Led by Anderson, country hitmakers close out Northern Lights series

These days, it seems most of country music is the latest incarnation of boy bands, only now starring full-grown metrosexual cowboys singing into over-produced microphones and letting us all just how much they love to party at the beach.

At first glance, you might think the same of Keith Anderson given the image of the posters promoting his shows Thursday night at Klondike Mike’s in Palmer, and Friday at Eddie’s Sports Bar in Anchorage. But Anderson isn’t just some cyborg spokesmodel for postmodern country; he’s got a pedigree in songwriting that pre-dates the pretty boy clone wars. It’s that side of his body of work from more than 15 years in the business that will be most on display as he shares the Alaska stage with fellow Nashville songwriters Kendell Marvel and Danny Myrick.

“It’s gonna be fun. It’s a different setting with me and Kendall and Danny all on stage taking turns performing songs we’ve written,” Anderson said. “We’ve all been lucky to have songs on the radio and having written hits for others, too. There’s a lot of comedy involved, too. We’ll tell stories behind the hit songs.”

Anderson first broke through in 2001 on the hit duet ‘Beer Run,’ performed by country legends George Jones and Garth Brooks, which puns mysteriously, “B, double E, double R, U N.”

In 2006, Anderson released his first full-length album ‘Three-Chord Country and American Rock n Roll’, on the Arista label, and in 2008 followed that up with ‘C’mon!’, on Columbia, which included his highest-charting song as a performer, ‘I Still Miss You’, which peaked at No. 2.

Steven Tyler joined Anderson in recording the title track from the 2006 album, in which Anderson sings ‘We crank everything from Brooks and Dunn to Aerosmith,’ doing his best impression of Tyler’s voice on the last. A fellow songwriter in California brought the song to Tyler, who recorded a duet version with Anderson later that year that was made available on iTunes.

But all these years later, ‘Beer Run’ still stands out for Anderson.

“It would be hard to top having Garth Brooks record a song I’d written. He’d been my hero forever,” said Anderson, who, like Brooks graduated from Oklahoma State University. “And not only that, but a duet with George Jones, that was pretty amazing… That opened the door for me to sign a songwriting deal and get regular income.”

It’s hard to imagine Brooks’ trademark laser hick button downs draping an equally trademark beer gut, or Jones’ tinted glasses finding a home in today’s country scene, but Anderson has a positive outlook on the direction country music is headed.

“It’s changed but I don’t think a whole lot. You’ve still got the stone country stuff and there’s always going to be a little bit of edgy rock stuff, and some of it you wouldn’t even know is country because it seems more like a pop station,” Anderson said. “But it’s been going on for a while. It’s a good, wide range of listeners and a wide range of shows that brings in a bigger fan base.”

Anderson said country stars’ breakthroughs onto TV have been key to the growth, whether it’s ‘real country’ or not.

“Blake Shelton has helped a lot with what he’s doing on the voice and Keith Urban doing the TV thing brought over a broad audience that wouldn’t have come over naturally,” he said. “Maybe people tuned in because they were fans of Cee-Lo (Green) or Adam Levine or Christina Aguilera, so that brings a lot of new listeners to country.”

Anderson graduated from OSU with a degree in engineering and went to work for a construction company in Dallas. Then one day he decided to make a go of it in the music industry.

“Once I moved to Dallas I was thrown into this heavy country scene,” he said. “Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday I’d see my heroes at Billy Bob’s or Cowboys or Red River and I took on a whole new passion for the live side of music… I just kind of threw myself into the songwriting community and reached out to the publishers in town who might be looking for writers… A little success here and there and the next thing you know…”

In 2015 Anderson self-released the EP ‘I’ll Bring the Music’, and is turning more of his attention to writing songs for himself and others.

“I don’t think, stylistically I’ve changed a whole lot,” he said. “I’ve become a better writer and am more attuned to how a song is built.”

That organic creative process is what will be highlighted Thursday and Friday, Anderson’s first visit to Alaska and the last of four in the Northern Lights Country Series. Previous acts included Dylan Scott, Love and Theft and Lewis Brice.

Included on Marvel’s songwriting pedigree are ‘Yee Haw’, performed by Jake Owen, ‘Twang’ by George Strait and Gary Allen’s ‘Right Where I Need To Be’. Myrick claims the likes of ‘She’s Country’ by Jason Aldean, ‘Truck Yeah’ by Tim McGraw and ‘I Love This Life’ by LoCash.

“With Kendall and Danny, every song you hear is going to be a huge hit — a song you’ve heard hundreds of times on the radio, but now you’ll get the background of how that song was created,” Anderson said. “Who had the idea, what the circumstances were going in someone’s life that made them write it. You’ll get to hear it in raw form. Most guys in Nashville write on the guitar, so you’ll get to hear the way it sounded the day you finished it.”

Thursday: Klondike Mike’s, Palmer

Friday: Eddie’s Sports Bar, Anchorage

* Doors open at 7pm

* Show Starts at 8pm

* Tickets also available at Klondike Mike's and Safe & Sound in Wasilla (1401 West Parks Hwy)

* This is a 21 up and event

* VIP Details: includes early entry at 6pm with meet and greet at 6:15pm and an autographed poster/picture.