New Artist Spotlight: Tate Stevens

Tate Stevens Artist Profile
Tate Stevens - Photographer: Jeff Lipsky

Tate Stevens’ triumph on Season 2 of The X Factor confirms that Country Music is stronger than ever. More important, it heralds the arrival of a performer whose music is in step with what America wants to hear.

On his self-titled upcoming Syco Music/RCA Nashville debut, Stevens flaunts a raw vocal power. This Missouri native and onetime construction worker has clearly lived the life he sings about. When it comes to connecting to the real world of his fans, this ability to project from real experience can’t be learned in a classroom.

There’s plenty of humor in his delivery too. Whether giving a friend advice on the how to treat women right (“That’s How You Get the Girl,” written by Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip and Rivers Rutherford) or joking about being distracted from his work by a pretty young thing (“Can’t Get Nothin’ Done,” by Stevens, Ashley Gorley, Wade Kirby and Phil O’Donnell), he comes across more as a good-time pal than a star on the rise. But when called on to deliver a ballad with intensity and drama on his first single, “Power of a Love Song” (Jeremy Bussey, Bradley Gaskin and Marcus Franklin Johnson), he can go toe-to-toe in the spotlight with anyone else.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO

“Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie.”

CD IN YOUR STEREO

“Randy Houser’s How Country Feels.”

SONG YOU SING IN THE SHOWER

“’I’m Too Sexy’ … ha ha!”

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

“Pickup truck.”

ACTOR TO PORTRAY YOU IN A BIOPIC

“It’s a tie between Brad Pitt and Channing Tatum!”

MOMENT YOU’D LIKE TO RELIVE

“The day both my kids were born.”

FAVORITE FOOD ON THE ROAD

“Hot tamales.”

FIRST GIG

“It was in 1995, at the Red Rover club in Clarksville, Tenn. It went great – I was hooked!”

SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU

“I’m terrified of spiders of any size.”

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By Bob Doerschuk
© 2013 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.