get to do what I love for a living\, my kids eat\, my wife is provided for\, and we&rsquo\;re able to help out others who are struggling. We&rs quo\;re very family oriented\, and I think that&rsquo\;s about as good a s it gets.&rdquo\; \;\n- Purchase Tickets Here -\nhttp://www.eddieow enpresents.com/ URL:http://duluth.patch.com/events/eddie-owen-presents-at-the-rct-levi-lo wrey-w-special-guest-travis-meadows SUMMARY:EDDIE OWEN PRESENTS AT THE RCT: Levi Lowrey w/ special guest\, Tr avis Meadows LOCATION:Red Clay Theatre: 3116 Main St\, Duluth\, GA END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR