The Stickers
The Stickers have opened for Hank Williams Jr., Little Big Town, Alan Jackson, Zac Brown Band, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clint Black, Travis Tritt, Mark Wills, and a host of other country biggies.
They play the country fair circuit like madmen. Heck, today will mark their third fair appearance in three days in two states, and they have another handful booked. The band has four tracks from their debut CD that made Billboard's Country List, including two in the top 100.
Not too bad for a rock band that turned country just four years ago. They said that their writing style prompted the change (they are three time Billboard Song Writing Award Winners for original songs), and their musical influences - The Eagles, Hank Williams Jr, Keith Urban - made the switch natural.
The band members are brothers John Woderak (bass), Joe Woderak (lead vocals, lyricist), and Jim Woderak (drums) along with childhood bud Miguel "Tito" Garcia (guitar), sometimes adding Mark Zucco (keyboards).
Joe Wodarek is used to big crowds. He's sang the National Anthem several times for the Pittsburgh Steelers (who are undefeated when he opens for them), once even teaming up with Bret Michaels of Poison.
It didn't hurt that John Woderak is an events coordinator for the Steelers. Brother Jim is a graphics arts teacher at Baldwin High; rumor has it that he's trying to work out a gig for Joe before one of the Fighting Highlander clashes (OK, we started the rumor, but hey, Mt. Lebanon and Bethel Park are tough!)
The Stickers, who spent a year as the opening act for the now defunct PovertyNeck Hillbillies, are doing it the hard way, without the support of a label. But they're getting a lot of local help pushing their sound.
Their CD, "The Stingers," was produced in Nashville (where else?) at the renowned Curb Studios. And it has a local country legend's hands all over it, Bob Corbin of Corbin/Hanner note.
Corbin has written tunes for Alabama ("Can't Keep A Good Man Down," "Fire In The Night," both #1), Hank Williams Jr., George Jones, Mel Tillis ("Blind In Love," #1), Kenny Rogers, and The Oak Ridge Boys, and produced The Sticker's album.
The band worked through the winter of 2008 laying down the tracks, and it was released in June of 2009 at Saddleridge.
The Pittsburgh country radio guys, unlike their rock counterparts, pushed the home boys' music hard. WFGA 94.9 - Froggy - and Y108 put the songs in rotation, and other country stations picked them up from there.
Since then, The Stickers have charted four singles on the national country charts, including "Girl in a Pick Up Truck" which is at #60, and their new single "You Put the Woo in Me," breaking at #84. "Young Wild & Free" and "Let's Make Some Memories" also charted.
Now their songs have gotten airplay on some 150 radio stations, and "Pickup Truck" was even picked up in France.
Hey, a country band from Pittsburgh hitting the big time is a long shot, especially one without a label. But The Stickers are looking to break that mold. They just shared a stage with the Zac Brown Band at the Morristown Ohio "Jamboree in the Hills," often called "the Super Bowl of Country Music." Maybe they'll be the next, like stagemates Zac Brown, to hit paydirt.
The Stickers - "Girl In A Pick Up Truck"
4 comments:
These guys are OK, but what Chart's are they talking about? I can't find them on Billboard. Is there an iTunes Chart or something?
A Curious Fan
Curious - I'm assuming Billboard Country, but it's hard for me to verify since I don't get the magazine.
The web only shows the top 100 singles - and they're not on that, nor would I expect them to be if they're not in the top 50 of country, which only goes to 30 on the web. The top 100 is dominated, as you know, by pop and rock.
They wouldn't show in the Top 200 either, as their album is self released and so not distributed widely. That chart only ranks LP/CD's, not singles.
I did do a little checking first, and the Post-Gazette wrote that they've charted and a couple of press releases by venues say that they were on the Billboard charts.
So I'm pretty confident that they're right when they claim they've charted, but the Stingers certainly haven't broken into the Top 100 songs, outside of country charts, and it has to be based mostly on airplay.
If you are looking under "The Stingers" you won't find anything. They are called "The Stickers".
They were on the country radio list several times and appeared at least three times inside the top 100. Looks like they had radio play by 150 or more stations. That's what it takes. The one song of theirs did quite well and made it pretty high on the list. Not top 40, but impressive amount of radio in the U.S. for a band that isn't with a label.
My bad - I did look under the Stickers, just mistyped their name in the comment box. And thanks for verifying the chart info that I couldn't come up with.
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