Local Vibe

Larry Berrio needs no introduction to this area, and pretty soon his name is going to be just as well known anywhere you go. He was just in Kitchener a couple of weeks ago and immediately following his stop here, he hit the road to Kingston and then back to his hometown in Sudbury for two shows where he was fortunate enough to open up for the legendary Brooks & Dunn on their Cowboy Town Tour. These may have been memorable shows for this band, but don’t think you have seen the last of him as he will be back here in two weeks to play at another of his familiar stomping grounds, The Stampede Ranch in Guelph.

I had the opportunity to sit and speak with Larry on his last stop into town at the Stampede Corral. Admittedly, I am not the biggest country fan, but Larry may have lead me a long way down the road towards becoming one. His energy, powerful voice and strong character is one that draws you in and takes you on a voyage that you simply have to love. There were a couple of people from the Stampede Corral that were lucky enough to get a second chance to become an even bigger fan of Larry’s as he gave away tickets on Friday and Saturday to his shows as he opened up for Brooks & Dunn. Friday’s winner was Randy Gravline and on Saturday it was Sandra Olheiser that walked away a winner.

Click on the picture below to view a small gallery from the Stampede Corral and you can read the interview with Larry directly below.

Link to image gallery of Larry Berrio performing at the Stampede Corral

Interview with Larry Berrio:

Local Vibe: Hello Larry, I know this isn’t your first time here, but welcome to Kitchener and I figure people want to hear from you more than me so I am going to give you some breathing space here to tell our readers a little about yourself.

Larry: Well, I have been performing for about 12 years now, full-time, and released my first album about two years after I got into the business. I toured the bar circuit extensively for quite a few years using my own tour bus. We have gone almost right across Canada 6 times now; as far out as Banff, Alberta, Edmonton, Saskatoon, across Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. I was part of a TV special years back with my first album.

Now with the new album “RPM” we went down to Nashville to record this with recording artist Gill Grand, who is originally from Sudbury and now owns a recording studio in Nashville. So we recorded the album with him and it was co-produced by a gentleman by the name of Brady Seals who used to be with a band called “Little Texas” and now he is with “Hot Apple Pie”. Brady also co-wrote some songs, actually one about Sudbury called “Rocktown”, which we are hoping is going to be our next single to radio. Jason Aldean’s band played background music throughout the whole album as well, and also on this album we were the first country artists to officially remake a “Tragically Hip” song, “Boots or Hearts”, which was our first single to radio and it got good feedback all around.

Local Vibe: Keeping on that twist, what made you remake a Tragically Hip song? Are you a fan of theirs?

Larry: I have always loved their music even though I was born and raised on country. Tragically Hip, ZZ Top, Nickelback is all music that I love. It was my cousin from Ottawa that emailed me one day and said “you have to remake this song, it has your name all over it”, so when we went to Nashville I mentioned it to Gil and he totally agreed. He did however warn me that the guys down there would have never heard of them, and he was right. I told them that me doing this would be the equivalent of an American band remaking a Leonard Skynard song. They were like “are they really that big”, and I was saying yeah they are really, really big in Canada and across Europe they are huge. So we were careful about how we did it as we didn’t want to wreck the song, but we put our own touches on it and we were quite happy with how it came out.

Local Vibe: You mentioned some of your musical tastes there, any other influences you would like to mention?

Larry: Johnny Cash, the old trucking albums and 8 tracks; I was a big fan of Smokey and the Bandit, Dukes of Hazzard, that was the kind of things that I really grew up on.

Local Vibe: Me too, seems like we have lots in common; except you seem to have a skyrocketing career, fantastic musical talent and ruggedly handsome good looks of course. Ahem, lets get to these Brooks & Dunn shows you have coming up next week in Kingston and Sudbury. How did you manage to be opening up for them in your hometown?

Larry: Well I heard about them coming to Sudbury and here is the really ironic thing, my wife and I bought tickets to go see the show and we thought we were lucky then because they sold out in 15 minutes. I called the local radio station to find out who was opening for them and they didn’t know of anyone yet. So through some connections like my friend Gil Grand we found out the agent for the show was from Calgary and we had met a few times at the Country Music Awards, so I called him up and ended up sending him my CD’s, posters and other packages. We then worked for about 6 weeks putting together a sponsorship package to cover some of the expenses involved myself and just making the package sweeter and sweeter all the time. We also created a marketing plan that included the release of my new single “Boomerang” about 4 weeks prior to the concert date to get some radio play and mention of the tour dates. This also included a radio tour across Southern Ontario from Sarnia to Ottawa to promote the single and the Brooks & Dunn tour. In the end they were really impressed with the package we put together and they passed it on to the Brooks & Dunn management for the final say, and even though we were only aiming for opening at the Sudbury show, they offered the Kingston date as well and we gladly accepted. It is kind of funny because we have this “Boots or Hearts” song as our first single and the Tragically Hip are from Kingston, so it will be great to play that there.

Local Vibe: So what’s next for Larry Berrio after taking to the stage with Brooks & Dunn for these shows?

