New American Voices: The9513.com Songwriter Showcase

We’re excited to finally unveil a project we’ve been working on for the past few weeks. The 9513 is sponsoring an acoustic tour starting later this month showcasing two of country music’s finest independent artists: Drew Kennedy and Rodney Hayden. New American Voices is a worldwide tour featuring dates all across America and Europe, with extended legs along the east coast and Texas and a run planned for the west coast.

In conjunction with the tour, we’ve designed a website at AmericanVoicestour.com that will allow fans to keep up with Drew and Rodney on the road and interact with them in a variety of new and exciting ways, including via Twitter and Flickr. Visitors to the site will have the opportunity to listen to their music and even download a few songs as part of a free sampler package. Drew and Rodney will also be recording a live album, which will be released as a free download exclusively on the tour website for a limited time before it’s made available for purchase.

Rodney Hayden is without a doubt country music’s best-kept secret, with Texas music icon Robert Earl Keen stating, “He’s what every great performer who’s stood on the Grand Ole Opry stage wishes would happen to country music.” “Huntsville,” a song off Hayden’s current album, 12 Ounce World, recently won The 9513’s award for Best Song of the Year, and his profile is quickly on the rise with national media outlets like Billboard and USA Today taking note of his immense talent, the later calling him, “As solid as a well kept dancefloor.”

With a smooth baritone delivery and a narrative voice that can be described as equal parts hillbilly philosopher and affected observer, Drew Kennedy is quickly making a name as one of country music’s best independent singer/songwriters. Upon the release of his first full length album, Dollar Theatre Movie, The9513.com editor Brody Vercher said of the album and Kennedy, “Melodically addicting and lyrically introspective. [...] Kennedy is an acute observer of human interaction.”

More information about both artists and the tour is available at AmericanVoicesTour.com, so head on over to the tour website to find a date near you (keep checking back if one isn’t scheduled yet), preview music, sign up for our newsletters, download free music, and interact with the artists–just don’t feed them. Stick around and get to know Drew and Rodney, they’re sure to be around for years to come.