Old Dominion's 'Memory Lane' features veteran band's best crossover country craftsmanship

Old Dominion's journey from being just a quintet of handsome Music Row songwriters to a dependable arena and stadium tour act is a quarter-century old, spanning five albums and nine No. 1 hits. Their latest release, October's 18-track "Memory Lane," holds down the fort in the lucrative space between mainstream rock and adult contemporary pop's top-tier revival.

In conversation with The Tennessean, Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Whit Sellers, Geoff Sprung and Brad Tursi were all present as the group prepared to play a Boston gig at the TD Garden. Their No Bad Vibes arena tour merely scratches the surface of their road-earned acclaim. For the past decade, they've also dependably served as openers for Kenny Chesney and played 50,000-plus-seat National Football League stadiums.

Reflecting on the group's success, Ramsey points directly at the decade of work the group put in as Music Row songwriters before pairing as Old Dominion as key in learning the art of instinctually self-aware song-crafting that accentuated the fivesome's strengths as a unit.

"Confidence, experience, practice and time," says Ramsey, crystallizing the roots of their perpetual acclaim to a quartet of causes.

"Accepting that crowds will adapt the meaning of your songs to their lives requires understanding that the true meaning of being a creative songwriter is having the ability to enhance someone else's life."

Rosen adds that the perspective of intentionality related to starting a group after achieving multiple hits and working with acclaimed creatives (in Rosen's case, names like Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark are in his co-writing lineage) makes discovering "universal themes that impact the human condition" but also "have a catchy melody over a meaningful lyric" a much easier process.

Their latest song rising at country radio is the Megan Moroney collaboration "Can't Break Up Now."

The song is fascinating in that for Moroney, it's a rapid evolution of her voice to being the biggest and broadest tool to approach millions of women both similarly aged to the 25-year-old star but also likely twice her age.

"[Megan's] performance reinforces waking up, realizing what you've got — and know it's worth fighting for," states Ramsey in a press release.

Although she didn't write the song, Maroney says she found it infectious and relatable.

"It's not like anything I've ever put out. I've been a fan of Old Dominion for a while and I'm really excited to be featured on this," she says in a release.

More in lock-step with soulful rock-aimed love ballads in Old Dominion's catalog is "I Should've Married You," a bittersweet ode to the metaphorical fish that got away.

Tursi notes that the song shows, rather than tells, the listener about the emotions related to lost love.

The band's work remains accessible to rock and pop music fans, as well as those listening to country radio, yielding a broad and loyal fanbase that frequents Old Dominion numerous arena and stadium tours.

"We've always been the country music' gateway drug' of sorts," jokes Rosen.

For Old Dominion, authentically embodying sounds and styles over genres is integral to the band's self-aware creative process. The deeper into country music that the group becomes embedded, the more apparent their core selves become.

Country's songwriting lineage most significantly informs the group's work. But also there is the influence of radio-ready '80s rockers, such as Huey Lewis and The News. That band's ability to blend the edges of pop, rock and soul lives well in Old Dominion. Smartly, that's attached at their sound's core with the most popular aesthetics of 90s country mega-stardom.

Given that influence, the appearance of Blake Shelton on the album's closer, "Ain't Got A Worry," shouldn't be surprising. However, for Rosen, it still stuns him that the country icon considers the group "his favorite band."

"If anything, country music is crossing over into more of ourselves and our fanbase," adds Ramsey.

"Ideally, this all ends in a place where people are getting closer to the lane we've always been in, by ourselves."

"We're a rock band with country lyrics," adds Sellers. "Or, better, we just write the best songs possible and perform them to the best of our abilities."

For Ramsey, the total yield from his career's work also reflects in how the band views where they've arrived after two decades of achievements.

"We've stopped trying to prove things. Instead we're living in moments," he says.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Old Dominion: New album has veteran band's best craftsmanship