Larry: Well I will be continuing my tour of the bar circuit with a few other big shows to look out for. I will be opening up for Terri Clark in July for two dates in Mattawa and Iroquois Falls as well as appearing at the Manitoulin Country Festival with Johnny Reid and Crystal Shawanda. Additionally, we were just confirmed to be playing at the Uptown Country Festival in Waterloo on June 20th with Tara Oram and others.

We are looking to fill up our dates with some more festivals and we have dates planned already Guelph, London and back out to Banff again in April but with the single’s getting more and more radio play it is going to be a little easier to fill the rest of the calendar up. We are also in the process of applying for video funding with CMT to shoot the video for my next single “Rocktown” which is about mining, and Sudbury, and we have full permission from Inco to shoot the video underground which has never been done before. It is all about putting together an impressive enough package and we hope that we have accomplished this with the Brooks & Dunn concerts and opening for Terri Clark, along with the singles doing well and getting radio play and we can’t forget my distribution deal with 306 Records and EMI Music Canada.

Local Vibe: Coming back to your live shows, I have been told that while I am here I am going to see what the new face of country is all about, as your showmanship and presence on the stage is a large part of your performance.

Larry: I am an entertainer, absolutely. Ever since I began singing I have used a cordless mic so I can move around stage and be interactive with the crowd. I am mostly known as an entertainer, that is my passion and certainly what I feed on, entertaining the crowd. When I went down to the recording studio in Nashville I told the guys there that I didn’t want any slow songs on this album, not for this one anyways. I am aware that the ballads are the money makers and they make number one hits, but I wanted a CD that someone can put in their player and not have to skip a couple of slow songs to keep in the mood when they are out in the backyard barbecuing or driving down the highway. So this CD, “RPM”, is from 1 to 10, all fast, all giddy-up, 100% rockin’ country music. It is also an album that I can play live and never disappoint. In a typical show of mine right now, we might do one slow song in an entire evening. it is a high energy show, and we needed an equally high energy CD to back it up.

Local Vibe: Awesome, I look forward to catching this show for sure. Heading in a new direction here, what would you say to someone starting out in this industry to help them get to where you are today?

Larry: Get some experience at playing live in front of people. This karaoke thing now is incredible and I wish it was around when I was starting out. It will help you get past any shyness or stage fright, allow you to develop your voice and determine which keys ranges you can sing. Once you get comfortable singing in front of people you have to be careful of where the compliments are coming from to determine just how good you are. Pay close attention to what strangers have to say, and give the compliments from people that are close to you a little less weight. For example, according to my dad I am better singer than Garth Brooks. Another thing I would suggest is getting a couple of years under your belt of performing in front of people, hitting the bar circuit as I have done and being able to really assess if this is what you want to do for the rest of your life before sinking alot of money into studio time and creating a full album. When the time comes to make an album you can’t do it half-hearted and you can’t scrimp on the budget and expect to get radio play. You have to keep in mind that as far as the radio stations are concerned, you have to compete with the Alan Jackson’s and Brooks & Dunn’s out there that are getting the radio play that you are chasing after.

For this CD I have backed it myself, but it was the right time for me to put my money where my mouth was and do it right. I have been doing this for 12 years and have a large fan base, and bottom line is that I wouldn’t be opening for Brooks & Dunn if the product I was offering wasn’t top quality, end of story.

Local Vibe: Last question and I will let you get back to preparing for tonight’s show. What goals have you set for yourself to determine a success?

Larry: From here my biggest goals are to get a video on CMT, to have a top ten hit, and hopefully one day to get a nominated for an award. It is not all about winning an award, just to be nominated and be considered in that class or category of artists says to me that I have accomplished something. Video recognition would be fantastic, as it is another facet of the industry that many never make it to. Not to say that there aren’t great artists out there that have never had a video, but it is taking it to another level which is what I am always trying to do. Finally, I guess I aim to be recognized as a recording artist, as compared to a bar band. It is a big step and I look forward to coming back to play in the bars that I made my name in, but I will be coming back for one night shows that are going to sell out a month in advance and I will be performing a full evening of my own songs instead of mixing up original content with high demand cover tunes.

Local Vibe: Well I told a little white lie before, but this will be the last question. What would you like to say to your Kitchener area fans if given the chance, because you do as I am going to tell them.

Larry: The biggest thanks for supporting me over the years. I was born and raised in Sudbury and also spent some time in Thunder Bay and Toronto; however, the biggest fan base I have today is in the Kitchener and Guelph area. Also big thanks to the Stampede Corral and the Stampede Ranch because they are venues that I have played at for the last 10 years and allowed me to build that fan base. I love coming to play here just as much as my fans enjoy seeing me on stage. I would also encourage the local fans to keep checking my website for news and spreading the word about my CD.

Local Vibe: Well Larry, thanks so much for sitting down with me to talk when you clearly have so much to do in preparation for your show. I look forward to snapping some pictures and just enjoying the show in general. I will also look forward to your quick return to the area, just as I am sure many of your fans will.

Larry: No problem, I enjoyed the talk and you are welcome to come out and see me anytime. Thanks for your support, we really appreciate it.

Larry Berrio @ Stampede Corral

Larry will be coming back to town from April 2nd to the 4th to perform at the Stampede Ranch in Guelph. This is a show that you should not be missing whether you are a country fan or not. The tempo of this performance was rockin all the way, and I can’t wait to get back out to enjoy it again.