The Fairview Union

Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 8:15 pm | Updated: 2:19 pm, Thu Sep 11, 2014.

By Steve Wildsmith | stevew@thedailytimes.com

He’s gotten some mileage since then, but Chase Rice was a country singer that in September of last year was relatively unknown.

So it was with a bit of disappointment that Chad Wilson and his bandmates in The Fairview Union agreed to open for Rice at last year’s Tennessee Valley Fair. Now, however, they’re very glad they did, because this weekend they get their own headlining show at the Homer Hamilton Amphitheatre.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal at the time; he’s had a big hit since then (“Ready Set Roll”), but we were hoping to open for more of a big name,” Wilson told The Daily Times this week. “But we said, ‘Let’s do it, and let’s do our best,’ and we went and performed, and lo and behold, we got a call back, and they asked us to headline this year. We’re tickled to death.”


It’s just the latest in a string of fortunate events for the East Tennessee based country band, fronted by Wilson and his wife, Kelli Kerr Wilson — a graduate of William Blount High School and the daughter of Larry and Jan Kerr of Friendsville. Earlier this year the band released its most recent album, “Bona Fide,” and while the group has been a staple of the local club circuit, the members have slowly put together a set of entirely original music from their various releases.


“We’ve been fine-tuning our sound and learning more of what we’re about,” Wilson said. “We’ve spent more time working outside of the studio and testing some of the songs live. After four or five years, of writing, we’ve got an all-original show we can confidently play and feel like we’re entertainment people with.


“The main thing is, you’ve got to always remember where you’re playing. If you’re playing the club scene, people are there to have fun. If you’re in a listening room, you can break out some of your slower, more meaningful stuff, but for the most part, your originals need to be upbeat. You can’t ram them down people’s throats, but you need to play the ones you know are going to entertain people.”


So far, the formula seems to be working. The band — which also includes lead guitarist Mike Barnes, drummer Chris Potocik and bassist Neal Foster — played an hour-long set of entirely original music at a recent club show; Wilson was ready to pull the plug and roll out a familiar cover song if the crowd didn’t respond, but it did.


Credit much of that response to the chemistry between Wilson and his wife. They met about a decade ago at a karaoke contest at Bullfeathers on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville; both placed in the top 10, and when they ran into one another a couple of years later, Wilson asked her out, and they’ve been together ever since. The band began whey they traveled to Nashville to audition for “Can You Duet?,” the Country Music Television reality show; standing in line, they saw the other hopefuls all played instruments. Returning to Knoxville, he resolved to learn guitar; they began inviting friends over to jam, and the band took shape out of those sessions.


Over the years, they’ve put quite a few notches in their collective belt, opening for country star Tracy Lawrence at Cotton Eyed Joe and beating 14 other regional bands in a competition at Wild Wing Cafe. “Bona Fide” is the band’s third album, and already the members are working on their fourth, Wilson said — but right now, their sights are set on Saturday’s fair performance and an upcoming contest at the Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville that might be their biggest opportunity yet.


“We sent in our EPK (electronic press kit), and we were one of the 10 bands out of about 1,000 or 1,200 that were chosen for what they call ‘Battle for the Saddle,’” Wilson said. “We’re going up there Sept. 24 and 25, and if we win that, we get to showcase for a couple of labels, which is what we’ve always wanted.”


A great deal of work is going into preparation for the contest, he added. The focus is on original music, and the band has a couple of ringers that always seems to get the crowd worked up.


“We’ve got a couple of duets that Kelli and I sing; any time we interact, people seem to really like that husband-wife thing we’ve got going,” he said. “And we’ve got a crazy song called ‘Cowbell’ that was my drummer’s idea. It’s kind of a silly song, but it’s a lot of fun. We carry a cowbell out into the crowd and have somebody play it with us.”


Involving the audience is an important part of what The Fairview Union does, he added — because playing a show is about more than simply making music.


“People don’t leave and say, ‘Remember that one song he did?’ They say, ‘Remember when they did this? Remember when they had someone play cowbell?’” he said. “For us, it’s about creating a show and moments at a show, and we put a lot of thought into making a show rather than just getting up and playing the songs well.” - The Daily Times - Steve Wildsmith

Sunday night found Ed and I at the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville for our first concert for this week. As I have said before, this fair is hands down the best fair that we have ever been to. All the fair workers are so nice and helpful and everything is well organized, clean and just a lot of fun.

We arrived about 7:00 and could already hear music. It was the opening band Fairview Union. Now for those of you who read my blogs you know I tend to be kind of hard on opening bands especially when they do covers. I have nothing negative to say about this opening band except they didn’t play long enough. They really were great and the covers they did sounded incredible. They were a very rocking country band with lead vocals shared by husband and wife.

The lady of the group, Kelly, did a cover of The Band Perry’s “Done”. When they started playing the intro to it I whispered to Ed and said, “hmm, she’s quite ballsy to attempt this”. She did more than attempt it, she knocked it out of the park and rounded all the bases! She sounded great. She also did “Black Velvet” and it was a winner too.

They did a few original songs that were also very good. In fact, so good that we went and bought their CD after they finished up at the merch booth and Ed talked to the lead singer and the parents of the drummer. He said they were super nice. I hope to see/hear them again sometime down the country road. - Our Country Concerts