There’s a certain way things have always been done in Nashville’s music business. Radio singles are typically chosen by a consortium of people using a variety of reasons for choosing singles. But that’s totally not the way Old Dominion is choosing to release “Break Up With Him.”
After fan and radio programmer demand proved to be overwhelming, the rising five-pice band chose to listen to the fans and programmers and thus turned the traditional system upside down with the new single getting released because of the strength behind the demand, a rarity in this day of YouTube and Spotify and instant gratification.
But, when you’ve got the kind of song Old Dominion has with “Break Up With Him,” that kind of no-doubt-about-it hit, you have to listen to the people. They want it on their local radio stations and they want it now! The song, which was originally sent to SiriusXM as an ‘album cut’ from the band’s self-titled EP, the song hit #1 on The Highway’s Hot 45 Countdown” in December and returned there this past weekend. The song has proven so popular that the independent band follows other SXM favorites in getting onto the Digital sales charts with “Break Up With Him” outselling some of country music’s current Top 40 hits. Adding onto that, Old Dominion’s self-tilted EP Has also hit the Country Albums sales chart, even more of a rarity amongst younger, developing artists.
One of Roughstock’s ones to watch in 2015, Old Dominion’s “Break Up With Him” is an ear worm among earworms and it’s totally a collective effort as the band’s five members (Matthew Ramsey, Brad Tursi, Whit Sellers, Geoff Sprung and Trevor Rosen) co-wrote the song with Grammy and CMA Award-winning songwriter Shane McAnally producing the song and EP. “Break Up With Him” already has seven radio station adds, most of them before it was even officially a single.
The mood and vibe of “Break Up With Him” is one of disarming charm. It’s the kind of song few vocalists would be able to pull off the way Matthew Ramsey effortlessly does.
"I've never done this before: Hear a song that's not a single and just go put it on the air and pound it,” says Ed Hill, Program Director at CBS Radio's KMPS in Seattle. And SiriusXM’s John Marks says, “The song is truly a breakout hit.”
The song is making believers all over the country, following the critical acclaim of places like Rolling Stone Country, The Bobby Bones Show, The Huffington Post and Billboard, along with our own placement of the band on the list (we’re one of their earliest supporters).
Hill first heard the song on the radio while visiting California. He was driving down the road with three generations of family members in the car. “And they all say, ‘Who is that?’ I am asking the same thing. I get back to Seattle and start playing it and every listener is asking, ‘Who is that?’ That is Old Dominion. I can sing the hook myself and groove. The hook grabs you. I sing it over and over – ‘I know you're not in love with him/Break up with him.’ Over and over means smash single.”
And Ed Hill isn’t the only one who feels this way; iHeartMedia Pheonix VP of Programming, Steve Geoffries, is a firm believer – stating, “Old Dominion will be THE breakout act/artist of 2015.”
Old Dominion will hit the road as an opening act on Kenny Chesney’s The Big Revival Tour this summer. They’re the first independent act to get chosen (handpicked by Chesney himself) for a tour of this magnitude.
“Break Up With Him” follows up the band’s debut single “Shut Me Up,” a song which scraped the Top 60 of the country Radio Airplay charts.
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