- Country pop band formed in 2007 from Nashville Tennessee. Members of the band are Matthew Ramsey (lead vocals, songwriting), Trevor Rosen (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, songwriting), Whit Sellers (drums, backing vocals), Geoff Sprung (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Brad Tursi (guitar, backing vocals, songwriting).
- Ramsey moved from Virginia to Nashville in 2000, intent on a career in writing music. Ramsey first met Sellers while in middle school in Virginia. Meanwhile, Sellers, Sprung and Tursi were all students at James Madison University in Virginia – they were active in musical circles there, and wanted to try music as a career, so each of them independently moved to Nashville at different times – Sellers and Sprung to be tour and session musicians, and Tursi to write. Rosen grew up near Detroit and played guitar in a rock band before moving to Nashville in 2003 to pursue a career writing songs. The 4 Virginians met Rosen in Nashville, and they all started to hang out together, given their common interest in music, though they were not performing together. As Ramsey, Rosen or Tursi developed songs, they needed musicians to showcase their songs, so all 5 would pitch in to perform them. After a while, people started to tell them that they sounded like a band, so they decided to pursue that approach, naming themselves Old Dominion, the state nickname for Virginia.
- By 2011, some of the songs co-written by Rosen were performed by other country artists, and in 2013, Rosen had success with songs co-written for artists like Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Blake Shelton and Dierks Bentley. Old Dominion self released an EP titled It Was Always Yours in 2012, and another EP, the self titled Old Dominion, was released through a small independent label in 2014. Their big break occurred when they were invited to tour as an opening act for Kenny Chesney, before they had a record deal. They were playing in stadiums, and getting a great response to their country pop-rock sound by audiences.
- Finally, after performing together for nearly a decade, they were signed to a major recording contract in 2015. Their debut album Meat and Candy was released late that year. Three singles from the album were all platinum sellers – Break Up With Him reached #3 on the Hot Country Songs charts, while both Snapback and Song for Another Time peaked at #4. The band was awarded New Group of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 2016 – this “New Group” had been together for 10 years!
- Their follow-up album, Happy Endings, was released in 2017. They reached the top 5 for all 3 singles released from the album – No Such Thing As a Broken Heart, Written In the Sand, and Hotel Key. All of their singles from their first 2 albums also crossed over to the Hot 100 playlist, charting between #40 and #60. The group won another major award – Vocal Group of the Year – from the Academy of Country Music in 2018 and again in 2019.
- A third studio album is in the works. They released their first single that will be included on the album in November 2018 – Make It Sweet reached #8 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and was their sixth song to hit #1 on the Country Airplay chart. When you listen to their music, you’ll hear that Old Dominion is just as much pop as they are country – lots of pop hooks, even a few hip-hop influences, and very little usage of traditional country instruments like steel guitar or fiddle, but still heavy on country harmony and lyrics. Here’s the video to Make It Sweet.